Schaffers stages of attachment

Question 1

who discovered the stages of attachment?

Answer 1

Rudolf Schaffer and Peggy Emerson (1964)

Question 2

state the different stages of attachment

Answer 2

stage 1: asocial stage
stage 2: indiscriminate attachment
stage 3: specific attachment
stage 4: multiple attachments

Question 3

explain stage 1 of attachment

Answer 3

asocial stage
- seen in a babies first few weeks of life
- observable behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects are similar hence the term ‘asocial’ (however S&E didn’t believe this was entirely true as evidence suggests babies do show signs that they prefer to be with other people)
- babies show a preference for the company of familiar people and are more easily comforted by them

Question 4

explain stage 2 of attachment

Answer 4

indiscriminate attachment
- from 2-7 months
- babies start to display more obvious and observable social behaviours
- they show a clear preference for being with other humans than inanimate objects

Question 5

explain stage 3 of attachment

Answer 5

specific attachment
- starts around 7 months
- babies display classic signs of attachment towards one specific person
- anxiety towards strangers (stranger anxiety), when attachment figure is absent
- separation anxiety
- primary attachment figure has been formed- the one who offers the most attention to a baby and responds to the baby’s signals with the most skill (baby’s mother in 65% of cases)

Question 6

explain stage 4 of attachment

Answer 6

multiple attachments:
- babies show stranger anxiety and separation anxiety towards multiple other people they regularly spend time with.
- known as secondary attachments
- Schaffer and Emerson observed 29% of babies formed secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment.
- By the age of 1 babies had formed multiple attachments

Question 7

explain the research into stages of attachment

who was it conducted by?

Answer 7

Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
- observational study of the formation of early infant-adult relationships.

Question 8

what was the procedure into the research of early attachments

Answer 8

• study involved 60 babies 31 boys and 29 girls
• al from Glasgow, skilled working class families
• researchers visited babies and their mothers in their homes every month for the first year and again at 18 months
• asked questions about the type of protest their babies showed in everyday separations to measure babies attachment
• also assessed stranger anxiety

Question 9

explain the findings into research on attachment

Answer 9

identified 4 distinct stages in development of attachment behaviour

Question 10

evaluate the research on attachment

Answer 10

generalisability (strength)
- large scale research with good design features

only looked at one sample (limitation)
- had unique features of cultural and historical context- 1960’s working class from Glasgow
- in other cultures like collectivist cultures multiple attachments from very early on are the norm (Van Ijzendoorn 1993)