schaffers stages of attachment

Question 1

list schaffer and emerson’s four stages of attachment

Answer 1

asocial stage
indiscriminate attachment
specific attachment
multiple attachment

Question 1

outline schaffer and emerson’s glasgow babies study

Answer 1

A: to investigate the development of attachment, with specific focus on the age at which attachment develops, how strong it is and with whom the attachment occurs

P: conducted a naturalistic longitudinal observation of 60 babies from same working-class area of Glasgow over 2 years; strange situation technique measuring separation [ leaving child alone in different everyday situations ]and stranger anxiety [ approaching child in their own home as soon as researcher arrived, trying to play with them ]

F: 50% of babies showed separation anxiety in first 25-32 weeks
showed strongest attachment to those who gave them the highest quality of care [interacting w them, responding, not those not spend more time w them]
29% babies had multiple attachments within a month of forming specific attachment

C: infants develop attachments in four distinct stages within the first 12 months

Question 2

what happens during asocial stage

Answer 2

0-few weeks old
attachments are beginning to be formed but any behaviours e.g. crying or smiling are not directed to any specific individuals/inanimate objects
smile at anyone

Question 3

what happens during indiscriminate attachment

Answer 3

2-7 months old
prefer humans to inanimate objects
baby prefers familiar adults but is happy to be comforted by any adult
smile more at familiar than unfamiliar

Question 4

what happens during specific attachment

Answer 4

7 month onwards
prefers one specific adult
separation and stranger anxiety
use familiar adults as secure base

Question 5

what happens during multiple attachment

Answer 5

8/9 months onwards
enjoys being with people they are familiar (secondary attachment figures) with rather than just one specific caregiver all the time
develop multiple attachment by 12 months

Question 6

strength of stages of attachment

Answer 6

P : has good external validity

E : most of the observations were made by parents during ordinary activities and reported to researchers

A : this eliminates the chance of observers distracting the babies or making them feel nervous if they were to do the experiment, invalidating the findings

C :this means it is highly likely that the participants behaved naturally while being observed

E : this matters because this provides good evidence to use schaffers stages of attachment to comfort mothers who are overly worried about their babies not recognising them after a few week, minimising post partum depression

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P: real world application to day care

E: in the early stages (asocial + indiscriminate) babies can be comforted by any skilled adult; but if child starts day care later (specific + multiple) care from an unfamiliar adult may cause distress and longer-term problems

A: This means parents should put their child in day care during asocial and indiscriminate stage so they could form an attachment towards the worker. if not they will show stranger anxiety and separation anxiety .

C: therefore, schaffers stages of attachment is helpful in making day care decisions

E: this matters because this would minimise the stress on the NHS if the child were to develop more severe attachment issues later on in life so it has positive economic implications

Question 7

limitation to schaffers stages of attachment

Answer 7

P: mothers may be biased in what they report

E: they might have purposely left things out or might not have noticed when their baby was showing signs of anxiety

A: this means that even if the babies behaved naturally their behaviour may not have been accurately recorded

C: therefore, this research lacks internal validity due to potential bias towards their babies

E: this matters because schaffer’s stages of attachment could have helped out other families for example single mothers… to reduce stress of motherhood, if his research had more support

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P: poor evidence for the asocial stage

E: their stage of physical development young babies have poor co-ordination and are fairly immobile

A: this makes it difficult for mothers to accurately report signs of anxiety and attachment for this age group

C: this means the babies might actually be quite social but because of flawed methods they appear to be asocial

E:

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P: poor generalisability

E: shcaffer and emerson based their stages on a single large-scale study of babies’ development conducted in working-class glasgow

A: child-rearing practices vary considerably according to cultural and historical context e.g. van IJzendoorn (1993) said that multiple attachment is the norm in collectivist cultures

C: therefore, this means that some of the observations from this study may not generalise to other populations

E: this matters because we can only use their stages of attachment on glasgow and not the other parts of the world, not reaching psychology’s aim of helping people