Schaffers stages of attachment Flashcards
Stage 1?
Pre attachment phase (birth to 3 months)
-From 6 weeks of age, infants are attracted to other humans, prefferring them to objectsdemonstrated by smiling at people’s faces
Stage 2?
Indiscriminate attachment phase (3-7/8 months)
-Infants discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar people, smiling more at known people, though still allowing strangers to handle them
Stage 3?
Discriminate attachment phase (7/8 months onwards)
-Infants develop specificic attachments , staying close to particular people and becoming distressed when separated from them. They avoid unfamiliar people and protest if strangers try to handle them.
Stage 4?
Multiple attachments stage (9 months onwards)
-Infants form strong emotional ties with other major caregivers like grandparents and non-caregivers, like other children. Fear of stranfers weakens but attachment to the mother figure remains strongest.
Schafers stages of attachment: evaluation: Strength 1
Carpenter (1975) research presented infants with familiar and unfamiliar voices and faces. Two-week old babies looked at a face longest when it was the mother’s accompanied by her voice and were distressed by the sight of her face accompanied by a different voice. This suggests babies can recognise and are attracted to their mothers from an early age. sheds light on the validity of Schafer’s stages of attachment.
Schafers stages of attachment: evaluation: Strength 2
Since the infants were observed in their own homes and their behaviour was more natural, this observational study had high external validity.
Schafers stages of attachment: evaluation: Limitation 1
The Schaffer and Emerson study has low population validity. The infants in the study all came from Glasgow and were mostly from working-class families. In addition, the small sample size of 60 families reduces the strength of the conclusion we can draw from the study.
Schafers stages of attachment: evaluation: Limitation 2
Finally, mothers who reported their child’s behaviour may not have reported the most accurate information. Many had a case of social desirability bias, so they wanted to appear favourable to the researcher. As a result, they may have altered their responses.
Schaffer & Emmerson experiment: explanation
-60 babies from Glasgow every month for first 18 months of their life (longitudinal method)
-Results revealed that attachments were most likely to form with carers who were sensitive to the baby’s signals, rather than the person they spent the most time with.
-Results revealed that attachments were most likely to form with carers who were sensitive to the baby’s signals, rather than the person they spent the most time with.
-By 10 months old, most of the babies had several attachments, including attachments to mothers, fathers, siblings and extended family. It was observed that the mother was the main attachment figure for roughly half of the babies when they were 18 months old and the father for most of the others.
-Based on this finding, this would suggest that being sensitive and responsive (including playing and communicating an infant) is more instrumental in attachment development than physical care.
-Led to formation of Schaffers stages of attachments
