Schaffers stages of attachment Flashcards
What are the four identifiable stages of attachment proposed by Schaffer and Emerson?
- Asocial stage
- Indiscriminate attachment
- Specific attachment
- Multiple attachments
What characterizes the asocial stage of attachment?
Observable behavior towards humans and inanimate objects is fairly similar; babies show signs of preferring familiar people.
At what age does the indiscriminate attachment stage occur?
From 2 to 7 months
What is a key behavior of babies in the indiscriminate attachment stage?
They accept cuddles and comfort from any person.
What anxiety signs do babies display in the specific attachment stage?
Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.
What is the primary attachment figure?
The person with whom the baby forms a specific attachment, often the mother.
What proportion of babies have their mother as the primary attachment figure?
65%
What are secondary attachments?
Attachments to multiple people with whom babies regularly spend time after forming a primary attachment.
What percentage of children formed secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment?
29%
What does Schaffer and Emerson’s research suggest about the development of attachments?
All babies go through the stages of attachment in the same order.
How many babies were involved in Schaffer and Emerson’s study?
60 babies
What was the gender distribution of the babies in the study?
31 boys and 29 girls
What was the primary method used to assess attachment in the study?
Questions to mothers about protest during everyday separations.
True or False: Babies show separation anxiety before they form a specific attachment.
False
Fill in the blank: The first stage of attachment is called the _______.
asocial stage
What is the main focus of Schaffer and Emerson’s stage theory?
The sequence of qualitatively different attachment behaviors linked to specific ages.
What is the significance of the term ‘indiscriminate’ in the context of attachment?
Babies do not show preference for specific individuals for comfort.
What type of families did most of the babies in the study come from?
Skilled working-class families
What is a strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s research related to external validity?
It has good external validity because observations were made by parents during ordinary activities.
This allowed for more natural behavior from participants.
What is a potential issue with mothers as observers in Schaffer and Emerson’s research?
Mothers may have been biased and unlikely to be objective observers.
They might misreport or overlook signs of anxiety in their babies.
What limitation exists regarding the asocial stage in Schaffer and Emerson’s stages?
There is poor evidence for the asocial stage due to the measures used to assess attachment.
Young babies’ subtle signs of anxiety may be hard to observe.
How might the methods used in assessing attachment in young babies be flawed?
Babies less than two months old may display anxiety in subtle ways that are hard to observe.
This could lead to misinterpretation of their social behavior.
What is a practical application of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages?
Their research has practical application in the context of day care.
It helps parents plan day care based on attachment stages.
Fill in the blank: In the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages, day care is likely to be _______.
straightforward
True or False: Schaffer and Emerson’s research suggests that day care starting with an unfamiliar adult may be problematic during the specific attachment stage.
True
