schaffers stages of attachment: ao3

Question 1

External validity of research

Answer 1

P: One strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s research is that it has good external validity.
E: Most of the observations were made by parents during everyday activities and reported to the researchers.
E: The alternative would have been to have research at present to record observations.
This might have distracted babies or made him feel anxious.
L: This means it is highly likely that the participants behaved naturally whilst being observed and that the results can be generalised to everyday situations.

Question 2

Counterpoint to good external validity

Answer 2

P: On the other hand there are issues with asking the mothers to be observers as they are unlikely to be objective observers.
EE: They might have been biased in terms of what they noticed and what they reported, for example they might not have noticed when their baby was showing signs of anxiety or may have mis-remembered it.
L: This means that even if babies behave naturally their behaviour may not have been accurately recorded.

Question 3

Problems studying the asocial age

Answer 3

P: One limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages is the validity of the measures used to assess attachment in the asocial stage.
E: Young babies lack coordination and are fairly immobile. If babys less than two months old felt anxiety in everyday situations they might have displayed this in quite a subtle, hard-to-observe ways.
E: This may have made it difficult for mothers to observe and report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment in this age group.
L: This means that babies may actually be quite social, but because of flawed methods they appear to be asocial

Question 4

Real world applications

Answer 4

P: another strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s research is that they have practical applications to day care
E: in the asocial and discriminate attachment stages day care is likely to be straight forward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult
E: however Schaffer and Emerson’s reasearch tells us that day care especially starting the day care with an unfamiliar adult may be problematic during the specific attachment stage
L: thus parents use of day care can be planned using these research findings