schaffers stages of attatchment Flashcards
stage 1 - asocial stage
0-8 weeks
it’s observable behaviour towards humans and inanimate object is fairly similar
Schaffer and Emerson - did not believe that it was entirely asocial
even at this stage babies show signs that they prefer to be with other people
also tend to show a preference for the company of familiar people and are more easily comforted by them
the baby is forming bonds with certain people and these form the basis of later attachment
indiscriminate attatchment
2-7 months
start to display more obvious and observable social behaviours
show clear preference for being with other humans rather than inanimate objects
also recognise and prefer the company of familiar people
babies still accep comfort from any person
do not show separation anxiety when caregivers leave their presence
do not show stranger anxiety in the presence of unfamiliar people
specific attachment
7-12 months
majority of babies start to display the classic signs of attachment towards one particular person
show stranger anxiety especially when their attatchment figure is absent
show separation anxiety
baby has formed specific attachment
person who they are attached to is called the primary attachment figure
person is not necessarily the person who the child spends the most time with yet the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the babys signals
Multiple attachments
1 year onwards
start to show attachment behaviour - separation anxiety and stranger anxiety
towards one person they usually extend this behaviour to multiple attachments wit other people who they regularly spend time with
these are called secondary attachments
Schaffer and emerson’s research
based their theory on an observational study of the formation of early infant-adult attatchments
procedure of the research
60 babies - 31 boys and 29 girls
glasgow
skilled working class families
researchers visited babies and mothers in their homes very month for the first year and again at 18 months.
asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in seven everyday separations - example adult leaving the room (measure of separation anxiety)
designed to measure babies attachment
also assessed stranger anxiety - babies anxiety response to unfamiliar people
findings
identified the four distinct stages in the development of infant attachamnet behaviour
strength
good external validity
most of the observations were made by parents during the ordinary activities and reported to the researcher
the alternative would have needed to have the researchers present to record observation’s
might have distracted the babies or made them feel more anxious
means it is highly likely that the participants behaved naturally while being observed
limitation
poor evidence for the asocial stage
validity of the measures they used to assess attatchment in the asocial stage
young babies have poor co-ordination and are fairly immobile
if babies less than two months old felt anxiety in everyday situations they might have displayed this in quite subtle hard to observe ways
made it difficult for mothers to observe and report back to researched on signs of anxiety and attachment in this age group
means that babies may actually be quite social but because of flaws methods they appear to be asocial
strength
real word application
have practical application in day care
in the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages day care is likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted dehydration any skilled adult
however the research tells us that day are especially starting day care with an unfamiliar adult may be problematic during the specific attachment stage
means that parents use of day care can be planned using schaffer and emerson’s study
