staffer and Emerson eval

Question 1

Good external validity

Answer 1

One strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s research is that it has good external validity.
Most of the observations (though not stranger anxiety) were made by parents during ordinary activities and reported to the researchers. The alternative would have been to have researchers present to record observations. This might have distracted the babies or made them feel more anxious.
This means it is highly likely that the participants behaved naturally while being observed.

Question 2

Counterpoint

Answer 2

On the other hand there are issues with asking the mothers to be the observers. They were unlikely to be objective observers. 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 they may have misremembered it.
This means that even if babies behaved naturally their behaviour may not have been accurately recorded.

Question 3

Poor evidence for the asocial stage

Answer 3

One limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s stagS is the validity of the measures they used to assess attachment 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. This made it difficult for mothers to observe and report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment in this age group.
This means that the babies may actually be quite social but, because of flawed methods, they appear to be asocial.

Question 4

Real-world application

Answer 4

Another strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages is that they have practical application in day care (where babies are cared for outside of their home by a non-family adult).
In the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages day care is likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult. However, Schaffer and Emerson’s research tells us that day care, especially starting day care with an unfamiliar adult, may be problematic during the specihc attachment stage.
This means that parents’ use of day care can be planned using
Schaffer and Emerson’s stages.

Question 5

Generalisability of stages to other contexts

Answer 5

The large sample size in the study should help with the generalisability of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages.
However, the sample characteristics may make the sample less generalisable to other populations. This is because child-rearing practices vary so much between social groups/cultures.
So, patterns of attachment development in 1960s Glasgow may be quite different from that in, say, present-day Southampton or Liverpool.
Therefore, we cannot assume the same stage pattern would apply universally.