Stages of an Attachment

Question 1

Define attachment

Answer 1

a deep and enduring emotional bond between two people in which each seeks closeness and feels more secure when in the presence of the attachment figure

Question 2

Give two examples of attachment behaviour from an adult, to a child

Answer 2

responding sensitively and appropriately to the child’s needs

Question 3

What does the attachment theory explain?

Answer 3

how the parent-child relationship emerges and influences subsequent development

Question 4

Who are attachments most likely to be formed with?

Answer 4

those who responded accurately to the baby’s signals, not the person they spent more time with

Question 5

What is sensitive responsiveness?

Answer 5

the extent to which a parent is in-tune with a child’s emotional state is able to decode those signals accurately and able to respond appropriately and in a timely fashion

Question 6

What is a primary attachment figure?

Answer 6

the person who has formed the closest bond with a child, demonstrated by the intensity of the relationship.

Question 7

What is separation anxiety?

Answer 7

the distress shown by an infant when separated from his/her caregiver

Question 8

What is stranger anxiety?

Answer 8

the distress shown by an infant when approached or picked up by someone who is unfamiliar

Question 9

What was the aim of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

Answer 9

to see if attachment develops through a series of stages

Question 10

What type of study was Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

Answer 10

longitudinal

Question 11

Describe the participants used in Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

Answer 11

60 babies drawn from a predominantly working class are of Glasgow

Question 12

Outline the procedure of Schaffer and Emerson’s study

Answer 12

They analysed the interactions between the infants and carers
● They interviewed the carers
● The mother had to keep a diary to track the infant’s
behaviours based on the following measures:
- Separation anxiety
- Stranger anxiety
- Social Referencing
It was a longitudinal study lasting 18 months
● They visited the infants on a monthly basis and once again at the end of the 18 month period.

Question 13

What is social referencing?

Answer 13

how often the infant looks at their carer to check

how they should respond to something new

Question 14

What were the findings of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

Answer 14

Between 25 and 32 weeks of age, about 50% of babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult (usually the mother which signified a specific attachment).

Attachment tended to be to the caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to infant signals and facial expressions (reciprocity). This was not necessarily the person the infant spent most time with.

By the age of 40 weeks 80% of the babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments.

Question 15

What are the 4 stages of attachment according to Schaffer and Emerson?

Answer 15

1. asocial attachments
2. indiscriminate attachment
3. discriminate attachment
4. multiple attachments

Question 16

When, according to Schaffer and Emerson, is the asocial attachments stage?

Answer 16

0-6 weeks

Question 17

When, according to Schaffer and Emerson, is the indiscriminate attachment stage?

Answer 17

2–6 months

Question 18

When, according to Schaffer and Emerson, is the discriminate attachment stage?

Answer 18

7 months +

Question 19

When, according to Schaffer and Emerson, is the multiple attachments stage?

Answer 19

10/11 months +

Question 20

What happens during the asocial attachments stage?

Answer 20

This is when the infant responds to objects and people similarly - but may respond more to faces and eyes.

Question 21

What happens during the indiscriminate attachment stage?

Answer 21

This is when the infant develops more responses to human company.
Although they can tell the difference between different people, they can be comforted by anyone.

Question 22

What happens during the discriminate attachment stage?

Answer 22

This is when the infants begins to prefer one particular carer and seeks for security, comfort and protection in particular people. They also start to show stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.

Question 23

What happens during the multiple attachments stage?

Answer 23

This is when the infant forms multiple attachments and seeks security, comfort and protection in multiple people. They may also show separation anxiety for multiple people.

Question 24

What are the 5 evaluation points for stages of attachment?

Answer 24

1. unreliable data
2. biased sample
3. challenging monotropy
4. cultural variation
5. stage theories

Question 25

What is the PEEL paragraph for the stages of attachment evaluation point; unreliable data?

Answer 25

P - the data collected by Schaffer and Emerson may be unreliable
E - this is bevause it was based on mothers’ reports of their infants
E - some mothers might have been less sensitive to their infants’ protests and therefore less likely to report them
L - this would create a systematic bias which would challenge the validity of the data

Question 26

What is the PEEL paragraph for the stages of attachment evaluation point; biased sample?

Answer 26

P - the sample was biased in a number of ways
E - first, it was from a working-class population and thus the findings may apply to that social group and not others
E - second, the sample was from the 1960s. Parental care of children has changed considerably since that time. More women go out to work so many children are cared for outside the home, or fathers stay at home and care for their children and families ha quadrupled over the past 25 years (Cohn et al, 2014)
L - therefore, if a similar study to that of Schaffer and Emerson was conducted today, the findings might well be different

Question 27

What is the PEEL paragraph for the stages of attachment evaluation point; challenging monotropy?

Answer 27

P - one of the central discussions relating to multiple attachments is whether all attachments are equivalent or whether one or two have some special significance
E - Bowlby’s view was that an infant forms one special emotional relationship. Subsidiary to this are many other needs
E - for example, the father may offer a special kind of care, and relationships with siblings are important in learning how to negotiate with attachment figures are equivalent, with all attachments being integrated to produce an infant’s attachment type
L - this suggests that Bowlby may have been wrong about the idea of a hierarchy of attachments

Question 28

What is the PEEL paragraph for the stages of attachment evaluation point; cultural variations

Answer 28

P - there are important differences between cultures in terms of the way people relate to each other
E - in individual cultures (e.g. Britain and US), each person in the society is primarily concerned with their own needs of their immediate family group
E - in contrast collectivist cultures are more focued on the needs of the group rather than the indivduals, with people sharing many things, such as possessions and childcare
E - it follows that we would expect multiple attachments to be more common in collectivist societies. Research supports this, for example, Sagi et al., (1994) compared attachments in infants raised in communal environments (Israeli kibbutzim) with infants raised in amily-based sleeping arrangements.
E - in a kibbutz children speng their time in a community children’s home cared for by a metapelet; this includes based arrangements that in the communal environment
L - this suggests that the stage model created from the study applies specifically to individualist cultures

Question 29

What is the PEEL paragraph for the stages of attachment evaluation point; stage theories

Answer 29

P - one difficulty with ‘stage theories’ is that they suggest development is inflexible
E - a stage propose that there is a fixed order for development
E - for example, it suggests that, normally, single attachments must come before multiple attachments. In some situations and cultures, multiple attachments may come first
L - the use of stage theories, therefore, may be problematic if they become a standard by which families are judged and lead to them being classed as abnormal