Stages Of Attachement Flashcards
who established the stages of attachment?
schaffer and emerson (1964)
Outline stage 1 - a social stage.
0-3 months.
babies show signs that they prefer to be with other people.
babies also tend to show a preference for the company of familiar people and are more easily comforted by them.
at this stage the baby is forming bonds with certain people and these form the basis of later attachments.
Outline stage 2 - indiscriminate attachment.
2-7 months.
babies start to show a clear preference for being with other humans rather than inanimate objects.
they also recognise and prefer the company of familiar people.
babies do not usually show separation anxiety when caregivers leave their presence or stranger anxiety in the presence of unfamiliar people.
Outline stage 3 - specific attachment.
7/8 months onwards.
babies start to display signs of attachment towards one particular person.
these signs include stranger anxiety (especially when their attachment figure is absent) and separation anxiety.
at this point the baby is said to have formed a specific attachment. this person with whom the attachment is formed = primary attachment figure.
this person is not necessarily the individual the child spends most time with but the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the babies signals with the most skill.
Outline stage 4 - multiple attachments.
9 months onwards.
shortly after babies start to show attachment behaviour (stranger anxiety and separation anxiety) towards one person they usually extend this behaviour to multiple attachments with other people with whom they regularly spend time = secondary attachments.
schaffer and rmerson observed that 29% of the children formed secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary (specific) attachment.
Outline the procedure of research by Schaffer and Emerson (1964).
the study involved 60 babies (31 boys and 29 girls). all were from glasgow and the majority were from skilled working class families.
researchers visited babies and mothers in their own homes every month for the first year and again at 18 months.
the researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in seven everyday separations like the adult leaving the room (a measure of separation anxiety).
this was designed to measure the babies attachment. the researchers also assessed stranger anxiety.
Outline the findings of research by Schaffer and Emerson (1964).
between 25 and 32 weeks 50% of babies showed separation anxiety towards their caregiver - attachment tended to be the caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to signals and needs.
by 40 weeks 80% of babies has a specific attachment and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments.
Outline the conclusions of the research by Schaffer and Emerson (1964).
suggests that there is a pattern of attachment common to all infants which is biologically controlled.
also attachments are more easily made with those who are sensitive (recognising and responding to an infants needs) rather than spending the most time with the child.
Discuss internal validity as a strength of research by Schaffer and Emerson (1964).
the same children were followed up regularly which is better than ‘cross-sectional’ comparing two groups of children.
therefore, this study has good internal validity as participant variables is not a confounding variable.
Discuss external validity of research by Schaffer and Emerson (1964).
research was done in families own homes and most observations (other than stranger anxiety) done with actual parents.
this means it is reflective of real life situation so behaviour of children would have been the same as they would be usually.
therefore it has good external validity because they can apply findings outside of study.
HOWEVER-
issues with asking the mothers to be the observers - unlikely to be objective. they might have been biased in terms of what they noticed and what they reported (social desirability).
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, limiting its validity.
Discuss poor evidence for the asocial stage as a limitation of research by Schaffer and Emerson (1964).
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 subtle ways.
this would have 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. Limits the validity of the study and the support it can give the Theory.
Discuss practical application as a strength of the research by Schaffer and Emerson (1964).
practical application in day care -
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 research tells us that day care (especially starting day care with an unfamiliar adult) may be problematic during the specific attachment stage.
this means that parents use of day care can be planned using the attachment stages, giving the theory value.
