Stages Of Attachment Flashcards
Who studied stages of attachment?
Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
Features of Schaffer and Emerson’s sample?
60 babies from working class families in Glasgow in the 1960s
Schaffer and Emerson study outline
Researchers visited babies and mothers in their homes every month for a year and then once at 18 months.
The mother was asked about how the baby protested in 7 everyday separations.
What were Schaffer and Emerson’s findings?
- At 25-32 weeks 50% of babies had separation anxiety towards one adult.
- At 40 weeks 80% babies had formed a specific attachment and 30% had formed multiple attachments.
- Babies formed attachment with the person who was most responsive to their signals and expressions.
What are the stages of attachment?
- Asocial stage
- Indiscriminate attachment
- Specific attachment
- Multiple Attachments
What is the asocial stage?
- 0-6 weeks
- Babies produce favourable reaction to social and non-social stimuli
What is the indiscriminate attachment stage?
- 6 weeks to 7 months
- Babies indiscriminately enjoy human comfort.
- Smile more at familiar faces
What is the specific attachment stage?
- 7-9 months
- Babies cry when separated from a specific adult.
- They try to stay close to that adult (separation anxiety).
- Show weariness of strangers (stranger anxiety).
What is the multiple attachment stage?
- 7-10 months
- Babies start to form attachments with other caregivers.
Evaluative points for Schaffer and Emerson’s research:
- Strength: high external validity as the observations were made by mothers.
- Limitation: low internal validity as mothers may have been biased.
- Limitation: low temporal validity as they used a single sample with unique features.
- Strength: practical application for use by parents in daycare.
Strength: High external validity
Their investigation is has high external validity as most of the observations were made by the mother during everyday activities and reported to the researchers. If the researchers were to record the observations it may have distracted the babies or made them anxious which would change their behaviour. This means it is highly likely that the participants behaved naturally which increases our confidence in the validity of the findings.
Limitation: low external validity
There are, however, issues with the mothers carrying out the observations and reporting back to the researchers as they were unlikely to be objective and may have been biased in terms of what they saw and reported, for example they may not have noticed when their baby showed separation anxiety or may have misremembered. This means that even if the babies behaved normally, the observations may not have been reported accurately and this limits the internal validity of the findings.
Limitation: low temporal validity
Moreover, the investigation has low temporal validity because they used a single sample with unique features in terms of cultural and historical context - babies from working class families in Glasgow in the 1960s. The study was carried out over 50 years ago and child rearing practices have changed long since then. The conditions in the study cannot be applied to society now, and so the findings are outdated as they cannot be generalised to parenting techniques used today.
Strength: practical application
Nonetheless, there is a practical application for Schaffer and Emerson’s findings in daycare. For example, in the asocial and indiscriminate stages, starting daycare is more straightforward than in the specific attachment stage. This is because the baby can be easily comforted by any adult as they don’t yet display separation anxiety or stranger anxiety as they won’t have a primary attachment figure. Parents can use this to plan their use of daycare and enrol their child in the most appropriate stage where staring will be easiest and least stressful for the infant.
