Stages Of Attachment Flashcards
Schaffer and Emerson research
Procedure 60 babies 31 boys 29 girls all from Glasgow majority from skilled working class families
Visited babies and mother’s in own homes every month for first year and again at 18 months
Asked mother’s about the kind of protest shown by babies in 7 everyday serperations
This was designed to measure babies attachment also assessed stranger anxiety
Stage one
A social stage - behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects are fairly similar
Showed signs they preferred to be with other people
Tend to show preference to familiar peoples presence
Stage two
2-7 months more obvious observable social behaviours
Clear opreference to being with humans
Recognise and prefer company of familiar people
Accept cuddles and comfort from any person
Do not show soereation anxiety or stranger anxiety
Stage three
Specific attachment
Show attachment to a specific person from around 7 months
Anxiety towards strangers
Separation anxiety
Primary attachment Sigurd mother 65% of time
Stage four
Extend this behaviour to multiple attachments with other people they see regularly
Secondary attachments
29% formed secondary attachments within a month of primary attachment
By age one year most babies had developed multiple attachments
Evaluation positives
+ external validity
Researchers not being present during observation reduces baby anxiety which could later real results
However asking mother’s to be observers could introduced bias in what was actually observed as to what was recorded
+ real world application
Daycare more straight forward during first two stages but after this being cared for by unfamiliar adults can be difficult during specific stage
Parents use of day care can be planned using the stages
Evaluation limitation
Validity of mesaudres used to assess attachment in asocial stage
Young babies have poor coordination
If anxiety shown would be difficult to observe at two months
Difficult fir mother’s ti record due to flawed methods could be social but appear as asocial
