Stages of attachment Flashcards
What is a plausible strength of Schaffer’s research?
It has high ecological validity
Why does it have high ecological validity?
Observations were carried out in the families own homes during ordinary activities by the parent such as leaving the room.
What does high ecological validity make it easier to do?
Easier to generalise the findings to real life examples of attachment as the children’s behaviour is likely to be representative of everyday interactions, increasing the external validity
What is this research prone to?
Social desirability bias
Why is it prone to social desirability bias?
Interviews were used to gather information, therefore the mothers could have lied about their child’s behaviour to present their parenting in the best possible light e.g may say child is distressed when they leave the room when they are not
What does the research being prone to social desirability bias mean the research lacks?
Internal validity and it may not measure the true stages of attachement
What can the research be criticised for?
Culture bias
Why does the research have culture bias?
The sample they used were all from the same city, Glasgow.
What does culture bias make it difficult to do?
Makes it difficult to generalise the findings of the stage of attachment to other cultures e.g psychologists studying collectivist cultures found that an infant can form multiple attachments without forming a specific one first - limiting external val
What is a strength?
The research was carried out longitudinally
What does longitudinally mean?
This means that the same children were followed up and observed regularly
Why is the research being conducted longitudinally a strength?
The research does not have the confounding variable of individual differences between the children - increasing the internal validity
