Stages Of Attachment Flashcards
What was the key study conducted by Schaffer and Emerson?
The study observed 60 babies from skilled working class families.
How often were mothers and babies visited during the study?
They were visited once a month for the first year, and then again at 18 months.
What was measured to assess separation anxiety in the study?
Mothers were asked about how babies reacted in 7 everyday separations.
What type of anxiety was assessed alongside separation anxiety?
Stranger anxiety was also assessed.
At what age did 50% of babies show separation anxiety towards their mother?
Between 25-32 weeks of age.
What determined the specific attachment of babies according to the study?
The specific attachment was with the caregiver who was most sensitive to infant signals.
By 40 weeks, what percentage of babies had a specific attachment?
80% of babies had a specific attachment.
What percentage of babies had multiple attachments by 40 weeks?
30% of babies had multiple attachments.
What are the stages of attachment?
1) Asocial: Birth - 8 Weeks
2) Indiscriminate Attachment: 2-7 months
3) Specific Attachment: 7-12 months
4) Multiple Attachments: 1 year onwards
What characterizes the Asocial stage of attachment?
Behavior between humans and non-human objects is similar. Infants can recognize specific faces and prefer familiar individuals.
What is the age range for Indiscriminate Attachment?
2-7 months
What behaviors are typical in the Indiscriminate Attachment stage?
Infants recognize and prefer familiar people, smile more at familiar faces, and accept comfort from any adult without stranger anxiety.
What is the age range for Specific Attachment?
7-12 months
What behaviors indicate Specific Attachment?
Infants show protest when a specific person puts them down, display separation anxiety, and show happiness when that person returns.
Primary Attachment.
What did Schaffer and Emerson conclude about primary attachment?
The primary attachment isn’t always the person who spends the most time with the infant; it’s the quality of the relationship that matters.
What percentage of children had their first specific attachment to their mother according to Schaffer and Emerson?
65% of children had their first specific attachment to the mum.
What characterizes the Multiple Attachments stage?
A main attachment is formed, and a wider circle of multiple attachments develops based on consistent relationships.
What did Schaffer and Emerson find about multiple attachments within one month?
29% of infants had multiple attachments to parents, grandparents, siblings, etc., which are secondary attachments.
What percentage of infants had developed multiple attachments by 6 months?
78% of infants had developed multiple attachments by 6 months.
By what age had the majority of infants developed multiple attachments?
By 1 year, a majority of infants had developed multiple attachments.
What is a strength of the study regarding external validity?
Most observations were carried out by parents during normal activities, which likely means participants behaved naturally, indicating good external validity.
A counter argument is that data was based on mothers’ reports, which may introduce systematic bias.
How does the study have real-world application to daycare?
Schaffer and Emerson’s stages can help parents make daycare decisions, as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult in early stages, but specific attachments may cause distress if a child starts daycare later.
This highlights the importance of timing in daycare decisions.
What is a weakness related to the sample used in the study?
The sample was biased as all participants were from the same district, primarily working-class, and from the 1960s, making generalization difficult.
Parenting dynamics have changed significantly since then.
What problem arises when studying the asocial stage?
Babies in the asocial stage have poor coordination and are immobile, making it difficult to make reliable observations.
This results in low reliability of the findings.
What are the characteristics of individualistic cultures?
Individualistic cultures, such as the UK and USA, value independence and individuality.
This contrasts with collectivist cultures, which emphasize group importance and interdependence.
What did Sagi (1994) find regarding sleeping arrangements?
Sagi compared communal and family-based sleeping arrangements, finding that mother closeness was twice as common in family-based setups.
This suggests that the stage model may apply primarily to individualist cultures.
