stages of attachment

Question 1

describe the participants in schaffer and emerson’s stage of attachment study

Answer 1

● 60 babies from glasgow

● mostly from working class families

● researchers visited babies and mothers at home every month for a year and again at 18 months

Question 2

describe the procedure of schaffer and emerson’s study

Answer 2

● seperation anxiety measured

● by asking mothers about their children’s behaviour during everyday separations (e.g. adult leaving the room)

● stranger anxiety measured

● by asking mothers questions about the children’s anxiety response to unfamiliar adult

Question 3

what were the findings of schaffer and emerson’s study?

Answer 3

babies developed attachments through a sequence of stages

Question 4

what are schaffer and emerson’s stages of attachment?

Answer 4

● asocial

● indiscriminate attachment

● specific attachment

● multiple attachment

Question 5

describe the asocial stage of attachment (4)

Answer 5

● age: first few weeks

● respond to humans and objects in a similar way

● happier in presence of humans

● do not show much observable social behaviour

Question 6

describe the indiscriminate attachment stage (6)

Answer 6

● age: 2-7 months

● display more observable social behaviour

● prefer humans over inanimate objects

● usually accept comfort from any adult

● don’t usually display separation or stranger anxiety

● indiscriminate: act in the same way to everyone (ie no preferred person yet)

Question 7

describe the specific attachment stage (4)

Answer 7

● age: from around 7 months

● display stranger and separation anxiety when apart from primary caregiver (usually mother in 65% of cases)

● baby therefore has formed a specific attachment to a primary caregiver

● this is the person that interacts with child the most and responds to their signals
(not necessarily the person who spends most of the time with the child or who simply feeds them)

Question 8

describe the multiple attachment stage (4)

Answer 8

● age: by 1 year

● after first attachment has formed, it is extended to other adults they spend time with resulting in multiple attachments

● these are called secondary attachments

● 29% of secondary attachments form within a month of the specific (primary) attachments forming