Stages Of Attachment Flashcards
Who researched stages of attachment?
Schaffer and Emerson
What was Schaffer and Emersons method?
Observed the behaviour of babies from working class families in Glasgow for 18 months. The researchers conducted observations and interviewed the mums.
What were Schaffer’s stages of attachment?
Pre attachment
Indiscriminate attachment
Discriminate attachment
Multiple attachments
What age was the pre attachment stage?
Up to three months
What age was the indiscriminate attachment stage?
Three months to seven months
What age was the discriminate attachment?
Seven months and beyond
What age was the multiple attachments?
Nine months and beyond
What is a description of the pre attachment stage?
Up to six weeks of age infants show little discrimination or preference for humans but after that they show more interest in humans over other environmental stimuli. They start to smile at people’s faces
What is a description of indiscriminate attachment?
Can discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar faces
Show more social behaviour to familiar people but are still happy to let strangers hold them and look after them
What is a description of discriminate attachment?
Infants become attached to specific people and show separation / stranger anxiety
What is a description of the multiple attachment stage?
Infants form strong emotional bonds with other caregivers and siblings. Attachment to mum is strongest and stranger anxiety is less important
How could over reliance on the reports of the mothers be a flaw in Schaffer and emersons study?
They based their theory on what mothers had disclosed about their infants. Their reports may not represent the reality of the situation. For example, some mothers may be less sensitive to their infants protests and therefore may not report them. Equally, they may be reluctant to report undesirable behaviour in an attempt to appear socially normal as though their infant doesn’t deviate from the norm in terms of their behaviour. This raises questions regarding the validity of the data which queries the effectiveness of the idea that attachment develops in the way proposed by Schaffer and Emerson
How does Schaffer and Emerson’s research have external validity?
Families (mostly mothers) observed the behaviour and reported the findings to the researchers, this means the infants would not experience stranger anxiety. This also means that the infants would behave the way that they normally would and would not be affected by the presence of a stranger causing them to behave in a particular way (demand characteristics). Therefore the research has external validity and mundane realism and the claims made by Schaffer and Emerson are possibly a realistic representation of attachment in real life
How was Schaffer and Emerson’s sample bias?
The researchers asked people from a working class population in the 1960s. This is problematic as the findings would not apply to any other social groups and it is representative of this time period only. Parental care has changed significantly since the 60s, for example, many women go out to work so the child is cared for outside of the home and the amount of stay at home fathers has increased dramatically over the last 10 years. This means that if Schaffer and Emerson’s research was carried out today, the findings would be very different
