Stages Of Attachment and The Role of The Father Flashcards
Who identified the different stages of attachment in an infant?
Rudolf Schaffer.
How many stages of attachment did Schaffer identify?
4.
What are the 4 different stages of attachment?
1) Pre-attachment
2) Indiscriminate attachment
3) Specific attachment
4) Multiple attachments
What is the first stage of attachment?
The pre-attachment stage.
What age does the pre-attachment stage occur?
0-3 months.
What happens in the pre-attachment stage?
- Babies are ‘asocial’ and produce similar responses to both living and inanimate objects.
- At about 6 weeks, the infants will begin to treat humans differently than inanimate objects.
- Reciprocity and interactional synchrony play a large role in establishing relationships.
What is the second stage of attachment?
The indiscriminate attachment stage.
What age does the indiscriminate attachment stage occur?
3-7 months.
What happens in the indiscriminate attachment stage?
- Babies can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people.
- Continue to be relatively comfortable around anyone (comforted by anyone).
- Generally sociable (enjoy being with people).
What is the third stage of attachment?
The specific attachment stage.
What age does the specific attachment stage occur?
7-9 months.
What happens in the specific attachment stage?
- The infant begins to experience separation anxiety when a particular person leaves them.
- Formed a specific attachment to their primary attachment figure (typically the mothers).
- Begins to develop stranger anxiety.
What is the fourth stage of attachment?
The multiple attachment stage.
From what age does multiple attachment occur?
9 months onward.
What happens in the multiple attachment stage?
- The infant develops multiple attachments (grandparents, siblings) depending on how many consistent relationships the infant has.
- These are called secondary attachments.
- Infants also display separation anxiety from secondary attachments.
- The original/primary attachment stays stronger.
What does ‘asocial’ mean?
Avoiding of social interaction.
What is separation anxiety?
Distress that is felt by somebody who is separated from an attachment figure.
What is stranger anxiety?
Distress that is felt by somebody when around people they are unfamiliar with or have never met.
When researching the role of the father, what did Schaffer and Emerson find?
Fathers were far less likely to be primary attachment figures than mothers.
Why may fathers be less likely to be primary attachment figures?
They generally spend less time with their infants due to work demands or social stereotypes.
When researching the role of the father, what did Heermann et al (1944) find?
Men are less sensitive to the infant’s cues than mothers.
In what cases have fathers secured successful attachments as primary attachments figures.
Single parent (male) families.
What has research highlighted about fathers being secondary attachments figures?
Fathers are more playful, physically active and generally better at providing challenging situations than mothers.
When researching the role of the father, what did Geiger (1996) find?
That a father is an exciting playmate and whereas mothers are more conventional and tend to read stories to their children.
When researching the role of the father, what did White and Woollett (1992) find?
That a lack of sensitivity from fathers can be seen as positive as it fosters problem-solving by placing greater demands on children to effectively communicate.
What are the 5 evaluation points?
+ Schaffer and Emerson (1964) primary/multiple attachments.
- Flawed research (stages - bias/social desirability).
- Temporal validity (stages) - MacCallum & Golombrook (2004).
- Ethnocentric (multiple attachment - culturally biased).
- Assessment of multiple attachment (Bowlby, 1969).
