Stages of Attachment AO3

Question 1

What are the strengths of Schaffer and Emerson’s experiment?

Answer 1

• the reports and observations where done by the parents so the babies were more comfortable, making the experiment more realists (high internal validity)
• it uses a relatively large sample of 60 babies which all create a large volume of data which means the results are more reliable

Question 2

What are the weaknesses of Schaffer and Emerson’s experiment?

Answer 2

• can suffer from desireability bias as the mothers who reported could want to show that their relationship with the infant is better than it is by saying they are more responsive
• the veriety in the sample was very limited (all the babies were from the same distict and social class) so it may not be applicable

Question 3

What are the weaknesses of the stages of attachment?

Answer 3

• Sagi found that babies raised in individualist cultures were twice as close to their mothers than those raised in collectivist cultures because in collectivist cultures the families work together in child-rearing
• young babies are uncoordinated and fairly immobile so it’s difficult to observe anxiety before 2 months old

Question 4

What is the strength of the stages of attachment?

Answer 4

it has real world applications as it can be used to help parents decide when to put there children into nursery. they are likely to put their children into nursery during the asocial or indiscriminant stages of attachment as the infant will be comfortable with any adult