Stages of attachments Flashcards
what are Schaffer and Emersons four stages of attachment
1: Asocial stage
2 Indiscriminate stage
3: Specific attachment
4: Multiple attachment
what occurs in the asocial stage
-In the babies fist few weeks its observable behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects are fairly similar
-However Schaffer and Emerson did not believe that they are entirely asocial because they showed signs that they prefer to be with other people
-At this stage the baby is forming bonds with certain people and these form the basis of later attachment
what occurs at the Indiscriminate attachment stage
-from 2-7 months babies start to display more obvious and observable social behaviours
-now have a clear preference of being with other people rather than inanimate objects
-also recognise and prefer the company of familiar people but usually accept attention from anyone
-separation anxiety and stranger anxiety do not usually occur at this point
what occurs in the specific attachment
-from around months babies start to show signs of specific attachment to one person
-this includes signs of anxiety directed towards strangers especially when the primary attachment figure is absent
-anxiety at separation with primary attachment figure
-this isn’t necessarily the person who spends the most time with the baby but the one that responds to the babies ‘signals’ with most skill
- this is the mother in 65% of cases
what occurs at the multiple attachment stage
-this is when they extend their attachments to people they regularly spend time with
-these are called secondary attachments
-Schaffer and Emerson observed that 29% of children formed their secondary attachment within a month of forming their primary attachment
-by age one the majority of babies are expected to have developed multiple attachments
what is the procedure of Schaffer and Emersons (1964) research
-Their study involved 60 babies total 31 male, 29 female all from Glasgow and majority from skilled working-class families
-They were visited in their homes with their mothers every month until one year old and then again at 18 months
-the mothers were asked questions about the kind of protest the baby showed when separation occurred
-stranger anxiety was also assessed
what were the findings in Schaffer and Emersons research (1964)
-most babies formed their specific attachment between 29-32 weeks
-stranger anxiety developed for most between 33-36 weeks
strengths of Schaffer and Emerson (research)
-good external validity as most of the observations were made by the parents during regular activities
-highly likely that the participants behaved naturally while being observed
limitations of Schaffer and Emerson (research)
-may be issues with the mothers being the the ‘observers’ as they were unlikely to be objective observers and they may have been biased in terms of what they noticed and what they reported
-parts of observation may have been unintentionally reported incorrectly
strengths of Schaffer and Emerson (stages)
-they have practical application in day care (good real world application)
limitations of Schaffer and Emerson (stages)
-a limitation is the validity of the measures they used to assess attachment in the asocial stage. Young babies have poor co-ordination therefore if babies less than two months old are feeling anxiety they may have displayed this in quite subtle and hard to observe ways
