stages of attachments

Question 1

what are the 4 stages of attachment?

Answer 1

1. indiscriminate attachments
2. the beginnings of attachments
3. discriminate attachments
4. multiple attachments

Question 2

who conducted the study on the development of attachments?

Answer 2

Schaffer and Emerson

Question 3

what is ‘indiscriminate attachments’ and what stage is it?

Answer 3

stage 1 of attachments
0-2 months: This is when babies show a similar response to all objects, whether inanimate or animate

2 months: babies show a greater preference for social stimuli (i.e. a smiling face).interactional synchrony and reciprocity play a part in establishing the infant’s relationships with others

Question 4

what is ‘beginnings of attachment’ and what stage is it?

Answer 4

stage 2 of attachments
4months: babies prefer human company over inanimate objects. they can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar faces but are still relatively easily comforted by anyone. they show general sociability: enjoyment of people’s company

Question 5

what is ‘discriminate attachments’ and what stage is it?

Answer 5

stage 3 of attachments
7months: infants start to show separation anxiety and have formed an attachment with their primary care giver: formed by sensitivity. they also show signs of stranger anxiety which is sign that they have formed a specific attachment

Question 6

what is ‘multiple attachments’ and what stage is it?

Answer 6

stage 4 of attachments
after main attachment has formed, the infant develops a wider circle of multiple attachments based on consistent relationships they have (ie with grandparents). They found that within 1 month of forming main attachment 29% of infants had formed multiple attachments, and in 1 year, this had risen to 78%.

Question 7

what is:

1. interactional synchrony
2. reciprocity

Answer 7

1. I.S = when two people interact they tend to mirror each other’s movements in terms of facial/body movements
2. R= responding to the action of another with a similar action, where the actions of one partner elicit a response from the other.

Question 8

what is

1. separation anxiety
2. stranger anxiety

Answer 8

1. sep. anx. = the distress shown by an infant when seperated from their main caregiver.
2. str. anx. = the distress shown by an infant when approached or picked up by a stranger or someone who is unfamiliar.

Question 9

what is a limitation of schaffer and emerson’s research into stages of attachments? (unr.)

Answer 9

unreliable data
this research by schaffer and emerson may be unreliable as it is based on mother’s reports of their infants. some mothers may have been less sensitive to their infants protests and so would have been less likely to report them. this creates a systematic bias which challenges the validity of the data

Question 10

what is a limitation of schaffer and emerson’s research into stages of attachments? (biased)

Answer 10

the research was conducted on working class families, and so it is only applicable to this social class. furthermore, the research was conducted in the 1960’s and both society and parenting styles have changed a lot since then. a lot more mothers are going out to work and a lot more fathers are staying home to look after kids. in fact, Cohn et al found that the number of fathers staying home has quadrupled in the last 25 years. if the study was repeated nowadays, they would probably find very different results. this challenges the historical validity of the data.

Question 11

what is a limitation of schaffer and emerson’s research into stages of attachments? (culture)

Answer 11

there are differences between individualist cultures and collectivist cultures. individualist cultures such as US and UK place importance on the individual, whereas collectivist cultures are more focused on the needs of the group. in such societies you would expect multiple attachments to be more common. research by Sangi et al supports this. they compared attachments in infants raised in communal environments with infants raised in family based sleeping arrangements. in the communal environments, children spent their time in a community children’s home. sangi et al found closeness of attachment with mother was twice as common in family based arrangements than in communal environments. this suggests that the attachment development model by Schaffer and Emerson is only applicable to individualist cultures.