Stages Of Attactchemts Flashcards
Describe the asocial attachment stage
Birth to 3 months
From birth infants produce similar responses to all objects, whether they are animate or inanimate. Towards the end of this stage, infants are beginning to show a greater preference for social stimuli, such as a smiling face and are more content when they are with people. Reciprocity and interactional synchrony play a role in establishing the infant’s relationships with others.
Summarise the indiscriminate stage
3-6 months
Infants begin to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar people, smiling more at known people. However, they are still easily comforted by anyone, enjoy being with people and do not display stranger anxiety.
Summarise the discriminate stage .
7+ months
Infants begin to develop specific attachments to one person, their primary caregiver. This is shown through separation anxiety and joy on reunion. They also begin to display stranger anxiety as they avoid unfamiliar people and protest if strangers try to handle them.
Summarise multiple attachment stage
10+ months
Soon after the main attachment is formed, the infant also develops a wider circle of multiple attachments (e.g. grandparents, siblings other children). These relationships are called secondary attachments. Infants also display separation anxiety in these relationships.
What was the research into stages of attachment ?
Schaffer and Emerson aimed to investigate the formation of early attachments and to identify the distinct stages by which attachments form.
Procedure
• A longitudinal study was conducted using 60 infants from mainly working-class homes in Glasgow. Mothers and babies were studied each month for the first year of their lives in their own home and again at 18 months.
• At each visit each mother reported their infant’s responses to separation in seven everyday situations (separation anxiety). The researchers also assessed the infant’s anxiety response to unfamiliar adults (stranger anxiety).
What are the findings in the study into stages of attachement ?
Findings
• The first attachment was usually formed between 6 and 8 months of age.
• The mother was the main attachment figure for 65% of the children at 18 months old, whilst only 3% of the infants studied developed a primary attachment to their father.
• By 18 months old, 31% of the infants had formed multiple attachments, e.g. to grandparents, siblings, etc.
• Schaffer and Emerson also found that primary attachments were not always formed with the person who spent the most time with the infant. They observed that intensely attached infants had mothers who responded quickly and sensitively to their signals and who offered their child the most interaction.
Conclusion
They concluded that it is the quality of the relationship not quantity that mattered most in the formation of attachments.
Why is validity a strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s research ?
that the study has mundane realism. This is because the study was carried out in the families’ own homes and most of the observation was actually done by parents during ordinary activities and reported to the researchers later. This means that the behaviour of the babies was unlikely to be affected by the presence of the observers, meaning that the participants behaved naturally. However, some of the data was based on mothers’ reports of their infants. Some mothers may have been less sensitive to their infants’ protests and therefore less likely to report them. This would create a systematic bias which would challenge the validity of the data.
What is the limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s research ?
criticism of the research into stages of attachment is that of the sample used. This is because they used a small sample of 60 babies and their carers from the same district and social class. This is a limitation as child-rearing practises vary from one culture to another. The research was also conducted in the 1960’s and parental care of children has changed considerably since that time. More women go out to work so many children are cared for outside of the home by other family members or at day-care settings. This therefore suggests the findings lack temporal validity and questions whether the findings can be generalised to other social and historical contexts.
Why can there be problems with multiple attachements being assessed?
. Just because an infant gets distressed when an individual leaves the room does not necessarily mean that the individual is a ‘true’ attachment figure. Bowlby (1969) pointed out that children have playmates as well as attachment figures and they may be distressed when a playmate leaves the room, but this does not signify attachment to them. This is a limitation as Schaffer and Emerson’s view of the stages of attachment does not give us a way to distinguish between behaviour shown towards secondary attachment figures and towards playmates.
Are multiple attachments as important as just one primary attachment ?
Schaffer and Emerson’s research (and Bowlby) indicates that infants form attachments to a single main caregiver before developing multiple attachments and that this is important for later social and emotional development. However, Thomas (1998) suggests the tendency to form a single main attachment is not good for healthy psychological development and that it may be more desirable to have a variety of different attachments that meet the growing needs of the infants. Additionally, there are cultural differences in the formation of attachments. Research suggests that in collectivist cultures, infants form multiple attachments from the onset rather than to one primary attachment figure (Van Ijzendoorn et al., 1993). This suggests there is mixed evidence for a hierarchical attachment as suggested by Schaffer and Emerson.
