Stages of attatchment

Question 1

Who studied into the patterns of attacthment formation?

Answer 1

Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

Question 2

What was their aim in the study?

Answer 2

• To find out if there was a pattern of attachment formation, common to all infants
• To identify & describe the stages of attachment

Question 3

What was the procedure of the study?

Answer 3

• Longitudinal (every month for 1st year, then at 18 months)
• Sample (60 newborn babies 31b & 29g) and their mothers from Glasgow - working class
• observations - Interveiws the mothers “who does infants respond to?” “Who causes them distress?”
  mothers rated intensity of infants protest on a scale
• attatchment measured in two ways:
  seperation protest - in pram or cot
  stranger anxiety - when researcher visit home left alone with infant.

Question 4

What was the findings for this study?

Answer 4

• Most infants showed seperation protests from 6-8 months
• stranger anxiety formed a month later
• strongly attatched infants commonly had mothers who sensitively reacted to infants needs and provided more oppotunities for interactions.
• 39% of infants primary attatchments was not to main caregiver.
• 3% were attahced to father
• 75% were attachted to father at 18 months

Question 5

What was the conclusion of this study?

Answer 5

• All babies showed the same behaviour patterns - Innate
• Sensitivity was the most important feature of attachment
• Multiple attachments was the norm

Question 6

What was the strengths of this study?

Answer 6

• Longitudinal - reliable data - lots of data
• Real-life application
• Naturalistic behaviour as not in lab environment - high levels of realism.

Question 7

What is the negatives of this study?

Answer 7

• Social sensitivity - as it shames mothers and encourages them to leave work in order to maintain interactions with their infants.
• Lacks temporal validity - Outdated (1964) different parental styles
• Lacks population validity - same economic group and all from Glasgow - so it cannot be generalised to other groups of people.

Question 8

What are the four stages of attatchment?

Answer 8

1. Asocial
2. Indiscriminate
3. Discriminate
4. Multiple

Question 9

What is the age groups along with atatchment stages?

Answer 9

1. Asocial - (0-6weeks)
2. Indiscriminate (6 weeks - 6 months)
3. Discriminate/specific (7-9 months)
4. Multiple - (10+ months)

Question 10

What is the Asocial/pre- attachment stage?

Answer 10

• Infants cannot differentiate between objects and people so causes similar responses

Question 11

What is the indiscriminate stage?

Answer 11

• Can distinguish between unfamiliar and familiar
• Yet can be comforted by both

Question 12

What is the discriminate/specific stage?

Answer 12

• Infants show preferences for specific caregivers
• Displays separation and stranger anxiety
• Looks for specific people to comfort them

Question 13

What is the multiple attachment stage?

Answer 13

• Attachment behaviours displayed to other caregivers
• eg Grandparents
• Fear of strangers weakens/