Stages Of Attatchment Flashcards
Outline Schaffer and Emerson’s study ( 8 marks)
Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
They investigated the formation of early attachment at the ages of development
Sample of 60 babies
31M 29F
Aged between 5-23 weeks
Every month visits for 12 months then at 18
Found: 25-32 : 50% showed separation anxiety 40 weeks- specific 30% - multiple Attachments develop through first year of life in states Interview with mothers
Evaluation
High external validity ( homes) natural
Lacks population validity : Glasgow and w/c women may be different in wealthier places and so unable to generalise!
Evaluation Point
Schaffer and Emerson ( social desirability)
Interview - mothers may not report accurately - want to appear good mothers?
Reduces internal validity
Name three stages in the developmental of attachment identified by Schaffer ( 3 marks )
- Indiscriminate
- Specific
- Multiple
Evaluation for stages of attachment - ASOCIAL STAGE
Asocial stage: babies are so young within this stage - poor coordination and immobile, hard to make judgements as there is not much observable behaviour! Can’t be relied on lacks reliability
Evaluation for stages of attachment : MULTIPLE ATTATCHMENTS
Still not clear when the multiple attachments occur? For eg may differ in cultural - collectivist cultures
Measuring multiple attachments- can’t distinguish between attachment figure and play date? Just because the infant is distressed doesn’t mean it is attached? Could be a playmate!
Explain what is meant by the term ‘multiple attachment’ (2 marks)
Attachments to two or more people - most babies appear to form multiple after forming one true attachment to a main career
Evaluate research into multiple attachments ( 3 marks)
Schaffer and Emerson : low population validity - all from Glasgow and mostly working class families- with a small sample size
Measuring multiple attachment: just because a baby is distressed doesn’t mean it’s a strong attachment- maybe a playmate? Harder to distinguish between them both!
Schaffer identified stages in the development of attachment. Briefly outline one of these stages ( 2 marks)
First stage is asocial stage: baby doesn’t behave differently towards people and objects and has no attachments
Explain one possible ethical issue with Schaffer and Emerson’s Study (3 marks)
Informed consent: babies cannot consent must be from parent
Psychological harm: separation anxiety- harmful not everyday situation
Open question that could be used to get information from mothers
(1 mark )
“ how would you describe your relationship with your child”
The observation was a non participant observation. Explain what this means (2 marks)
This means observer isn’t involved in the observation itself
Outline one Strength and one weakness of using non participation observation in this study ( 6 marks )
Strength: less likely that observers will influence the behaviour of people being observed. May have encouraged behaviour due their own aims and hypothesis
Weakness: observers can’t get as close to people they are observing so they may miss behaviours, less likely to get a feel for the situation / less opportunity to ask further questions to develop their understanding
Explain how demand characteristics may have affected validity of Schaffer and Emerson’s study ( 3 marks )
In the study, mothers knew they were being observed and interviewed - they may have been keen to be seen as good mothers so may have paid more attention to their children in the observation , or answered with less truthful answers in the interview - in order to appear more socially desirable.
Outline schaffers stages of attatchment ( 6 marks)
First stage is asocial stage and this birth-2months, can’t distinguish between objects and people.
Second stage is Indiscriminate, 2-6 months - start to enjoy human company.
Third stage- Specific: 7-12 months - preference to one caregiver - stranger and separation anxiety : recognises there caregiver
Fourth stage: multiple attachments is formed- secondary attachments for eg father,
