The development of attachment

Question 1

Who conducted a study of the development of attachments?

Answer 1

Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

Question 2

What participants did Schaffer and Emerson use?

Answer 2

60 infants from mainly working-class homes in Glasgow

Question 3

What age did the infants rage from?

Answer 3

5-23weeks

Question 4

How long were the infants studied for?

Answer 4

Until the infants reached the age of 1

Question 5

How often were mother’s visited?

Answer 5

Every 4 weeks

Question 6

What happened at each visit?

Answer 6

Mothers reported their infant’s response to separation in seven everyday situations
And asked to describe the intensity of the protest

Question 7

What is stage 1 of the stages of attachment?

Answer 7

Indiscriminate attachments

Question 8

What is stage 2 of the stages of attachment?

Answer 8

The beginnings of attachment

Question 9

What is stage 3 of the stages of attachment?

Answer 9

Discriminate attachment

Question 10

What is stage 4 of the stages of attachment?

Answer 10

Multiple attachments

Question 11

What does stage 1 feature?

Answer 11

Infants produce similar responses to all objects, animate or not
Towards the end of this period infants show a greater preference for social stimuli
(birth until two months)

Question 12

What does stage 2 feature?

Answer 12

The preference for human compant and can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people
Still no sighs of anxiety towards strangers
(4 months)

Question 13

What does stage 3 feature?

Answer 13

Shows a distinct different sort of protest when one particular person puts them down (separation anxiety)
And shows especial joy at reunion with that person and are most comforted by this person
Formed their primary attachment

Question 14

What does stage 4 feature?

Answer 14

Infant develops a wider circle of multiple attachments

Question 15

What did schaffer and emerson find in infants within one month of becoming attached?

Answer 15

29% had multiple attachments to someone else

Question 16

What happened when a child reached 6 months?

Answer 16

78% had multiple attachments

Question 17

Unreliable data

Answer 17

The data collected may be unreliable
It was based off the mother’s report on their infants
Some mothers may have been less sensitive to their infants’ protests and therefore less likely to report them
Creating a systematic bias which would challenge validity

Question 18

Biased sample

Answer 18

• Sample from a working-class population in Glasgow
• A sample from the 1960s, parental care of children has changed considerably since that time
  > More women now work
  If a similar study was conducted today it would look very different

Question 19

Stage theories

Answer 19

Suggestion that development is inflexible
That there is a fixed order for development
- For example, it suggests that, normally, single attachments must come before multiple attachments. In some cultures multiple attachments may come first
The use if stage theories, therefore, may be problematic if they become a standard by which families are judged and lead to them being classed an abnormal