The development of attachment Flashcards
Who conducted a study of the development of attachments?
Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
What participants did Schaffer and Emerson use?
60 infants from mainly working-class homes in Glasgow
What age did the infants rage from?
5-23weeks
How long were the infants studied for?
Until the infants reached the age of 1
How often were mother’s visited?
Every 4 weeks
What happened at each visit?
Mothers reported their infant’s response to separation in seven everyday situations
And asked to describe the intensity of the protest
What is stage 1 of the stages of attachment?
Indiscriminate attachments
What is stage 2 of the stages of attachment?
The beginnings of attachment
What is stage 3 of the stages of attachment?
Discriminate attachment
What is stage 4 of the stages of attachment?
Multiple attachments
What does stage 1 feature?
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)
What does stage 2 feature?
The preference for human compant and can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people
Still no sighs of anxiety towards strangers
(4 months)
What does stage 3 feature?
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
What does stage 4 feature?
Infant develops a wider circle of multiple attachments
What did schaffer and emerson find in infants within one month of becoming attached?
29% had multiple attachments to someone else
What happened when a child reached 6 months?
78% had multiple attachments
Unreliable data
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
Biased sample
- 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
Stage theories
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
