The development of attachment Flashcards
Who proposes the stages of attachment?
Schaffer and Emerson (1960s)
What are the 4 stages of attachment?
Stage 1 - asocial stage
Stage 2 - Indiscriminate attachment
Stage 3 - specific attachment
Stage 4 - multiple attachments
What is the asocial stage? What ages?
Behavior towards humans and non-humans is similar (e.g. smiling at both people and objects)
(0-2 months)
What is the indiscriminate attachment stage? What age?
Infants begin to show preference for humans over objects
Accept comfort from any adult
Show no stranger anxiety
Attachment is still not specific
Around 4 months
What is the specific attachment stage? What age?
Start to show separation anxiety when separated from a primary attachment figure (usually the mother)
Develop stranger anxiety
The attachment is now specific — usually to the person most responsive to their needs, not necessarily the one they spend the most time with
(seven months onwards)
What is the multiple attachments stage?
Form attachments to several people (e.g. father, grandparents, siblings)
These are called secondary attachments
In Schaffer and Emerson’s study, most babies had formed multiple attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment (29%)
By age of 1, 1/3 of infants had already formed 5 or more secondary attachments
Why might the data be unreliable?
Based on mothers reports of the their infants - some mothers might have been less sensitive to their infants’ protests and therefore less likely to report them
This would create systematic bias which would challenge the validity of the data
Why was Shaffer and Emmersons sample biased?
- Was all working class population + findings may only apply to that social group
- Sample was from the 1960s - parental care had changed considerably since then e.g. more women go out to work, many more stay at home dads (quadrupled over the past 25 years, Cohen at al)
Therefore unrepresentative of comprehensive society
