The development of attachment ( Schaffer & Emerson) Flashcards
Primary attachment figure
The person who has formed the closest bond with a child, demonstrated by the intensity of the relationship.
- usually the biological mother, but other people can fulfil the role.
Describe Stage 1 of Schaffer and Emerson’s attachment development thoery
asocial stage
- from birth until about 2 months infants produce similar responses to all objects, whether they are animate or inanimate- thus there are ‘asocial’.
- During this period; reciprocity and interactional synchrony play a role in establishing the infant’s relationships with others.
Describe Stage 2 of Schaffer and Emerson’s attachment development theory
presocial stage (indiscriminate)
- Around the age of 2 months infants become more social
- They prefer human company to inanimate objects.
- They are still relatively comforted by anyone, though begin to distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people, but do not show stranger anxiety.
Describe Stage 3 of Schaffer and Emerson’s attachment development theory
specific attachment
- Starts at roung 7** months** old
- begin to show distress when separated from their caregiver (separation anxiety). Equally they show joy at reunion with that person.
- They have formed specific attachment to one person, their primary attachment figure
- Start to display stranger anxiety
What did Schaffer and Emerson find about primary attachments?
Stage 3: specific attachment
- primary attachments were not always formed with the person who spent the most time with the child
- they observed that intensly attached infants had mothers who responded quickly and sensitively to their ‘signals’ and who offered the child the most interaction.
- Thus it is the it is the quality of attachment not quantity, that mettered the most in the formation of attachment
What percentage of children had their mother as their first specific attachment?
What percentage of children had their mother as a joint first object of attachment?
Stage 3: specific attachment
- 65% had mother as first specific attachment
- 30% had their mother as a joint first specific attachment
What percentage of children had their father as their fist sole object of attachment?
What percentage had their father as a joint first object of attachment?
Stage 3: specific attachment
- 3% of children had just their father as first specific attachment
- 27% of children had their father as a joint first object
Describe Stage 4 of Schaffer and Emerson’s attachment development theory
multiple attachment
- very soon after main attachment is formed, the infant also develops a wider circle of multiple attchments depending on how many consistent relationships they have
- Shaffer and Emerson found that withing one month of having a specific attchment, 29% of infants had multiple attachments to someone else. Eg- parent, grandparent, siblings…
- These are secondary attchments and children also show separation anxiety with these relationships
- Within 6 months, 78% of children had formed multiple attachments. By age of 1; one third of infants had formed five or more secondary attachments.
What is stage 1 of Schaffer and Emerson’s attachement development theory called?
Asocial stage
What is stage 2 of Schaffer and Emerson’s attachement development theory called?
Presocial stage - indiscriminate stage
What is stage 3 of Schaffer and Emerson’s attachement development theory called?
Specific attachment
What is stage 4 of Schaffer and Emerson’s attachement development theory called?
Multiple attachments
Outline a study which investigated attachment development
- Rudolf Schaffer and Peggy Emerson (1964)
- 60 infants from mainly working-class homes in Glasgow were studied
- At the beginning of the investigation infants ranged from 5-23 weeks of age and were studied until the age of 1.
- Mothers were visited every four weeks; at each visit mothers reported their infant’s response to separation in everyday situations (eg. left alone in a room)
- Mother was asked to describe the intensity of any protest during separation; which was rated on a four-point scale
- Stanger anxiety was also measured by assesing the infant’s response to the interviewer at each visit
Describe and evalutate the stages of attachment identified by Schaffer and Emerson [16 marks]
AO3: WEAKNESS
Unreliable data
P- The data collected by Schaffer and Emerson may be unreliable
E- This is because it was based on mother’s reports of their own children.
E- Some mothers might have been less sensitive to their infants’ protests and therefore less likely to report them. The mothers may have also cared about their parenting reputation so would lie to the interviewer to make their children seem more obedient/mannerable than others.
L- This would create a systematic bias which would decrease the internal validity of the data.
Describe and evalutate the stages of attachment identified by Schaffer and Emerson [16 marks]
AO3: WEAKNESS
Biased sample
P- The sample was biased in a number of ways
E+E- Conducted on working-class population and thus the findings may only apply to that social group.
E+E- Secondly, the sample was from the 1960s; parental care of children has changed considerable since that time. More women go out to work so many children are cared for outside the home, or fathers stay at home and become the main carer.
E- Research shows that the number of dads who choose to stay at home and care for their children and families has quadrupled in the last 25 years (Cohn et al 2014).
L- Therefore, The study lacks temporal validity and population validity as if the same study was conducted today, the findings might well be different.
