Schaffer's stages of attachment

• Stage 1- Asocial stage:

  • Behaviour towards humans and innate objects fairly similar.
  • However, Schaffer and Emerson- thought even at this stage babies tend to show preference to be with other people.
  • Preference for company of familiar people and more easily comforted by them.
• Stage 2- Indiscriminate attachment:

  • 2-7 months- more obvious and observable behaviours.
  • Clear preference for being with other people rather than innate objects.
  • Recognise and prefer familiar people.
  • However- usually accept cuddles and comfortable from any person
  • No separation anxiety and stranger anxiety.
• Stage 3 - specific attachment:

  • 7 months- attachment to one specific person.
  • Anxiety towards strangers and anxiety when separated from attachment figure.
  • Primary attachment figure- person who offers most interaction and responds to the baby's signals with the most skill (mother in 65% of cases)
• Stage 4- Multiple attachment:

  • Multiple attachments with other people.
  • Secondary attachments.
  • Schaffer and Emerson- 29% formed secondary attachments 1 month after Primary attachment.
• Schaffer and Emerson:

  • 60 babies- 31 boys and 29 girls all from Glasgow and working class families.
  • Visited babies in own homes every month for first year and again at 18 months.
  • Researchers asked mother's questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in seven everyday separations.
  • Designes to measure babies attachment.
  • Findings- identified 4 distinct stages in development of infant attachment behaviour.
• Strength:

  • Good external validity.
  • Most observations made by parents during activities and reported to researchers.
  • Alternative would have been researchers present to record behaviour- might have distracted babies.
  • Means highly likely that ppts behaved naturally while being observed.
• Counterpoint to good external validity:

  • Mother's bias- unlikely to be objective observers.
  • May not have noticed signs of anxiety or may have misremembered it.
  • Means even if babies behaved naturally their behaviour may not been accurately recored.
• Limitation:

  • Schaffer's and Emerson's stages- validity of the measures used to assess attachment in the asocial stage.
  • Young babies have poor co-ordination and are farily immobile.
  • Subtle and hard to observe- means difficult for Mother's to observe and report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment in this age group.
  • Means babies may actually be quite social but due to flawed methods, may seem asocial.
• Strength:

  • S and E's stage have practical application in day care.
  • In the asocial and indiscriminate stages day care is likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult.
  • However, S and E's research tells us that day care, especially starting day care with an unfamiliar adult, may be problematic during the specific attachment stage.
  • Means that parents' use of day Car can be planned using S and E's stages.