Stages of Attachment Development

• Macoby (1980) stated that there are multiple factors that can show attachment:

  • Seeking proximity
  • Distress on separation
  • Joy on reunion
  • Orientation of behaviour/ attention
• Schaffer & Emerson's (1964) Glasgow baby study:

  • studied 60 infants from mainly working-class homes in Glasgow
  • Infants studied until the age of 1 year, and at the start of the investigation were between 5 & 23 weeks old.
  • Mothers of infants visited every 4 weeks (until infants were a year old) & had to report their infants' response to separation in 7 everyday situations (eg being left alone in a room or with other people)
• Schaffer & Emerson's (1964) Glasgow baby study:

  • Mothers asked to describe the intensity of any protest (loud cry etc), which was then rated on a 4-point scale & the mother was asked to say whom the protest was directed.
  • The infant was visited once again at 18 months.
• Glasgow baby study findings:

  • Indication of a regular pattern with 4 distinct phases in the development of attachment.
  • By 8 months, over 50% of children showed an attachment to a specific caregiver.
  • Stage 1: Asocial stage (0-8 weeks), people aren't special & can't tell them apart from each other, eye contact & smiling tho.
• Glasgow baby study findings:

  • Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachments (8weeks-6months), start preferring familiar caregivers & human company & start telling people apart.
• Glasgow baby study findings:

  • Stage 3: Specific attachments (7months onwards), develop a special attachment to a primary caregiver & displays separation anxiety and stranger anxiety.
• Glasgow baby study findings:

  • Stage 4: Multiple attachments (10 months onwards), begin to show multiple attachments, to grandparents, siblings etc.
• Aim of Glasgow baby study: to observe the age that attachment starts from in infants.
• Research conclusions:

  • Results from Schaffer & Emerson's study indicated that attachments were most likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby's signals, not the person they spent more time with.
  • This was named sensitive responsiveness.
  • Most important factor in forming attachments is not who feeds/ changes the child, but rather who plays & communicates with them.
• Evaluation- strength:

  • Observations took place in the natural environment, more likely that behaviours recorded were natural compared to if they had been in a lab and not at home.
  • Means high ecological validity & the results are a true reflection of child-caregiver interactions.
• Evaluation- weakness:

  • The natural environment meant that levels of control were low. The field study method meant that there was less opportunity to control for variables that might have affected the results (eg how many siblings were present).
  • Results may therefore lack validity & have limited generalisation to real life attachment development.
• Evaluation- weakness:

  • Sample used by Schaffer & Emerson was biased; families involved were from the same district and social class in the same city and at a time over 50 years ago.
  • Child-rearing practices vary from culture to culture and from one historical period to another.
  • Results therefore lack external validity, ie cannot be generalised.
• • Majority of babies in Schaffer & Emerson's study had multiple attachments by 1 years old (mothers, fathers, grandparents etc)
  • These secondary attachments are similar to the primary attachment, eg they will elicit separation anxiety & are based on responsiveness/ sensitivity.
  • There is a hierarchy with the additional attachments being less crucial to infants' future emotional development.