Stages Of Attachment

• Asocial Stage (0-6 weeks) - similar responses to objects and people. Preferences for eyes/faces.

  Indiscriminate Attachment (6 weeks - 7 months) - preference for human company.

  Specific (7-10 months) - preference for one caregiver displaying separation and stranger anxiety.

  Multiple (10 months+) - attachment behaviours are displayed towards several different people.
• Schaffer's Glasgow Study

  To examine the formation of early attachments. 60 mothers and infants from working class families in Glasgow were observed and the mothers interviewed. By 6 months 50% showed separation anxiety. By 10 months 80% specific attachment and 30% multiple. By 18 months 87% at least two.
• Evaluation

  Biased sample as only working class from Glasgow - lack of external validity. Mother's answers in interviews may be influenced by social desirability questioning internal validity. Observations were done in their home which increases ecological validity.
• The Role Of The Father

  For -- Grossman found that fathers do play a role in terms of play and stimulation. This predicted future healthy relationships. Ang found that negative relationships with a father predicted aggressive behaviour in Asian boys . Schaffer and Emerson found that many children had a monotropic attachment - but for many children, this was the father.

  Against -- Bowlby argued the father plays an economic role rather than one connected to attachment - evolutionary theory (socially sensitive). Biblarz and Stacey found that children benefit from having two parents.