Schaffers stages of attachment

• Who conducted the research on stages of attachment?

  Schaffer and Emerson
• What is stage 1 - Asocial stage?


  A babies behaviour towards living and inanimate objects are similar. They show a preference to a caregiver, who can comfort them easier
• What is stage 2 - Indiscriminate attachment?


  Show a clear preference for humans rather than inanimate objects. Prefer company of known people but don’t show stranger anxiety yet
• What is stage 3 - Specific attachment?


  Show stranger anxiety, attachment is formed with primary attachment figure. This is the babies mother in 65% of cases
• What is stage 4 - multiple attachments?


  Build secondary attachments and more with the people they are with regularly. Schaffer and Emerson observe 29% of babies form a secondary attachment within a month of forming a primary attachment.
• Schaffer and Emerson’s procedure (1964)


  31 boys and 29 girls from working class backgrounds in Glasgow. Researchers visited babies and mothers in their home every month for the first year and again at 18 months. Researchers asked the mothers about the babies protests in everyday separations
• The findings of Schaffer and Emerson


  As the infants get older the number of infants that had a specific attachment increased as the stranger anxiety increased as well
• Stage 1 - asocial stage

  Stage 2 - indiscriminate attachment

  Stage 3 - specific attachment

  Stage 4 - multiple attachment