Schaffer and Emerson Stages of Attachment

• Outline the procedure of Schaffer and Emersons study

  Studied 60 working class Glaswegian families

  • Longitudinal study (checked in at regular intervals for the first 18 months)

  Children were studied in their own homes.

  • babies were visited monthly for approx 1 year and their interactions with their carers were observed, carers were also interviewed
  • mothers also kept a diary where they recorded certain behaviours in certain situations
• What were the measures that were recorded in the mothers diary

  1: Stranger anxiety - response to the arrival of a stranger

  2: Separation anxiety - distress level when separated from a carer/degree of comfort required when returning

  3: Safe base - did the baby reference the carer when faced with a new or unusual situation
• What are the 4 stages that Schaffer and Emerson identified

  Asocial

  Indiscriminate

  Specific

  Multiple
• What age was the Asocial stage

  0 to 6 weeks
• Outline the Asocial Stage

  Occurs at 0-6 weeks old

  • young infants are asocial in the sense that many kinds of stimuli (both social and non social (humans or inanimate objects) can be used to comfort and ellicit a favourable reaction
• What age was the indiscriminate stage

  6 weeks - 7 months
• Outline the indiscriminate stage

  Occurs at 6 weeks to 7 months old

  • Infants now show a preference for human company HOWEVER will respond equally to any caregiver
  • They get upset when an individual ceases to interact with them
• What age is the Specific Attachment Stage

  7 to 9 months
• Outline the Specific Attachment stage

  Occurs at 7 to 9 months

  • Children here show a preference for a special attachment figure - the baby looks to this person for security, comfort and protection

  The baby shows a dislike of strangers (stranger anxiety) and unhappiness when separated from this special person (separation anxiety)

  SOME BABIES SHOW SEPARATION AND STRANGER ANXIETY MORE THAN OTHERS = AINSWORTHS STRANGE SITUATION
• What age is the multiple attachment stage

  10 months onwards (Schaffer and Emerson's study stooped once the babies has reached 18 months)
• Outline the multiple attachment stage

  Occurs at 10 months onwards

  The baby becomes increasingly independent and forms several attachments

  • By 10 months, 31% had formed 5 or more attachments - this occurred in a hierarchy where the baby had one main attachment, then 2 or 3 weaker ones
• How often was the mother the specific attachment

  The mother was the specific attachment in 65% of cases
• By 10 months, 75% had formed a secondary attachment to the father - 29% of the time this occurred within a month of the first attachment.
• Schaffer and Emerson found that attachments were most likely to form with people who were most responsive to the baby's signals.

  • (THIS IS CALLED SENSITIVITY RESPONSIVENESS)

  Intensely attached infants = mothers responded quickly to their demands and interacted with the children

  Weakly attached infants = mothers failed to interact
• Attachment depended on who was most responsive, not who the baby spent the most time with (sensitivity responsiveness)
• AO3: Weakness: Low Population Validity

  Sample was small and conducted on a niche group in society (60 working class families in Glasgow)

  = not representative of wider cultures and societies

  = ethnocentrism (+ assumes universality)
• AO3: Weakness: Mother's Took a diary

  In order to study the stranger anxiety and separation anxiety, S+E relied on mothers to take a full account of behaviour

  = slightly unreliable as they may have 'bent the truth' due to the social desirability bias

  = questions the internal validity of the study
• AO3: Strength: Longitudinal Study

  A longitudinal study means results don't just display a snapshot in time, this means they are more accurate and representative of the actual development of the child and their behaviours.

  = This gives more time for trends and patterns to be identified

  = greater understanding of the childs development

  = more meaningful and reliable conclusions drawn
• AO3: Counterevidence for Dollard and Miller's Learning Theory

  Dollard and Miller's learning theory proposed that attachment occurred due to environmental learning due to food.

  HOWEVER Schaffer and Emerson debunked this by proposing that it was not the person who fed you (or spent the most time with you) But the person who was most sensitively responsive to babies signals.

  THEREFORE sensitivity responsiveness is the most important key to a child forming an attachment
• AO3: Weakness: Cultural Bias (ISSUES AND DEBATES)

  The sample and conclusion were drawn in a Western and Individualistic culture

  • It ignores the differences in how attachments form in different cultures

  This is because other collectivist cultures place a bigger emphasis on everyone helping to raise a child, meaning that children straight away form multiple attachments.

  THEREFORE it could be proposed that S+E stages are an imposed etic and present a Eurocentric interpretation which is unsuitable to be generalised due to the low population validity
• AO3 Support for Sensitivity Responsiveness

  Field studied 12 Primary Caregiver fathers, 12 primary caregiver mothers and 12 secondary caregiver fathers.

  Findings were that becoming the primary caregiver depended on who was most sensitively responsive to the baby's signals - behaviours such as smiling, talking in a high pitched voice and making a fuss also played a big role