Schaffer's stages

• asocial stage- 0-8weeks old, baby’s behaviour between objects and humans are similar, they’re happier in the presence of humans and will simile at anyone
• Indiscriminate stage- 2-7months, babies are able to distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar faces and will simile at more familiar people, They don’t usually show stranger or separation anxiety
• specific attachment stage- 7-12months, primary attachment to 1 individual has formed, starting to show stranger and separation anxiety , uses familiar adults for secure base behaviour
• multiple attachments- 12months onwards, forming secondary attachments with familiar adults which whom they send a lot of time with
• Schaffers stages are based off of a longitudinal study with 60 babies from working class families in Glasgow where mothers were asked to record their babies behaviour
• Schaffers study has high external validity as observations were made by parents, meaning babies would have acted normally as opposed to being distressed when being observed by a researcher - however, mothers could have been biased
• limitation of Schaffer's stages: hard to asses attachment in the asocial stage as young babies have poor coordination and are almost entirely immobile so if they displayed anxiety it would be in subtle, hard to measure ways - making it hard for mothers to observe and report their baby's anxiety and attachment in this stage
• The findings of Schaffer & Emerson's study/stages of attachment have good real-world application

  • The stages of attachment can be applied practically to  daycare settings such as nurseries and preschools
  • Parents can use the stages of attachment to help understand the development of their child
  • This means that they may avoid starting their child in daycare around seven months due to the likelihood of the infant being in the specific attachment phase and having high levels of stranger and separation anxiety