Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment

• Method 


  • 60 babies from skilled working class families were observed
  • Mothers and babies were visited once a , month for the first year and then again at 18 months
  • They asked mother questions about how the babies reacted to 7 everyday separations (e.g. Adult leaves the room)- measured separation anxiety
  • Assessed how babies reacted to unfamiliar adults (stranger anxiety)
• Findings 


  • beterrm 25-32 weeks of age, 50% of babies showed separation anxiety towards their mother (specific attachment)
  • This attachment was with the caregiver who was most sensitive to infant signals not necessarily who they spent the most time with
  • By 40 weeks, 80% of babies had a specific attachments and 30% had multiple
• Asocial Stage - Birth–8 Weeks

  • behaviour between humans and non-human objects is very similar
  • Infants can recognise specific faces
  • Infants are happier with human than when alone, they smile at anyone and prefer familiar individuals and prefer faces to non-faces
• Indiscriminate Attachment - 2-7 months

  • Recognise and prefer familiar people.
  • Infants smile more at familiar faces than unfamiliar faces.
  • Infants at this stage have prefer people rather than inanimate objects BUT they will accept comfort from any adult as they don’t have stranger anxiety.
• Specific Attachment - 7-12 months

  • infant shows a distinct protest when a particular person puts them down – separation anxiety
  • They show happiness and joy when that person returns and is comforted by them – Primary Attachment.
  • They will show stranger anxiety.
  • Schaffer and Emerson state that the primary attachment isn't always the person that spends most of the time with the infant.
  • They concluded it’s the quality of the relationship not quantity.
  • In 65% of children the first specific attached was to the mum, 30% mum and an object, 3% the father.
• Multiple Attachments - 1 year +

  • Main attachment is formed and a wider circle of multiple attachments formed depending on consistent relationships.
  • Schaffer and Emerson found that within one month becoming attached 29%of the infants had multiple attachments, parent, grandparents, siblings etc.,
  • These are secondary attachments.
  • Separation anxiety was displayed in these relationships.
  • Within 6 months this had risen to 78%.
  • By 1 year a majority of infants had developed multiple attachments.
• Strength- Good External Validity

  • Most observations carried out by parents during normal activities and then reported to researchers
  • if observer’s were present, this may have distracted the babies, made them anxious and potentially changed their natural behaviour.
  • This means that it is highly likely the participants behaved naturally during the observation
  • meaning good external validity
• Weakness - Good External Validty

  • Data was from mothers reports of their child. Mothers may have been less sensitive therefore not reported it
  • systematic bias – challenges validity.
• Weakness - Biases Sample

  • All participants from the same district / area
  • Working class population - can’t really be generalised
  • Sample form 1960’s (parenting has changed)
  • Now more women work, higher care outside the home now AND now more fathers stay at home to care for the family than every before (quadrupled since 1960)
• Real world application

  • Day care
  • In the early stages (asocial and indiscriminate) babies can be comforted by any skilled adult
  • but if a child starts day care during the stage of specific attachments, care from an unfamiliar adult may cause distress and longer-term problems
  • This means that Schaffer and Emerson’s stages can help parents making day care decisions
• Cultural Evaluation (weaknesses) 


  • Sagi (1994) compared sleeping arrangements in communal environments and family-based sleeping arrangements (where mother closeness was twice as common).
  • This suggests that the stage model (Schaffer and Emerson) applies to individualist cultures only.
• Collectivist and Individualistic cultures

  • Individualistic culture – western cultures, value independence and individuality. i.e. UK and USA
  • Collectivist culture – importance of the group.
  • Characterised by the extent to which things are shared, groups live together, share tasks, belongings and childrearing.
  • Collectivist cultures value interdependence –dependent on one another, multiple attachments are common. I.e. Japan and China