Schaffers stages of attachment

• Intro

  Schaffer and Emerson - studied attachment behaviours of babies and their findings allowed them to develop an account of how attachment changes through childhood. They proposed 4 stages of attachment: Asocial, indiscriminate, specific and multiple.
• Stage 1: Asocial stage

  • In a baby's first few weeks its observable behaviour between humans and inanimate objects are similar. However Schaffer and Emerson did not believe this was entirely asocial because even at this stage babies show signs they prefer to be with other people. In particular familiar people.
  • At this stage the baby is forming bonds with certain people and these form the basis for later attachment.
• Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachment.

  • From 2-7 months babies start to display more observable social behaviours. They now have a clear preference for humans rather than inanimate objects and prefer those they know. However they still at this stage usually accept cuddles and comfort from any person.
  • They do not usually show separation anxiety when caregivers leave their presence or stranger anxiety in the presence of strangers at this stage.
• Stage 3: Specific attachment

  • At around 7 months the baby shows signs of attachment towards one person. These signs include stranger anxiety and separation anxiety. The baby at this point is said to have a specific attachment - the person this is formed with is called the primary attachment figure. It is the one who has the most interactions and responds to the babies signals with the most skill. This is the mother 65% of the time.
• stage 4: Multiple attachments

  • once babies have formed a specific attachment to one person they usually extend this behaviour to multiple attachments to people close to them. These are called secondary attachments. Schaffer and Emerson observed that 29% of the children formed secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment. By age one most babies have formed multiple attachments.
• Schaffer and Emersons research 


  • based there 4 stages of attachment on a observational study of the early formation of infant-adult attachment.
  • PROCEDURE- Study involved 60 babies , all from Glasgow and mainly skilled wc families. Researchers visited babies and mothers in there own home every month for the first year and again at 18 months. They asked questions about the protests babies made in everyday separations to asses attachment.
  • Findings - four stages of attachment.
• When is the asocial stage recognised?


  • In the baby's first few weeks.
• When is the indiscriminate stage believed to be ?


  • 2-7 months.
• When is the specific attachment recognised?

  • from 7 months
• when is multiple attachments believed to be ?

  • soon after specific attachment has been formed.
• Eval 1- Good external validity

  • strength is that Schaffer and Emersons research has good external validity. Most obv's done ( not including stranger anxiety) were made by parents during everyday activities and reported to researchers. The alternative would have been to have researchers present to record the obvs but that may have distracted the baby or made them feel more anxious. So its more likely the babies behaved naturally.
• Eval 2- Cp

  • An issue to parents being the observers is that they are unlikely to be objective. They may be biased in terms of what they notice or report ie they might not notice when their baby was showing signs of anxiety or may misremember it. So even if babies behaved naturally there behaviour may not have been accurately reported.
• Eval 3- Poor ev for asocial stage

  • There is a limit to the validity of the study, Schaffer and Emerson used to assess attachment in the asocial stage.
  • Young babies have poor co-ordination and are fairly immobile. If babies less that 2 months felt anxiety they may display it in very subtle ways. This would make it hard for a mother to observe and report back signs of anxiety to this age group. Therefore, babies might be quite social however due to flawed methods they appear asocial.
• Eval 4 -RWA

  • A strength of Schaffer and Emersons stages is that they have practical application in day care. The study shows that In the asocial and indiscriminate stage day care is straightforward as babies can be comforted by any adult. However in the specific attachment stage starting day care with an unfamiliar adult may be problematic. Meaning parents use of day care can be planned by Schaffer and Emersons stages
• Eval 5 - Generalisability

  • Schaffer and Emerson only look at one sample based in Glasgow, using skilled wc families. This therefore has culture bias as other cultures ie collectivist cultures form multiple attachments from a very early age and thats the norm ( Ijzendoorn)