Evaluation

• Good External Validity - Strength

  Most of the observations ( though not stranger anxiety ) were made by parents during ordinary activities and reported to researchers

  Alternative would be researchers being present to record observations possibly distracting the babies or making them more anxious

  Highly likely participants behaved naturally while being observed
• Counterpoint of Good External Validity

  Issues with asking the mothers to be observers as they were unlikely to be objective

  Might have been biased in terms of what they noticed and they reported for example , they may not have noticed baby showing signs of anxiety or perhaps misremembered it

  Meaning even if babies behaved naturally their behaviour may not have been accurately recorded
• Poor Evidence for Asocial Stage - Limitation

  Issue stems from validity of measures used to assess attachment in asocial stage

  Young babies have poor co-ordination and are fairly immobile

  During them time , signs of anxiety may have been very subtle and hard to observe making it difficult for mothers to observe this and report back on signs of anxiety during this age group

  Meaning babies may be quite social but due to flawed methods appear to be asocial
• Real World Application - Strength

  Stages have practical application in day care

  Asocial and indiscriminate stages are likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult

  Stages tell us that starting day care in specific attachment stage may be problematic

  Meaning parents' use of day care can be planned using Schaffer and Emerson's stages
• Generalisability 


  Positive - Stage theory is based on a large scale study with good design features

  Negatives - They only looked at one sample which had unique features in terms of cultural and historical context - 1960s working class Glasgow

  In other cultures like collectivist cultures , multiple attachments from a very early age are more the norm ( Van Ijzendoom 1993 )