Evaluation

• Good external validity

  One strength of Schaffer and Emerson's research is that it has good external validity. Most of the observations were made by parents during ordinary activities and reported to the researchers, which means the infants' behaviour was observed in a natural setting. The study was conducted in participants’ homes, making the findings more representative of everyday life than if it had been conducted in a controlled laboratory setting
• If researchers had been present to record the observations, this could have distracted the babies or made them feel anxious, potentially affecting their behaviour. Therefore, the naturalistic nature of the observations suggests that the infants behaved more naturally, which enhances the external validity of the findings and supports the generalizability of the study to real-life attachment behaviours.
• Social desirability bias

  However, a limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s research is that there are issues with asking the mothers to be the ‘observers’. The mothers may not have been objective in their observations, as they could have been influenced by social desirability bias. This bias could lead them to report attachment behaviours in a way that aligns with social expectations, or in a way that reflects positively on their parenting. As a result, even if the babies behaved naturally, their behaviour may not have been accurately recorded, compromising the reliability of the findings.
• Real world application

  One strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment is that they have practical application, particularly in day-care settings. According to their findings, during the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages, infants are more adaptable and can be easily comforted by any adult, making day care relatively straightforward.
• However, their research also suggests that starting day care, especially with unfamiliar adults, could be problematic during the specific attachment stage (around 7-12 months), when babies form strong preferences for their primary caregivers. This means that working parents can use Schaffer and Emerson’s stages to determine the optimal time for their child to begin day care, helping to reduce potential attachment-related difficulties and ensure a smoother transition.
• Culture bias/generalisability

  One limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment is that they may not apply to all children, particularly across different cultures. The stages were based on a sample of Scottish children from an individualistic culture, meaning the findings may not generalize to other cultures. For example, in collectivist cultures, where there is more emphasis on community and shared childcare responsibilities, children may form multiple attachments much earlier than those in individualistic cultures.
• Research by Van Ijzendoorn (1993) has shown that attachment patterns can vary across cultures. This suggests that Schaffer and Emerson’s stages may not be universally applicable, as different cultural child-rearing practices influence attachment development. Therefore, further cross-cultural research is needed to determine whether these stages hold true in diverse cultural contexts.
• Poor evidence for asocial

  One limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment is the validity of the measures they used to assess attachment in the asocial stage. Babies under two months old have poor coordination and are relatively immobile, so if they felt anxious, they might have displayed these emotions in subtle and hard-to-observe ways. .
• This makes it difficult for mothers to accurately observe and report signs of anxiety or attachment to the researchers. As a result, the babies may actually have been more social than they appeared, but due to the limitations of the methods used, their behavior was misinterpreted as asocial. This calls into question the validity of the findings in the early stages of attachment development
• Low temporal validity

  A limitation of Schaffer and Emerson's stages of attachment is that the study has low temporal validity. The research was conducted in the 1960s, a time when mothers were typically the primary caregivers, while fathers generally worked outside the home. Given that societal roles have changed, with more fathers now taking on primary caregiving roles or sharing caregiving duties equally with mothers, the stages of attachment may not apply in the same way today.
• The role of fathers in attachment formation may have evolved, and this shift in family dynamics could influence the development of attachments differently than what was observed in the 1960s. Therefore, the findings of the study may not be as relevant to contemporary families, and further research is needed to assess how these stages apply in today's social context.