stages of attachment

• stage 1: asocial stage

  stage 2: indiscriminate attachment

  stage 3: specific attachment

  stage 4: multiple attachment
• Asocial Stage

  • first few weeks of life
  • similar behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects
  • still show signs of preference towards company of familiar people
  • forming bonds with certain people, form basis of later attachment
• Indiscriminate attachment

  • 2 - 7 months
  • display more observable social behaviours
  • clear preference for humans over inanimate objects
  • 'indiscriminate' accept cuddles and comfort from any person
  • no separation / stranger anxiety
• Specific attachment

  • around 7 months, show signs of attachment towards primary attachment figure
  • stranger / separation anxiety
• Primary attachment figure

  • Offers the most interaction and responds to the baby's 'signals' with the most skill
  • This is the baby's mother in 65% of cases
• Multiple attachment

  • shortly after babies start to show attachment behaviour towards one person they this behaviour to multiple attachments with other people they regularly spend time with (secondary attachments)
  • Schaffer and Emerson observed 29% of children formed secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary (specific) attachment
  • By the age of one year the majority of babies had developed multiple attachments