Schaffers stages of attachment

• what are stages of attachment?

  Many developmental theories identify a sequence of qualitatively different behaviours linked to specific ages. In the case of ‘stages of attachment’ qualitatively different infant behaviours are linked to specific ages and all babies go through them in the same order.
• What are multiple attachments?

  Attachments to two or more people. Most babies appear to develop multiple attachments once they have formed one strong attachment to one of their carers.
• Procedure of Schaffers and Emerson’s research

  Study involved 60 babies.

  31 boys and 29 girls.

  All were from Glasgow and the majority were from skilled working-class families.

  Researchers visited babies and mothers in their own homes every month for the first year and again at 18 months.

  The researchers asked the mother’s questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in seven everyday separations. This was designed to measure the babies attachments.
• Findings of Schaffer and Emersons research

  Schaffer and Emerson identified four distinctive stages in the development of the infant attachment behaviours.

  These were asocial and indiscriminate and specific and multiple.
• STAGE 1


  Asocial

  First few weeks of life

  Behaviour is similar towards human and inanimate objects is fairly similar- hence the term asocial.

  Schaffer and Emerson did not believe they were entirely asocial as babies will show signs that they prefer to be with familiar people and are more easily comforted by them.

  At this stage the baby is forming bonds with certain people that will lead to further attachments.
• STAGE 2 


  Indiscriminate

  2 to 7 months.

  Display more obvious and observable social behaviours.

  Show a clear preference for being with other humans that inanimate objects.

  Prefer to be with familiar people

  However, they usually accept cuddles and comfort from any person- ‘indiscriminate’.

  Usually don’t show separation anxiety when caregivers leave their presence or stranger anxiety in the presence of unfamiliar people.
• STAGE 3 


  Specific

  Around 7 months.

  Majority of babies start to show signs of classic attachment to a particular person.

  Show signs of anxiety towards strangers especially if their attachment person is absent.

  The person the baby has a specific attachment too is known as the primary attachment figure.

  this would be the person who offers the most interaction and responds to the babies ‘signals’.

  Is the babies mother in 65% of cases
• STAGE 4


  Multiple

  Known as secondary attachments.

  This is because after a baby forms their primary attachment they usually extend this behaviour to multiple people who they regularly spend time with.

  Schaffer and Emerson observed that 29% of babies gain secondary attachment within a month of forming a primary attachment.

  By one year majority of babies have developed multiple attachments.
• good external validity- STRENGTH


  most of the observations were made by parents during ordinary activities and reported to the researchers.

  The alternative would have been to have researchers present to record observations.

  This could have distracted babies or made them more anxious.

  This means it is highly likely that the participants behaved naturally while being observed.
• Good external validity- LIMITATION


  Issues with asking the mothers to be ‘observers’, they were unlikely to be objective observers.

  Might have been bias in what they noticed and what they reported (might not have noticed when their babies were showing signs of anxiety or misremembered it).

  This means that even if babies behaved naturally their behaviour might of not been accurately reported.
• Poor evidence for the asocial stage- LIMITATION 


  Limitation in the validity of the measures they used to access they used for the asocial stage.

  Young babies have poor coordination and are immobile.

  If babies who are less than two months felt anxiety in everyday situations they might have displayed it quite subtle, which made it difficult for mothers to observe and report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment.

  This means that babies may actually be quite social but because of flawed methods they appear to be asocial
• Real world application-STRENGTH


  They have practical application in day care.

  In the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages daycare is likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult.

  However, Schaffer and Emerson’s research tells us that us that daycare especially starting daycare with an unfamiliar adult, may be problematic during the specific attachment stage.

  This means that parents use daycare can be planned using Schaffer and Emerson’s stages.
• EVALUATION- generalisability- BOTH

  • Schaffer and Emerson’s based their stage account on a large-scale study with some good design features
  • However, they only looked at one sample which had unique features in terms of the cultural and historical context - 1960s working-class Glasgow. In collectivist cultures , multiple attachments from a very early age are more the norm (van IJzendoorn 1993)