Stages of attachment

• Schaffer and Emerson did a longitudinal study on 60 infants (ages 5-23 weeks at the start of the study) from working class homes at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of their lives
• Where were the children studied in the Schaffer and Emerson study?

  In their own homes
• What pattern was identified in attachment in the Schaffer and Emerson study?

  A regular pattern in the development of attachment
• In the Schaffer and Emerson study, interactions between carer and infant were observed and the carers were interviewed
• The mothers in the Schaffer and Emerson study were asked to keep a diary of the infants response to separation in 7 everyday situations including:

  Being left alone in a room

  Left with other people

  Left in their cot at night
• Researchers in the Schaffer and Emerson study carried out direct observations of the infants reaction when they approached him, this was followed up again at 18 months.
• What is an indiscriminate attachment?


  Where a new-born is predisposed to attach to any human
• In the Schaffer and Emerson study results showed that the mother was the main attachment figure for 65% of children at 18 months old, whilst only 3% of infants studied had formed a primary attachment to their father
• Schaffer and Emerson study results showed that by 18 months old, 31% of the infants had formed multiple attachments e.g. to their grandparents
• What are the Schaffer and Emerson study conclusions?

  attachments are most likely to form with those who responded accurately to the babies signals, not the person they spent the most time with. This is called "sensitive responsiveness". The most important fact in forming attachments is not who feeds and changes the child but who plays and communicates with them.
• How many stages of attachment are there?

  4
• What is the first stage of attachment?


  Asocial attachment (birth-2 months old)

  Baby has similar response to all objects animate or inanimate, towards the end of this stage the child shows preference for being with people.
• In stage 1, the asocial stage of attachment, time reciprocity and time synchrony help to establish the child's relationships with others
• What is stage 2 in the stages of attachment?


  Indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months) where the child shows a marked preference for people rather than inanimate objects and they recognise and prefer familiar adults. They will accept comfort from any adult and don't show any signs of separation or stranger anxiety.
• What is stage 3 in the stages of attachment?


  Specific attachment (from around 7 months) where infants start to show stranger anxiety and distress when separated from a specific adult. The child has formed a specific attachment to a primary attachment figure.
• What is stage 4 in the attachment stages?


  Multiple attachments - about a month after having formed a specific attachment, the child displays attachment behaviour towards other people with whom they are familiar. These are called secondary attachments.
• What are the 4 stages of attachments?

  1. Asocial attachment
  2. Indiscriminate attachment
  3. Specific attachment
  4. Multiple attachments
• One strength of the Schaffer and Emerson study is that it was a naturalistic observation where infants and caregivers were observed in their natural environment, this means that the results were more likely to have ecological validity and generalise to how babies and their caregivers behave in everyday life
• One weakness of the Schaffer and Emerson study is that it may have been prone to observer bias as the researchers may have already had a hypothesis that greater sensitive responsiveness would lead to stronger attachments
• One weakness of Schaffer and Emerson study is that results may have been prone to social desirability bias that's a type of response bias that is the tendency of survey respondents to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed favourably by the researchers. It can take the form of over-reporting "good behaviour" or under-reporting "bad", or undesirable behaviour.
• What is observer bias?

  The tendency for researchers to see what they expect when conducting observations
• Limitation - babies have poor co-ordination so may seem asocial, mother's report wrong answers as they aren't trained to know what they are looking for like researchers