shaffer

• Stages of attachment, Shaffer & Emerson:

  Asocial: 0-6 wks, unable to differentiate between human and inanimate objects, so responds to all in the same way

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• Shaffer & Emerson

  Longitudinal natural observations of 60 Glaswegian babies from working class homes in the 1960s for one year 

  Did a follow up 18 months later

  Also told mothers to keep a diary of interactions with child, as well as conducing home interviews. 

  Stranger anxiety was used as barometer for a child’s ability to identify strangers 
• Schaffer and Emerson

  Results:

  Separation anxiety occurred at around 25-32 weeks, with stranger distress occurring 4 weeks later 

  At 18 months follow up, most children had formed multiple attachments 

  Strongest attachment was usually the mother 

  65% strongest attachment mother, 30% mother + someone else (usually father), 3% solely father 
• Schaffer and Emerson eval

  + High ecological validity, research was conducted in their home, so behaviour was similar to natural behaviour. Also the idea of strangers coming into home was fairly common, so baby would not have changed behaviour due to presence of researchers.

  -Low population validity, sample was only of working class individuals in Glasgow, therefore it is difficult to generalise the findings to the rest of the population.

  -Low temporal validity, mother no longer stays at home, and fathers are no longer the sole ‘breadwinner’ in a family, have greater duties + involvement
• Stages of attachment, Shaffer & Emerson:

  Indiscriminate: 6 wks – 7 mths, baby is able to be handled by anyone without distress, low stranger distress and low separation anxiety. able to differentiate between familiar + unfamiliar faces
• Stages of attachment, Shaffer & Emerson:

  Specific Attachment: 7-9 mths, forms one strong attachment to a caregiver. High levels of stranger distress 
• Stages of attachment, Shaffer & Emerson:

  Multiple Attachments: 9 mths+, forms multiple attachments with familiar family, stranger distress and separation anxiety is lowered .
• Stages of attachment, Shaffer & Emerson:

  Asocial: 0-6 wks, unable to differentiate between human and inanimate objects, so responds to all in the same way

  Indiscriminate: 6 wks – 7 mths, baby is able to be handled by anyone without distress, low stranger distress and low separation anxiety. able to differentiate between familiar + unfamiliar faces

  Specific Attachment: 7-9 mths, forms one strong attachment to a caregiver. High levels of stranger distress 

  Multiple Attachments: 9 mths+, forms multiple attachments with familiar family, stranger distress and separation anxiety is lowered .
• One strength of the study was that it was conducted in a realistic setting. Their study was conducted in their own homes and most of the observations were actually done by the parents during ordinary activities and reported to the researcher later. This meant the babies were in their natural environment and would have ensured a high ecological validity. However, since the parents are the ones reporting this data. The data might be inaccurate since they have a subjective opinion of their child/ likely biased. This limits the usefulness of his findings as the study will lack internal validity.
• One strength of this study is that it has practical application. For example, in the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages daycare is likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult. However, starting daycare with an unfamiliar adult may be problematic during the specific attachment stage. This means that parents’ use of the daycare can be planned using Schaffer and Emerson’s stages, like starting daycare earlier. This means that findings are useful and have real life value. 
• One weakness of this study is that his sample was limited. The babies he observed were from families from the working class in Glasgow. This is an unrepresentative sample meaning that the findings might not be able to explain other attachments out of this sample. For example, Van Ijzeendoorn found that multiple attachments are formed at an earlier age in collectivist cultures. This suggests that attachments form differently in collectivist cultures in comparison to individualistic cultures. This further shows that it might be harder to generalise their findings to other groups of people.