Stages of Attachment

• Schaffer & Emerson: aim

  To investigate the formation of early attachments
• Schaffer & Emerson: procedure

  • longitudinal study
  • 60 babies from Glasgow
  • visited at home every month for a year - again after 18 months
• 3 measures recorded by Schaffer & Emerson

  • stranger anxiety
  • separation anxiety
  • social referencing
• stranger anxiety

  response to the arrival of an unfamiliar adult
• separation anxiety

  response to the absence of a caregiver
• social referencing

  the degree a child looks to the caregiver to check how they should respond to something new
• Schaffer & Emerson: findings

  • between 25 & 32 weeks 50% showed separation anxiety
  • by 40 weeks of age 30% had multiple attachments
  • by 40 weeks of age 80% had a specific attachment
• 4 stages of attachment

  • asocial
  • indiscriminate
  • specific
  • multiple
• asocial stage

  0-6 weeks

  • similar behaviour towards humans and objects
  • recognise specific faces
• indiscriminate stage

  6 weeks- 6 months

  • recognise and prefer familiar people
  • accept comfort from any adult
• specific stage

  7+ months

  • primary attachment to one person
  • shows stranger and separation andeity
  • use familiar adults as a secure base
• multiple stage

  11+ months

  • form secondary attachments with familiar adults
• positive evaluations

  • ecological validity - ppts behaved naturally when being observed
  • internal validity - no individual differences
• negative evaluations

  • poor evidence for asocial stage - young babies are fairly immobile to hard to interpret their behaviour
  • cultural bias - can’t be generalised to collectivist cultures where multiple attachments are more common