Schaffer's Stages of Attachment

• Schaffer and Emerson's Research: Procedure

  An observational study of 60 babies in Glasgow, the majority from skilled working class families. Researchers visited babies and mothers in their own home every month for a year, and again at 18 months. Asking mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in 7 everyday separations- designed to measure their attachment. (E.g. PAF leaving the room links to separation anxiety).
• Schaffer and Emerson's Research: Findings

  Between 25 to 32 weeks babies began to show separation anxiety towards a specific adult, usually the mother. Attachment tended to be the caregiver who was most skilful to the infant signals and facial expressions, not just the one who spent more time with the baby. By the age of 40 weeks, 80% displayed a specific attachment- and 30% displayed multiple attachments.
• Stage 1: Asocial Stage 


  The babies first few weeks of life, behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects is similar- though they aren't entirely 'asocial' as they still prefer to be with other people. They tend to show a preference for familiar people, and are more easily comforted by them. At this stage, the baby is forming bonds with certain people and these form the basis of later attachments.
• Stage 2: Indiscriminate Attachment

  From 2 to 7 months babies start displaying more obvious and observable social behaviours, showing a clear preference to humans rather than inanimate objects. They recognise and prefer the company of familiar people- though they usually accept comfort from anyone ('indiscriminate'). They don't usually show separation anxiety when caregivers leave, or stranger anxiety when around unfamiliar people.
• Stage 3: Specific Attachment 


  From around 7 months, the majority of babies start to display classic signs of attachment towards one specific caregiver. These signs usually include: stranger anxiety- when their attachment figure is absent; and separation anxiety- when away from their attachment figure.

  At this point, the baby is said to have formed a specific attachment- the person they are attached to is known as the Primary Attachment Figure; 65% of cases is baby's mother.
• Stage 4: Multiple Attachments


  After showing stranger and separation anxiety to the PAF, they will begin to extend this behaviour to multiple attachments with other people who they see regularly- these are secondary attachments.

  Schaffer and Emerson observed that 29% of children formed a secondary attachment within a month of forming a specific attachment. By age 1, the majority of babies had developed multiple attachments.
• AO3: Good External Validity

  Most observations done by Schaffer and Emerson (though not stranger anxiety) were made by parents during ordinary activities, and reported to the researchers. The alternative would have been to record interactions with the researchers present- but this could have distracted the babies, or made them feel more anxious. This means there is a high likelihood that participants have behaved naturally.
• AO3: Counterpoint to Good External Validity

  There are issues with asking the mothers to be 'observers'- they are unlikely to be as objective as those trained, and may have been biased in terms of what they reported on. They may not have noticed when their baby was showing signs of anxiety, or could have misinterpreted it. Due to the social sensitivity of the research, mothers may have altered their responses to meet societal expectations of development. Therefore, even if the babies did behave naturally, it may not have been recorded accurately.
• AO3: Poor Evidence for the Asocial Stage

  The measures used to assess attachment in the Asocial Stage limits its validity. Young babies have poor coordination and are fairly immobile, if babies less than 2 months old felt anxiety in everyday situations, they would have displayed this subtly in ways which are hard to observe. This then makes it difficult for mothers to report back on signs of anxiety and attachment in this stage; meaning babies could be quite social, but flawed measures make them appear 'asocial'.
• AO3: Real-World Application

  They have the practical application of day care, where babies are taken care of outside their home by a non-family adult. In asocial and indiscriminate stages day care is likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult. However, Schaffer and Emerson's research states that starting day care with an unfamiliar adult during the specific attachment stage may be problematic. This allows parents to plan their use of day car services.
• AO3: Generalisability

  Schaffer and Emerson based their accounts on a large-scale study with good design features. On one hand, they only looked at one sample which had unique features (in terms of their cultural and historical context- 1960s working class in Glasgow). In other cultures, like collectivist countries, multiple attachments from an early age is the norm- van IJzendoorn.
• AO3: Longitudinal Design

  It was carried out longitudinally; the same children were followed-up and observed regularly. This then increases the internal validity as a pose to using cross-sectional studies; because they don't have the confounding variable of individual differences between participants.
• AO3: Conflicting Evidence on Multiple Attachments

  Although there is no doubt that children are capable of multiple attachments at some point, it is not clear when these initiate. Some research indicates that the majority of babies will form attachments to a single main carer before they become capable of developing multiple attachments (Bowlby).

  Those who study collectivist cultures, where multiple caregivers are the norm, believe babies form multiple attachments immediately (van IJzendoorn). Families work jointly- in child rearing and food production.