STAGES OF ATTACHMENT

• WHO IDENTIFIED THE STAGES OF ATTACHMENT?

  Schaffer and Emerson
• WHAT DID SCHAFFER AND EMERSON RESEARCH INTO?

  idea of multiple attachments (criticises Bowlby's monotropic attachment theory)
• WHAT ARE THE STAGES OF ATTACHMENT?

  1. Asocial/ pre attachment stage
  2. Indiscriminate attachment stage
  3. Discriminate/ specific attachment stage
  4. Multiple attachment stage
• WHAT STAGE OCCURS BETWEEN 0-6 WEEKS?

  asocial/ pre attachment stage
• WHAT TIME PERIOD DOES THE ASOCIAL/ PRE ATTACHMENT STAGE OCCUR IN?

  0 - 6 weeks
• WHAT STAGE OCCURS BETWEEN 6 WEEKS AND 7 MONTHS?

  indiscriminate attachment stage
• WHEN DOES THE INDISCRIMINATE ATTACHMENT STAGE OCCUR?

  between 6 weeks and 7 months
• WHAT STAGE OCCURS BETWEEN 7 MONTHS AND 10 MONTHS?

  discriminate/ specific attachment stage
• WHEN DOES THE DISCRIMINATE/ SPECIFIC ATTACHMENT STAGE OCCUR?

  7 - 10 months
• WHAT STAGE OCCURS AT 10+ MONTHS?

  multiple attachment stage
• WHEN DOES THE MULTIPLE ATTACHMENT STAGE OCCUR?

  10+ months
• WHAT BEHAVIOUR OCCURS IN THE ASOCIAL/ PRE ATTACHMENT STAGE?

  similar behaviour towards human and non-human objects
• WHAT CAN INFANTS START TO DO IN THE ASOCIAL/ PRE ATTACHMENT STAGE?

  recognise and form bonds with carers (often show preference for faces and eyes)
• WHO CAN MORE EASILY CALM THE INFANT IN THE ASOCIAL/ PRE ATTACHMENT STAGE?

  familiar adults
• WHAT ARE BABIES NOT PARTICULARY DURIGN THE ASOCIAL/ PRE ATTACMENT STAGE?

  social and active (immobile)
• WHAT IS MORE OBSERVABLE IN THE INDISCRIMINATE ATTACHMENT STAGE?

  social behaviour
• WHAT DO INFANTS IN THE INDISCRIMINATE ATTACHMENT STAGE HAVE A PREFERENCE FOR?

  people rather than objects
• WHAT CAN INFANTS RECOGNISE IN THE INDISCRIMINATE ATTACHMENT STAGE?

  familiar adults
• WHO DO BABIES ACCEPT ATTENTION FROM IN THE INDISCRIMINATE ATTACHMENT STAGE?

  everyone (are indiscriminate)
• WHAT HAPPENS IN THE DISCRIMINATE/ SPECIFIC ATTACHMENT STAGE?

  infant forms specific attachment to a primary attachment figure
• WHAT STARTS OCCURING MORE FREQUENTLY IN THE DISCRIMINATE/ SPECIFIC ATTACHMENT STAGE?

  stranger anxiety, separation anxiety to a particular person
• WHAT IS THE PERSON WHO THE BABY EXPERIENCES SEPARATION ANXIETY IN THE DISCRIMINATE/ SPECIFIC ATTACHMENT STAGE NOT NECESSARILY?

  • mother
  • person they spend lots of time with
  • person who feeds them
• WHAT OCCURS IN THE MULTIPLE ATTACHMENT PHASE?

  extends attachments to more than one adult (form secondary attachments)
• AIM OF SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT?

  investigate formation of early attachment (specifically when infants develop emotional intensity and to whom it is directed)
• RESEARCH TECHNIQUES USED IN SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT?

  naturalistic observations and self-report diaries
• SAMPLE OF SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT?

  60 babies (31 male, 29 female)
• WHAT TYPE OF FAMILIES DID SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT INVESTIGATE?

  skilled, working class Glasgow families
• PROCEDURE OF SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT?

  1. Visited families once a month for the first year
  2. Visited again at 18 months
  3. Observed babies in 7 everyday separations
  4. Researchers asked mother to keep diaries of baby's behaviour (measure infant's attachment + stranger anxiety)
• SEVEN SEPARATIONS USED IN SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT?

  1. Left alone in room
  2. Left with other people
  3. Left in pram outside house
  4. Left in pram outside shops
  5. Left in cot at night
  6. Put down after being held by an adult
  7. Passed by while sitting on cot/ chair
• FINDINGS OF SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT?

  BETWEEN 6-8 MONTHS

  • 50% showed specific attachment to one person
  • 30% had formed several attachments simultaneously

  BY 10 MONTHS

  • 50% had formed more than one attachment

  BY 18 MONTHS

  • 90% had formed more than one attachment
• CONCLUSION OF SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT?

  • babies form multiple attachments not simply monotropic ones
  • between birth and 18 months, infants move through different stages of attachment
• STRENGTHS OF SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT?

  • high ecological validity
  • high mundane realism
• WEAKNESSES OF SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT?

  • lacks generalisability
  • lacks temporal validity
  • lacks internal validity
• HOW DOES SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT HAVE A LACK OF GENERALISABILITY?

  • babies were from working class families in Glasgow
  • not representative of behaviour in middle class families
  • not generalisable to other social groups
  • research suffers from cultural relativism
  • babies were from Western country with individualistic society
  • attachment stages lack generalisability to collectivist societies with different parenting styles
• HOW DOES SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT HAVE HIGH ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY?

  • conducted in infants' natural environment
  • high mundane realism
  • high ecological validity
• HOW DOES SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT LACK TEMPORAL VALIDITY?

  • family structure in the UK have changed lots since the 1960s
  • more children go to nursery
  • possibility of multiple attachments occurring earlier than Schaffer and Emerson suggest
  • stages not applicable to attachment development theory
• HOW DOES SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT HAVE HIGH INTERNAL VALIDITY?

  • same children observed and followed up
  • no influence of extraneous participant variables
  • measures stages of attachment development without influence of individual differences
• HOW DOES SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT LACK INTERNAL VALIDITY?

  • hard to measure observable behaviours in babies
  • immobile
  • often sleeping, crying or being fed
  • stages might not truly represent attachment development
  • mothers may not have filled in diaries as events occurred
  • retrospective completion may be inaccurate (forget events/ respond to social desirability)
  • data may not truly measure attachment
• WHAT TYPE OF ISSUES DID SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S EXPERIMENT HAVE?

  methodological issues