stages

• Schaffer & Emerson's study

  -60 infants from mainly working class homes in Glasgow

  -start of investigation infants 5-23 weeks

  -studied until age 1

  -mothers visited every 4 weeks

  -mother reported on infant's response to separation in 7 everyday situations

  -mother asked to describe intensity of any protest & rated on 4-point scale

  -asked whom protest was directed at

  -children's response to interviewer measured to assess levels of stranger anxiety
• stage 1 : indiscriminate attachments


  -birth - 2 months

  -produce similar responses to all objects

  -towards end shows preferences for social stimuli & more content with people

  -reciprocity & interactional synchrony play role in establishing infant's relationships
• stage 2 : beginnings of attachment


  -around 4 months become more social

  -prefer human company

  -distinguish between familiar & unfamiliar people

  -relatively easily comforted by anyone

  -don't show stranger anxiety

  -general sociability (enjoyment of being with people)
• stage 3 : discriminate attachment 


  -by 7 months begin to show distinctively different protest when particular person puts them down (seperation anxiety)

  -equally show joy on reunion

  -most comforted by this person

  -formed specific attachment to one person - primary attachment figure

  -begin to display stranger anxiety
• what did Schaffer & Emerson find about primary attachment?


  -not always formed with person who spends most time with infant

  -intensely attached infants had mothers who respond quickly & sensitively to their signals

  -offered children most interaction

  -poorly attached children had mothers who failed to interact

  -65% children = mother first specific attachment

  -30% = mother joint

  -3% = father first

  -27% = father joint
• stage 4 : multiple attachments


  -very soon after main attachment formed infant develops wider circle

  -depends on how many consistent relationships they have

  -within one month of becoming attached, 29% had multiple attachments (secondary attachments)

  -display seperation anxiety in these relationships

  -within 6 months risen to 78%

  -by 1, majority of infants had multiple attachments
• Schaffer & Emerson's conclusion

  -by age of 1, majority of infants had formed multiple attachments

  -developed after infant formed one specific attachment to primary attachment figure
• weaknesses of study

  -unreliable data

  -temporal validity

  -biased sample

  -implications
• unreliable data 


  -based on mother's reports

  -some mother's less sensitive to infant's protests

  -social desirability, mother want to be seen as primary attachment

  -reduces internal validity!!!
• temporal validity 


  -sample from 1960s

  -parental care changed considerably

  -women go out to work so children cared for outside home or fathers main carer

  -findings may be different today
• biased sample


  -working-class population so may not apply to other classes

  -individualistic culture so can't generalise to collectivist culture

  -lacks population validity!!!
• implications - are multiple attachments equal?


  -Schaffer & Emerson suggest secondary attachments not as important

  -Bowlby says secondary attachments important for different reasons

  -Rutter argues all attachments are equivalent

  -Status of multiple attachments unclear!!!

   
• Schaffer & Emersons findings

  the stages of attachment
• Schaffer & Emerson's aim 


  to study the development of attachment