stages of attatchment

Created by

charlotte mcclure

Cards (20)

who came up with the stages of attachment
schaffer (and emerson)
who investigated stages of attachment
schaffer and emerson
how did schaffer and emerson study stages of attatchment
they conducted a longditudinal study into the dev of attachments
- the study followed 60 infants from mainly working class families in glasgow over a period of 2 years
- infants were observed every 4 weeks until the infant was 1 year old and then observed again at 18 months old

they measured attatchment in 2 ways
how did schaffer and emerson measure attatchment
separation protest
- how much they showed separation anxiety and to who the protests were directed (they interviewed the mother to get this info)
- the separation situations were everyday ones eg left alone in a room or left in a cot at night

stranger anxiety
-each visit started with the researcher approaching the infant and noting when the infant started to appear uncomfortable
what are the 3 stages of attachment
asocial
indiscriminate attatchment
discriminate attachment
multiple attatchments
age of asocial attachment 
0-6 weeks
age of indiscriminate attachment
6 weeks to 6 months
age of discriminate attatchment
7-12 months
age of multiple attatchments
1 year+
what is asocial attachment
what is indiscriminate attatchment 
-where behaviours between humans and non human objects are quite similar
- an infant will be happier with someone than alone
- they prefer faces to non faces
-will accept comfort from any adult

as they move to discrimite attatchment they:
- start to recognise people
- smile more at familiar faces
- have a prefrence for people rather than inanimate objects
what is discriminate attatchment 
-where they have primary attatchment to one particular individual
-they show stranger anxiety
-they show separation anxiety
-they use familiar adults as a secure base
what is multiple attatchment
the infants form secondary/tertiary etc attatchments with familiar people with whom they spend time
negative evaluation of schaffer and emmerson stages of attatchment
stage theories - stages might not happen in a certain order all the time
cultural variations
unreliable data
positive evaluation of schaffer and emmerson stages of attatchment
strengths of methodology - longitudinal study
good external validity
evaluation point: stage theories
a stage theory suggests that stages happen in a specific order which makes it inflexible
some cultures or situations the set stages will not be applicable

this could be a problem if the stages become standard and families will be judged for being abnormal
evaluation point: cultural variations
in Individualist cultures such as the UK and USA , each society is concerned with their own needs or needs of immediate family

in collectivists cultures they are more focused on group rather than individual with people sharing childcare , so multiple attachments would be more common in collectivist cultures

therefore the stages can not be applied to all cultures
evaluation point: unreliable data 
because the results are based off of the mother's reports of their infants
Some mothers may be less sensitive to their infants protests and less likely to report them

This would create systematic bias and challenge validity of data
evaluation point: strengths of methodology
longditudinal study
- allows us to see the development f attatchments overtime
- is an advantage compared to cross sectional studies that can be affected by participant variables
evaluation point: good external validity 
The study was carried out in the families' own homes and most of the observation (other than stranger anxiety) was actually done by parents during ordinary activities and reported to researchers later.

the behaviour of the babies was unlikely to be affected by the presence of observers
- this means there is a very high chance the babies acted naturally = high external validity