Schaffers stages of attachment

• who studied the attachment of behaviours of babies in 1964?

  Schaffer and Emerson
• what is stage 1 of Schaffers stages of attachment?

  Asocial stage (0-2 months)

  • an infant shows similar responses to objects and people
  • although towards the end of this stage they do display a preference for faces/eyes and are more easily comforted by familiar people
• what is stage 2 of Schaffers stages of attachment?

  Indiscriminate Attachments (2-6 months)

  • an infant now shows a preference for human company over non-human company
  • they can distinguish between different people and prefer familiar people, however can be comforted indiscriminately (by anyone) and do not show stranger anxiety nor separation anxiety
• what is stage 3 of Schaffers stages of attachment?

  Specific Attachments (7-12 months)

  • an infant shows a preference for one particular person displaying separation and stranger anxiety
  • infant looks to a particular person for security and protection
  • baby is said to have formed a specific attachment to their primary attachment figure
  • this person is not necessarily the individual the child spends the most time with, but the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby’s signals with the most skill
  • this is the mother in 65% of cases
• what is the 4th stage in Schaffers stages of attachment?

  Multiple Attachments (1 year upwards)

  • attachment behaviours now display towards several different people e.g. siblings, grandparents (aka secondary attachments)
  • Schaffer and Emerson observed 29% of children formed secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment
  • by age of 1, majority of babies have developed multiple attachments
• what are the aims and procedures of Schaffer and Emerson (1964) study?

  • to examine the formation of early attachments
  • sample consisted of 60 babies (31 male, 29 females) from working class families in Glasgow between 5-23 weeks at start
  • researchers interviewed mothers and observed children in relation to separation and stranger anxiety in a range of everyday activities
  • researchers asked mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in seven everyday situations (separation anxiety and stranger anxiety were measured)
• what were the results of Schaffer and Emerson's (1964) study?

  • provided some support for the different stages of developing an attachment
  • at around 25-32 weeks, 50% of children showed separation anxiety towards their mothers (expected for discriminate attachment stage)
  • by 40 weeks, 80% of children had a specific discriminate attachment and 30% had started to form multiple attachments
• why is the use of longitudinal study a strength and a weakness of S&E study?

  • can be a problem as mothers may chose to drop out of the study and there can also be an issue of social desirability bias in mothers
  • it is carried out longitudinally, so some children were followed up and observed regularly - this gives good internal validity as no confounding variables that you would find if different babies were studied and compared
• why is generalisation a weakness of S&E study?

  • sample is not representative of - in collectivist countries, multiple attachments at very early age are more than normal (or to an individualistic culture)
  • can't be applied to other social groups (doesn't take into account poverty or wealth who can afford nannies)
• why is the use of a naturalistic study a weakness and strength of S&E study?

  • high external validity - results/observations will reflect natural behaviours from baby due to familiar environment and situation - babies behaviour is unlikely to be affected by presence of observers
  • however, some mother may not react naturally due to demand characteristics and social desirability bias
  • some mothers may be less sensitive to their infants protests and less likely to report them creating systematic bias and challenge the validity of data