Schaffers stages of attachment

• Stages of attachment development - Asocial

  > The infant’s behaviour towards non-human objects and humans is quite similar.

  > However, infants are happier when in the presence of other humans.
• Stages of attachment development - Indiscriminate

  > 2-7 months

  > They show a preference for people over inanimate objects and recognise and prefer familiar adults.

  > Infants will usually accept cuddles and comfort from any adult, they usually do not show separation or stranger anxiety.

   
• Stages of attachment development - Specific

  > From around 7 months infants start to show stranger and separation anxiety when separated from a particular adult

  > This is a specific attachment and is not necessarily the person the child spends most time with, but the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the infants ‘signals’ the most.

   
• Stages of attachment development - Multiple

  > Shortly after children show specific attachments, they usually extend this attachment behaviour to other adults whom they regularly spend time with.

  > In Schaffer and Emerson’s study, 29% of children had multiple attachments within a month of forming a specific attachment.

  > By the age of one year, the majority of infants have developed multiple attachments.

  > At 18 months, 75% of infants had an attachment with their father.
• Stages of attachment AO3

  :) High ecological validity

  > Observations carried out in the participants own homes

  > Making it easier to generalise the findings to real life examples of attachment - more likely to represent everyday interactions

  > Increasing the external validity of the research into stages of attachment
• Stages of attachment AO3

  :( Social desirability bias

  > As interviews were used to gather the information

  > Therefore parents may have lied to present themselves in the best possible light

  > So the results may have lacked internal validity and not measure the true stages of attachment
• Stages of attachment AO3

  :( Culture bias

  > The sample used were all from Glasgow

  > Therefore it is difficult to generalise the findings of the stages of attachment to other cultures

  > For example, psychologists studying non-western cultures where families often work together to look after a child have found infants can form multiple attachments without forming a specific attachment first

  > Limiting the external validity of the research into stages of attachment
• Stages of attachment AO3

  :) Longitudinal study

  > Same children were observed regularly

  > No confounding variable of individual differences between the children

  > Increasing the internal validity of the research into stages of attachment