Stages of attachment

• Schaffer and Emerson observed babies in a longitudinal observation (31 boys, 39 girls), middle class families from Glasgow

  -researchers asked parents to observe their child in different circumstances and to keep diary of observations, this was used to measure infants attachment to different caregivers
• Asocial- first few weeks - don’t discriminate between humans, similar behaviour between objects and humans
• Indiscriminate- 2-7months- more social behaviour, recognise + prefer familiar adults but accept comfort from anyone
• Specific attachment- 7months- display stranger and separation anxiety, begins to show attachment to 1 person
• Multiple attachment- 10+months- primary caregiver attachment gets stronger, forms secondary attachment 
• A strength is good external validity, observations were made by parents during everyday activities, researcher didn’t have to be present so less likely to cause unnatural behaviour. A counter point is mothers are unlikely to be objective and may have displayed a bias, they may have not noticed signs of anxiety and other behaviours
• A limitation is there is poor evidence for the asocial stage, babies have poor coordination and are fairly immobile so anxious behaviour may have been present but very subtle so it went unnoticed
• a strength is real world application, nursery is likely to be less distressing for the bab before 7 months as they can be comforted by anyone, so parents can plan for their child to start nursery at this age rather than during specific attachment when they show signs of stranger and separation anxiety