Stages of Attch

• Social sensitivity is a concern when investigating child-rearing techniques, as some women may find their life choices criticized
• Stages of attachment

  • Stage 1 (0-6 weeks): Asocial, infants display innate behaviors to ensure proximity to any caregiver

  Stage 2 (6 weeks-7 months): Indiscriminate attachment, infants can tell familiar from unfamiliar individuals

  Stage 3 (7-9 months): Specific attachment, infants form a strong attachment to a primary caregiver, often the mother

  Stage 4 (9-10 months+): Multiple attachment, infants start forming attachments with other regular caregivers
• The study by Schaffer and Emerson had high mundane realism as infants were observed in their own homes, but the sample and time period may limit generalizability
• Ainsworth's Strange Situation


  • Behaviors indicating attachment strength: proximity to mother, exploration, safe base, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety, reunion response, and sensitive responsiveness
• This is likely a reflection of 1940s worldview that is likely correct in its time but now lacks temporal validity
• Ainsworth's strange situation procedure was a structured observation of infant and mother pairs in a lab setting with 8 stages
• Ainsworth found 66% of infants were secure, 22% insecure avoidant and 12% insecure resistant
• Ainsworth's research suggests that a secure attachment develops due to the attention of a consistently sensitive responsive mother
• The strange situation has predictive validity - children classified as securely attached tend to have better social emotional and academic outcomes in later childhood and adulthood
• The strange situation was developed in America so may be a culture-bound test not valid when applied to other cultures
• The strange situation has low ecological validity as the observation is not in a familiar environment like the family home
• Kagan's alternate temperament hypothesis suggests infants have inherited a high or low reactive temperament
• Ainsworth's 1970 and van IJzendoorn's 1988 findings may lack temporal validity - a 2014 study found fewer secure and more avoidant infants in modern Italian families