SCHAFFER’S STAGES OF ATTACHMENT

• STAGE 1: ASOCIAL STAGE (FIRST FEW WEEKS) 


  Baby’s behaviour towards people and inanimate objects is quite similar. 

  Some preference for familiar people (more easily calmed by them).

  Babies are also happier in the presence of other people.

  Towards the end of the stage, infants begin to show a preference for social stimuli, such as a smiling face.

  Reciprocity and interactional synchrony play a role in establishing relationships.
• STAGE 2: INDISCRIMINATE ATTACHMENT (2-7 MONTHS) 


  Babies now display more observable social behaviour, with a preference for people rather than inanimate objects.

  They recognise and prefer familiar people.

  Babies do not show strangers or separation anxiety. 

  Attachment is indiscriminate because it is the same towards all. 
• STAGE 3: SPECIFIC ATTACHMENT (FROM AROUND 7 MONTHS) 


  Stranger and separation anxiety when separated from one particular person. Baby is said to have formed a specific attachment with the primary attachment figure.

  This is in most cases the person who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby’s ‘signals’ with the most skill (the more in 65% cases).
• STAGE 4: MULTIPLE ATTACHMENTS (BY 1 YEAR OLD) 


  Secondary attachments with other adults form shortly after.

  In SHAFFER AND EMERSONS study, 29% of babies had secondary (multiple) attachments within a month of forming a primary (specific) attachment.

  By the age of 1 the majority of infants had multiple secondary attachments.
• SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S STUDY (1964)

  Procedure =

  60 babies from Glasgow, most from working-class families. Researchers visited babies and mothers at home every month for a year and again at 18 months.

  Separation anxiety is measured by asking mothers about their children’s behaviour during everyday separation (e.g adults leaving the room).

  Stranger anxiety was measured by asking mother questions about their children’s anxiety response to unfamiliar adults. 
• SCHAFFER AND EMERSON'S STUDY (1964)

  Findings and conclusions

  Babies developed attachments through a sequence of stages, from asocial through to a specific attachment to multiple attachments - as outlined above.

  The specific attachment tended to be the person who was most interactive and sensitive to babies’ signals and facial expressions (i.e reciprocity). This was not necessarily the person the baby spent most time with.