schaffer's stages of attachment

Cards (11)

  • **Describe and evaluate Schaffer’s stages of attachment 16mks**
    schaffers stages of attachment
    - asocial stage
    - indiscriminate stage
    - specific attachment
    - multiple attachment
    - schaffer and emerson research (1964)
    - ao3 good external validity
    - ao3 the mothers are unlikely to be objective observers
    - ao3 poor evidence for the asocial stage
    - ao3 real-world application
  • chaffers stages of attachment ↓
    - Schaffer and EMerson (1964) studied the attachment behaviours of babies.- findings lead them to develop an account of how attachment behaviours change as babies develop
    - Proposed 4 stages of attachment;
    - Asocial
    - Indiscriminate attachment
    - specific attachment
    - multiple attachment
  • asocial stage ↓
    - In the baby's first few weeks of life, it's observable behaviour towards humans and in animate objects is fairly similar - hence ‘asocial
    - However, Scahffer and Emerson didn’t believe that its entirely asocial because babies of this stage, show signs that they prefer to be with other people
    - Babies tend to show preference of for a familiar company- they're more easily comforted by them
    - The baby's forming bonds with certain people which later form the basis of later attachments
    • indiscriminate stage ↓
    - from 2-7months baby starts to display more obvious and observable social behaviours
    - Show preference to humans rather than inanimate objects
    - Recognize the company of familiar people - but can accept comfort and cuddles from another any person(- hence ‘indiscriminate’)
    - Don't show separation anxiety or stranger anxiety when caregiver leaves or when around unfamiliar people
  • specific attachment ↓
    - Around seven months , Babies tend to show signs of attachment towards one particular person.
    - Stranger anxiety – espically when their attachment figure is absent
    - Seperation anxiety from attachment figure
    - This is the point where the baby has formed a s specific attachment to their primary attachment figure
    - Doesn’t have to be the person they spend the most time with ,It tends to be someone who they have the most interactions with and respond responds to the baby’s signals. - 65% it’s the mother
  • multiple attachment ↓
    - ~ Attachments to 2 or more people . This tends to happen once they’ve fromed one strong attachment to their carer
    - Start to show attahcment behvaiour (e.g. seperation and stranger anxiety) towards one person
    - This usually extends to multiple attachments with others. - these relationshipsare called secondary attachments
    - Schaffer and Emerson observed that 29% of kids form secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary (specific) attachment
    - By age 1, majority of babies have formed multiple atttachment
  • schaffer and emerson research (1964) ↓
    - Based their stage theory on an observational study of the formation of early infant- adult attachments of babies from Glasgow
    - Mothers were asked what kind of reactions babies would show when they were sepretaed e.g. mother leaving the room – measured seperation anxiety
    - Researchers visited the babies and mothers once every month for the first year and again after 18 months – this tested stranger anxiety
    - This helped identifiy the 4 stages of attachments
  • ao3 good external validity
    - Most observations were made by parents during normal activities which were then reported to researchers
    - Makes it highly likely that that ppts behaved naturally when observed
  • ao3 the mothers are unlikely to be objective observers
    - May have been biased – may not have reported everything they noticed when baby was showing signs of anxiety
    - .. means not all behaviour was recorded accurately
  • ao3 poor evidence for the asocial stage ↓
    - measures used to assess attachment on the asocial stage Lacks validity
    - Young babies have poor co-ordination and are fairly immobile - So may have shown signs of anxiety with very subtle movements
    - Difficult to for mothers to observe and report these signs
    - ..suggest babies might actually be quite social but the flawed methods make them appear to be asocial
  • ao3 real-world application ↓
    - Have practical application in day care
    - In the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages are more likely to be easier to manage because the babies can be comforted by any adult
    - But schaffer and Emerson ‘s research tells us that starting day care with unfamiliar adults may be problematic during the specific attachment stage
    - Means that parents that the use of schaffer and emerson’s stages can be put to use when parents are planning daycare for kids