schaffer's stages of attachment

• **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