Stages of Attachment

• Aim


  To investigate at which age infants become attached, to who and whether possible to develop multiple attachments
• Procedure


  1. Conducted longitudinal study on 60 infants from Glasgow over first 18 months of their lives

  2. Visited children at monthly intervals in own homes, observed interactions with their caregivers (naturalistic observation study)

  3. Caregivers were interviewed about infant's behaviour (self-report technique)
• Evidence for development of attachment


  Baby showed separation anxiety after carer left
• Sensitive responsiveness


  The most important factor in forming attachments is not who feeds/changes child but who plays/communicates with it
• Reciprocity


  Study shows that a significant number of infants form multiple attachments
• Asocial Stage


  0-6 weeks - smiling, crying, no directed behaviour towards figure - some preference for familiar adults
• Indiscriminate Stage


  1. 7 months - attention sought from various people e.g. Observable social behaviour, preference for people rather than inanimate objects/recognise and prefer familiar adults
• Specific Attachments


  7+ months - strong attachment to one individual (primary attachment figure), and subsequent good attachments to others
• Multiple Attachments


  Attachment extended to other adults who regularly spend time with the child
• Stages of attachment development


  1. Asocial Stage (0-6 weeks) - smiling, crying, no directed behaviour towards figure - some preference for familiar adults

  2. Indiscriminate Stage (2-7 months) - attention sought from various people e.g. Observable social behaviour, preference for people rather than inanimate objects/recognise and prefer familiar adults

  3. Specific Attachments (7+ months) - strong attachment to one individual (primary attachment figure), and subsequent good attachments to others

  4. Multiple Attachments - attachment extended to other adults who regularly spend time with the child
• Evaluation:

  • Problem studying asocial stage - difficult to make judgments based on observations as babies don't exhibit much observable behaviour at such an early age so evidence cannto be relied on
• Evaluation:

  • Conflicting evidence on multiple attachments - not entirely clear when children become capable of multiple attachments, some research indicates babies form attachments to primary caregiver before forming multiple attachments ( Bowlby, 1969 ), however, other psychologists believe multiple attachments are formed from the outset due to cultural contexts. E.g. Collectivist cultures where there are multiple caregivers ( Van ljzendoorn et al, 1993 )
• Evaluation:

  • Measuring multiple attachment - there may be a problem with how multiple attachments is assessed, just because a baby gets distressed when an individual leaves a room does not necessarily mean that the individual is a true attachment figure.
• Results: first attachment = between 6/8 months of age

  mother main attachment figure = 65% of children at 18 months, only 3% of infants studied developed attachment to father
• Conclusion: attachments most likely to form with those who responded accurately to baby’s signals, not who they spent the most time with. ‘sensitive responsiveness‘, most important factor in forming attachment is who communicates and plays with it.
• Good external validity _ study carried out in families own homes and most observation done by parents during ordinary activities and reported to researches later - ecological validity
• Longitudinal Design - children followed up / observed regularly and lacks confounding variables such as participant as same children were used across a long period of time
• Limited sample characteristics

  participants were all from same area and social class and cannot be generalised to whole society - low population validity

  sample size small but good though considering how much data was gathered from 60 families
• Conflicting evidence : not entirely clear when children can become capable of forming multiple attachments , some research indicates babies form attachments to primary caregiver before forming multiple attachments ( Bowlby )

  other psychology believe attahcment form from outset due to cultural context - collectivist cultures where there are multiple caregivers ( Van ijzendoorn )
• Measuring multiple attachments : may be a problem with how multiple attachments is assessed, just because a baby becomes distressed when an individual leaves room does not necessarily mean that the individual is the true attachment figure