AO1 - Stages of Attachment: Schaffer

• Aim: To investigate the formation of early attachments, the age at which they develop and who they are directed to.
• Procedure:

  • Longitudinal study on 60 working class new-born infants and their mothers from Glasgow
  • The infants and mothers were visited at their own homes every month for the first year of the infant's life and again at 18 months
  • Observations and interviews with mothers were used
• Attachment was measured in two ways:

  • Separation anxiety - assessed by the infant being left alone in a room or the researcher asking the mother how the infant reacts in this instance
  • Stranger anxiety - assessed by the researcher starting each home visit by approaching the infant to see if this distressed the child
  • Researchers asked the mothers questions such as who the infants smiled at
• Findings - Schaffer and Emerson found there were 4 stages to attachment; asocial, indiscriminate, specific, multiple
• Conclusions - Infants form attachments in stages, multiple attachments can be formed
• 1. Asocial phase - first few weeks

  • the infant's behaviour towards non-human objects and humans is quite similar, however infants are happier when in the presence of other humans
• 2. Indiscriminate attachment - 2-7 months

  • infants start to display more observable social behaviour, they show a preference for people over inanimate objects and recognise/prefer familiar adults
  • infants usually accept cuddles and comfort from any adult, they usually do not show separation or stranger anxiety
• 3. Specific attachment - around 7 months

  • majority of infants start to display stranger and separation anxiety when separated from one particular adult (biological mother in 65% of cases)
  • this is a specific attachment and is not necessarily the person the child spends the most time with, but the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the infant's 'signals' the most
• 4. Multiple attachments - 7/8 months+

  • shortly after infants show specific attachments, they extend this behaviour to other adults who they regularly spend time with
  • in Schaffer and Emerson's study, 29% of children had multiple attachments within a month of forming a specific attachment
  • by the age of 1, majority of infants have developed multiple attachments and at 18 months, 75% of infants had an attachment with their father