Schaffer and Emerson

• Schaffer's stages of attachment


  Stages of attachment as identified by Schaffer
• Psychologist observes behaviour at several points out his first year
• Asocial stage


  • Baby's behaviour towards inanimate objects and humans is quite similar
  • Some preference for familiar adults more easily calmed by the
  • Babies are also happier in the presence of other humans
• Indiscriminate attachment


  • Babies now display more observable social behaviour with a preference for people rather than inanimate objects
  • They recognise and prefer familiar adults
  • Babies do not show stranger or separation anxiety
  • Attachment is indiscriminate because it's the same towards all
• Specific attachment


  • Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety when separated from one particular adult
  • Baby is said to have formed a specific attachment with the primary attachment figure
• Multiple attachments


  • Secondary attachments with other adults form shortly after
  • By the age of one year the majority of infants had multiple secondary attachments
• The behaviour of the babies was unlikely to be affected by the presence of observers
• Participants behaved naturally while being observed
• A strength of Schaffer and Emerson study is that it has external validity
• Most of the observations (not stranger anxiety) were made by parents during ordinary activities and reported to researchers
• Another strength of the study is that it was carried out longitudinally
• Longitudinal design


  The same children were followed-up and observed regularly
• Cross-sectional design


  Observing different children at each age
• Longitudinal designs


  • Have better internal validity because they do not have the confounding variable of individual differences between participants
• There may also be a problem with how multiple attachment is assessed
• Just because a baby gets distressed when an individual leaves the room does not necessarily mean that the individual is a 'true' attachment figure
• Bowlby (1969) pointed out that children may be distressed when a playmate leaves the room, but this does not signify attachment to them
• Schaffer and Emerson's view of stages does not distinguish between behaviour shown towards secondary attachment figures and towards playmates
• Schaffer and Emerson describe the first few weeks as the 'asocial stage', although important interactions take place
• Young babies have poor coordination and are fairly immobile, making it difficult to make judgments based on observations of their behaviour
• It may be the babies are actually quite social but, because of flawed methods they appear to be asocial
• Bowlby (1969) argues that most (or all) babies form attachments to a single main carer before they are able to develop multiple attachments
• Multiple attachments appear from the outset in cultures where multiple attachments are the norm (based on research by van Ijzendoorn 1993)
• Such cultures are called collectivist because families work together jointly in everything (e.g. producing food and raising children)