stages of attachment

• Schaffer and Emerson's Glasgow Babies


  Studied 60 babies monthly for the first 18 months of life, studied in their own homes + visited monthly for around one year. Interactions with carers were analysed to establish if/when infants started to show separation anxiety.

  Findings: Attachments most likely to form with carers who were sensitive to baby's signals.

  By 10 months old, most of the babies had several attachments, including to mothers, fathers, siblings.

  Mother was the main attachment figure for roughly half of the babies when they were 18 months old + the father for the rest.
• Stage 1 of attachment- asocial stage


  0-6 weeks

  Babies display innate behaviours (crying/smiling) that ensure proximity to any potential caregiver. As their perceptual ability is limited, they will also display these behaviours to non-human objects. Anyone can comfort them, as they do not prefer any individual caregiver.
• Stage 2 of attachment- indiscriminate stage


  6 weeks-7 months

  Infants develop the ability to tell the difference between humans and objects and between familiar and unfamiliar individuals, smiling more at the people they see frequently. However, they do not yet show stranger anxiety or seperation anxiety.
• Stage 3 of attachment- specific attachment


  7-9 months

  Babies form a strong attachment to a primary caregiver, most often their mother. It is in this stage that separation and stranger anxiety develop.
• Stage 4 of attachment- multiple attachment


  9/10+ months

  The infant starts to form attachments with other regular caregivers (like fathers, grandparents, siblings), and stranger anxiety starts to decrease.
• + Ecological validity


  E - Schaffer and Emerson used a naturalistic observation. The behaviour was studied in the environment where it most naturally occurs. For example, the parents observed and took notes on their infant's responses to separation and strangers in their own home, during their normal routines. The researchers were not present at the time, so it is more likely that the infant's behaviour would be more natural (not affected by the presence of strangers).

  E - Therefore, the study has high ecological validity so can be generalised to real life settings.
• + Longitudinal study


  E - Schaffer and Emerson observed the same children and followed up regularly.

  E - This eliminates individual differences as a confounding variable and means that results will be more internally valid.

  L - However, Ethnocentric: The families involved were from the same district and social class. This means that the sample was limited and could present a generalisability problem to all parents and children.
• - Immobility in the asocial stage


  E - The asocial stage is the first few weeks of life. During this stage, babies are young and have poor coordination. Babies are pretty much immobile.

  E - difficult to make judgements about them based on their behaviour since the Infant behaviour isn't completely observable

  L - Therefore, the evidence for the asocial stage of attachment cannot be relied on.
• - Conflicting evidence


  E - Some researchers seem to indicate that most, if not all, babies form attachments to a single carer before they are capable of developing multiple attachments (Bowlby). Other psychologists, particularly those who work in those cultural contexts where multiple care givers are the norm, believe babies form multiple attachments from the offset (Van Ijzendorn and Kroonenberg).

  E - It is not entirely clear when children become capable of forming multiple attachments.

  L - However, this does mean there is supporting evidence from Bowlby's research.
• - Issues with how multiple attachments are assessed


  E - Bowlby pointed out that children have playmates as well as attachment figures and may get distressed when a playmate leaves. Schaffer and Emerson's observation doesn't leave us a way to distinguish between behaviour shown towards attachment figures and towards playmates.

  E - Just because a baby is distressed when an individual leaves doesn't necessarily mean that that individual is an attachment figure.

  L - Therefore, this shows that infants experience multiple attachments that can cause stranger or separation anxiety.
• Stages of attachment


  1. Asocial (0-6 weeks)
  2. Indiscriminate (6 weeks- 7 months)
  3. Specific (7-9 months)
  4. Multiple (9/10+ months)