Stages of attachment

• Stages of attachment


  1. Asocial stage

  2. Indiscriminate attachment

  3. Specific attachment

  4. Multiple attachments
• Asocial stage


  In a baby's first few weeks of life its observable behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects is fairly similar
• Babies show a preference for the company of familiar people and are more easily comforted by them in the asocial stage
• Indiscriminate attachment


  Babies start to display more obvious and observable social behaviours, recognise and prefer the company of familiar people, but usually accept cuddles and comfort from any person
• Specific attachment


  Babies start to display anxiety directed towards strangers (stranger anxiety) and anxiety when separated from their attachment figure (separation anxiety)
• Primary attachment figure


  The person with whom the baby has formed a specific attachment, not necessarily the individual the child spends most time with but the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby's 'signals' with the most skill
• Secondary attachments


  Relationships formed with other people with whom the baby regularly spends time, shortly after forming a primary attachment
• Schaffer and Emerson's research involved observing 60 babies - 31 boys and 29 girls, from Glasgow and mostly from skilled working-class families, visiting them and their mothers in their own homes every month for the first year and again at 18 months
• Schaffer and Emerson asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in seven everyday separations, to measure separation anxiety, and also assessed stranger anxiety
• Schaffer and Emerson's research


  • Good external validity as observations were made by parents during ordinary activities and reported to the researchers
  • Issues with asking the mothers to be the observers as they may have been biased and not objective
  • Difficulty observing and reporting on signs of anxiety and attachment in the asocial stage due to babies' poor coordination and immobility
• Schaffer and Emerson's stages have practical application in day care, as they inform how to plan for babies' needs during the different stages of attachment