Schaffers stages of attachment

• Stages of attachment


  • Asocial stage (first few weeks)
  • Indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months)
  • Specific attachment (from around 7 months)
  • Multiple attachments (by one year)
• Asocial stage


  • Baby's behaviour towards inanimate objects and humans is quite similar
  • Some preference for familiar adults (more easily calmed by them)
  • 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
  • This is in most cases the person who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby's 'signals' with the most skill (the biological mother in 65% of cases)
• Multiple attachments


  • Secondary attachments with other adults form shortly after
  • In Schaffer and Emerson's study, 29% of babies had secondary (multiple) attachments within a month of forming a primary (specific) attachment
  • By the age of one year the majority of infants had multiple secondary attachments
• Separation anxiety


  Anxiety response to being separated from a particular adult
• Stranger anxiety


  Anxiety response to unfamiliar adults
• Schaffer and Emerson study procedure


  1. 60 babies from Glasgow, most from working-class families

  2. Babies and their mothers were visited at home every month for a year and at 18 months

  3. Separation anxiety measured by asking mothers about their children's behaviour during everyday separations (e.g. adult leaving the room)

  4. Stranger anxiety was measured by asking mothers questions about their children's anxiety response to unfamiliar adults
• 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
• Most of the observations (not stranger anxiety) were made by parents during ordinary activities and reported to researchers
• It is highly likely that the participants behaved naturally while being observed
• Longitudinal studies


  • Better internal validity because they do not have the confounding variable of individual differences between participants (participant variables)
  • The same children were followed-up and observed regularly
• Schaffer and Emerson's view of stages does not distinguish between behaviour shown towards secondary attachment figures and towards playmates
• It may be the babies are actually quite social but, because of flawed methods they appear to be asocial
• Young babies have poor coordination and are fairly immobile, making it difficult to make judgments based on observations of their behaviour
• Evidence on the timing of multiple attachments is conflicting
• 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 ljzendoorn 1993)
• Such cultures are called collectivist because families work together jointly in everything (e.g. producing food and raising children)