schaffer's stages of attachment

• schaffer and emerson studied attachment behaviours - produced 4 stages of attachment.
• SCHAFFER & EMERSON AIM & PROCEDURE:

  • aimed to investigate at what age different attachments from and the emotional intensity of the attachment.
  • studied 60 babies from working-class families in Glasgow.
  • studied in their own homes.
  • visited monthly for a year and then again at 18 months.
  • mothers were asked about protest behaviours in 7 everyday situations like adult leaving the room & stranger enters.
  • behaviours = indicators of attachment.
• SCHAFFER & EMERSON FINDINGS

  • 25-32 weeks of age = 50% of babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult (usually mother - specific attachment)
  • attachment tended to be towards the caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to the infant's signals and expressions (reciprocity) - not necessarily who spent the most time.
  • by 40 weeks, 80 of the babies had specific attachment and almost 30 displayed mutliple attachments.
• SCHAFFER & EMERSON CONCLUSION

  • indicates attachments develop in stages.
  • they were more likely to form attachment with those that responded to signals, not the person who spent the most time with them - sensitive responsiveness - reciprocity.
  • most important part is not feeding or changing the child, but who plays and communicates.
• STRENGTH OF STUDY - LONGITUDINAL DESIGN

  • children were followed up and observed regularly.
  • focuses on the same children and their development.
  • reduces individual differences - would have been an issue of different babies were used at different ages.
  • high internal validity.
• STRENGTH OF STUDY - EXTERNAL VALIDITY:

  • high external validity.
  • study was conducted in families own homes and any observations were conducted by the parents.
  • carried out observations while doing everyday tasks, so infants behaviour is natural.
  • behaviour not influenced by the behaviour of strangers.
  • findings can be generalised to day-to-day interactions.
  • HOWEVER, asking mothers to be observers may not make them objective observers - may be biased in what they notice.
• LIMITATION OF STUDY - ISSUES WITH SAMPLE:

  • consisted of parrticipants from same culture and social class.
  • findings cannot be generalised as the sample consists of scottish babies.
  • scotland = individualist culture, cannot be generalised to collectivist cultures.
• Schaffer identified 4 stages of attachment:

  1. Asocial (first few weeks)
  2. indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months)
  3. specific attachment (from 7 months)
  4. multiple attachment
• ASOCIAL ATTACHMENT

  • behaviour to human and inanimate objects is similar.
  • tend to show preference to people they are familiar with and are comfortable with them.
• INDISCRIMINATE ATTACHMENT:

  • start to display observable social behaviours.
  • clear preference for humans over inanimate objects.
  • recognise and prefer the company of any person.
  • no seperation or stranger anxieties.
• SPECIFIC ATTACHMENT:

  • from 7 months.
  • show signs of attachment to one person.
  • include stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.
  • attachment to primary caregiver - not the individual that spends the ost time but is the individual that offers the most interaction.
  • primary caregiver is mother 65% of the time.
• MULTIPLE ATTACHMENT:

  • extension of attachment behaviours to multiple people who they spend time with regularly.
  • secondary attachments.
  • 29% of children's secondary attachment forms within a month of specific attachment.
  • by the age of 1, most babies develop multiple attachments.
• LIMITATION OF STAGES - PROBLEMS STUDYING THE ASOCIAL STAGE:

  • young babies in this stage have poor co-ordination and are generally pretty much immobile.
  • makes it difficult to make judgements from observing behaviour - unable to rely on their observations, it is difficult to draw conclusion.
  • unreliable evidence to base stages on.
• LIMITATION OF STAGES - CONFLICTING EVIDENCE ON MULTIPLE ATTACHMENTS:

  • conflicting evidence from different cultures.
  • Bowbly - most babies form attachments to a single main carer before they can form other attachments.
  • Van Ijzendoorn - in collectivist cultures, multiple are the norm as families work together more.
  • stages of attachment seems to be culturally specific - likely to be formed earlier is collectivist cultures.
• STRENGTH OF STAGES - REAL WORLD APPLICATION:

  • practical application in daycare.
  • in the asocial & indiscriminate attachment stage - day care is likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult.
  • however, the stages show that starting day care during the specific attachment stage with an unfamiliar adult may be problematic.
  • this means day care can be planned by Schaffer's stages.