Shaffer + Emerson

• Aim ?


  Formation of attachment and the age they develop
• Method ?

  • 60 babies (31m, 29f) from Glasgow
  • skilled working class
  • mother + child visited at home every month for 1 year then at 18 months
  • asked mothers questions about kind of protest shown in 7 everyday separations
  • also assessed stranger anxiety
• Findings ?

  • 25-32 weeks 50% showed separation anxiety to a specific attachment( adult who most interactive not who spend most time)
  • 40 weeks 80% had specific attachment 30% showed multiple attachments
  • babies developed multiple after having one specific
• Evaluation ?

  1. External validity
  2. longitudinal study
  3. sample
• External validity ?

  • in family home, most observation done by parents - behaviour not influences
• Longitudinal study ?


  same children followed + observed

  good internal validity

  - time consuming

  - quick to observe different children at different ages - cross sectional
• Sample 


  60 babies, large volume collected

  - not representative

  - temporal validity