Stages of attachment

• Stage 1 of attachment: Asocial Stage

  • babies behaviour towards other people and inanimate objects are very similar
  • however, Schaffer+Emerson say babies still show signs that they prefer to be with other people than objects (particularly familiar people)
• Stage 2 of attachment: Indiscriminate attachment:

  • From 2-7 months, babies show a clear preference of being with other people rather than objects
  • They recognise and prefer the company of familiar people
  • However, they will accept comfort from any person
  • They don’t show separation or stranger anxiety
• Stage 3 of attachment: Specific Attachment:

  • From 7 months, babies show clear signs of attachment to one particular person (primary attachment figure)
  • This is not necessarily who the baby spends the most time with but who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby’s signals with the most skill
  • Babies also start to show signs os separation and stranger anxiety
• Stage 4 of attachment: Multiple attachments:

  • shortly after babies show attachment behaviour towards one person they usually extend this behaviour to multiple attachments with other people they regularly spend time with (secondary attachments)
  • Schaffer and Emerson observed that 29% of the children formed secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment
• Schaffer and Emerson’s study has good external validity as observations were made by parents during ordinary activities. if researchers had been present to make the observations the babies may have been distracted or become anxious. Therefore it is more likely the babies behaved naturally while being observed.
• However, mothers are unlikely to be objective observers as they may be biased in terms of what they noticed and what they reported (they may not have noticed their baby was showing signs of anxiety or misremembered them). So even if babies behaved naturally their behaviour may not have been accurately recorded.
• There is also poor evidence for the asocial stage. Young babies also have poor co-ordination and are fairly immobile so signs of anxiety may have been subtle/hard to observe. This made it difficult for mothers to observe and report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment in this age group. So babies may appear more asocial due to flawed methods.
• Schaffer and Emerson’s stages have real-world application as they are used in day care. In the asocial and indiscriminate stages dar care is likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult. However, during the specific stage it may be more problematic. This allows parents to plan their use of day care.