Stages of attachment

• Schaffer & Emerson's stages of attachment:

  1. Asocial stage
  2. Indiscriminate attachment
  3. Specific attachment
  4. Multiple attachments
• Stage 1: Asocial stage

  • 0-8 weeks
  • Accepts comfort from any adult
  • recognises specific faces
  • happier in the presence of humans
  • behaviour between humans & non-humans = similar
  • preference for familiar individuals
  • prefer faces to non-faces
• Stage 2: indiscriminate stage

  • 2-7 months
  • recognise & prefer familiar people
  • smile at anyone
  • preference for people rather than objects
  • smile more at familiar than unfamiliar faces
  • doesn't usually show signs of separation or stranger anxiety
• Stage 3: Specific attachment

  • 7-12 months
  • shows separation anxiety
  • primary attachment to 1 particular individual (usually mother)
  • shows stranger anxiety
  • use familiar adults as a secure base
• Stage 4: multiple attachments

  • 1 year+
  • forms secondary attachments with familiar adults that they spend time with
• Schaffer & Emerson's research:

  Procedure- The longitudinal study involved 60 babies from Glasgow. Researchers visited babies and mothers in their own homes every month for the first year and again at 18 months. The researchers asked the mothers about the kind of protest their babies showed in 7 everyday separations, e.g. adult leaving the room. This was designed to measure babies' attachment. The researchers also assessed stranger anxiety.

  The findings led them to make their 4 stages of attachment.
• Evaluation of Schaffer & Emerson:

  1. longitudinal studies which meant the same children were observed and followed up regularly. This eliminates individual differences as a confounding variable & means that the results will be more valid
• Evaluation of Schaffer & Emerson:

  1. Sample bias as the families involved were all from the same district and social class meaning the results found may not apply to everyone and therefore can't be generalised. Different cultures and classes may behave differently.
• Evaluation of Schaffer & Emerson:

  1. RWA- can ensure that first-time mothers and daycares are giving babies the right care they need to form attachments and when to deal with problems such as stranger anxiety.