Forming attachments

• There are four stages to forming attachments:

  • Pre-Attachment: 0-3 months - Babies do not show preference
  • Indiscriminate: 3-7 months - Recognise familiar people, prefer them over unfamiliar
  • Discriminate: 7-9 - Strong attachment to one caregiver
  • Multiple Attachment: 9+ - multiple people
• There are two features between caregivers and babies that strengthen their bond: reciprocity & interactional synchrony.
• Reciprocity is when the baby responds to the caregiver's actions with appropriate responses (e.g. smiling back).
• Interactional Synchrony is where both parties respond at similar times.
• Shaffer & Enderson conducted a longitudinal study using naturalistic observation looking at 60 babies and their families:

  • Found attachment followed four stages
  • Babies form multiple attachments and the main one was not always the caregiver
  • Babies who formed the strongest attachments had caregivers who displayed the most sensitive responsiveness
• Schaffer & Emmerson's study conclusion:

  • Research may have been prone to observer bias
  • Results may suffer from social desirability bias - families may have wanted to show themselves in a good light
  • High ecological validity - naturalistic observation
• Isabella showed that babies and mothers that display more reciprocity and interactional synchrony had stronger attachments.