Stages of Attachment

• Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

  • looked at gradual development of attachments
  • studied 60 babies in Glasgow, visiting them monthly for the first year of their lives and returning again at 18 months.
• They collected data on attachment by considering two types of behaviour:

  • Separation anxiety: if the baby showed anxiety or distress when the caregiver left them. Separation anxiety indicates that the baby has formed an attachment to the person.
  • Stranger distress: if the baby showed signs of distress when approached by someone who they did not know. Distress at strangers shows that the baby can recognise familiar people and feels anxious with those who are unfamiliar
• Schaffer and Emerson used a variety of methods to collect their data including observations and interviewing. During each visit, they would approach the baby and see if they cried, whimpered or showed signs of distress at a strange face. At each visit, they interviewed the mothers, asking them about the baby's response to various situations, for example when the baby was left outside a shop, with a babysitter or when put in their cot at night.
• The mothers were asked to rate the baby's behaviour in each of these situations using a four-point scale from zero 'no protest shown' to three 'cries loudly every time'.
• When does an attachment take place?

  • They found that attachment behaviours developed in stages which were linked to age
  • Most babies showed separation anxiety at around 25-32 weeks
  • 6-8 months indicating that an attachment had been formed
  • Fear of attachments tended to follow about a month later
  • After a baby formed their first attachment they went onto forming multiple attachments with people they saw regularly
• To whom do babies form their first attachments?

  • most babies first attachment figure was their mother
  • fathers were unlikely to be the first attachment figure with only 3% of babies forming their first relationship with their father
  • just over a quarter of babies (27%) formed 'joint attachments' (i.e. to both mothers and fathers) at the same time
  • in almost 40% of babies, the person who cared for the child was not the first attachment figure
• Schaffer and Emerson proposed 4 stages of attachment, following the findings of their study. Those 4 stages are:

  • asocial stage (0-6 weeks)
  • indiscriminate attachment (6 weeks- 6 months)
  • specific attachments (7 months onwards)
  • multiple attachments (10/11 months onwards)
• The 1st stage is called asocial stage (not actually asocial). Babies in the first few weeks of their lives are said to be in this stage. In this stage the baby recognises and starts to form a bond with its carers. However, the baby's behaviours towards non- human objects and humans are similar. Babies show some preference for familiar adults as they find it easier to calm them and are happier in the presence of other humans. Reciprocity and interactional synchrony play a role in establishing the infan'ts relationship with others.
• From 6 weeks- 6 months, babies display more observable social behaviour. They show preferences for people rather than inanimate objects and recognise and prefer familiar adults. They can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people. At this stage babies usually accept comfort from any adult, and they do not usually show separation or stranger anxiety. Their attachment behaviour is thus said to be indiscriminate as it is not different towards any one person, which is where the name of the stage came from
• The specific attachment stage is the 3rd stage and occurs from 7 months. The majority of babies start to display anxiety towards strangers and to become anxious when separated from 1 particular adult (biological mother in 65% of cases). Equally they show joy at reunion with a particular adult and are most comforted by them. At this point the baby is said to have formed a specific attachment. This adult is termed the primary attachment figure, who may not necessarily spend the most time with the child, but the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby's signals most skilfully
• The final stage is known as the multiple attachment stage. Shortly after babies start to show attachment behaviour towards one adult, they usually extend this attachment behaviour to multiple attachments with other adults with whom they regularly spend time. These relationships are called secondary attachments. In Schaffer and Emerson's study, 29% of the children had formed a secondary attachment within a month of forming primary attachment. By the age of 1, the infants had developed multiple attachments
• weakness: too generalised.E.g. they suggest that development is inflexible and in this case it suggests that normally specific attachment come before multiple attachments. In some situations and cultures multiple attachments may come first. This clearly undermines the stages of attachment theory as the stages become a standard by which families are judged and may then be classed as abnormal and so the stages of attachments cannot be considered as strong evidence for attachment as they are too generalised to one theoretical situation and so aren't completely valid.
• weakness:problem with how multiple attachments are assessed. E.g. just because a baby gets distressed when someone leaves the room it does necessarily mean that the person is a true an attachment figure. Children have playmates as well as attachment figures and may get distressed when they leave, but this does not signify attachment. This clearly is an issue for the stages as their observations does not leave us a way to distinguish between behaviour towards secondary attachment figures and playmates.
• Continuing weakness: problem with how multiple attachments are assessed. So the results may not be validly measuring multiple attachments and thus we cannot use this theory of attachment as it may not be completely valid.
• weakness: first stage may inaccurately presented. E.g., the first stage is called the asocial stage, but many important interactions take place in these weeks. The problem is that babies that are young have poor coordination and are typically sessile. It is difficult to make any judgements about them based on observations of their behaviour as there is not much observable behaviour. This undermines the asocial stage and so the stages of attachment as, whilst it does not mean that the child's feelings and cognitions are not highly social.
• Continuing weakness: first stage may be immaculately presented This means that the research cannot be relied upon and so may not provide as strong support for the theory as previously thought so, and so we should be cautious when considering this theory of attachment to be strong evidence.
• weakness: they are cultural relative. E.g. in collectivist cultures people are more focused on the needs of the group rather than individuals (unlike our individualistic cultures). In such societies, we may expect multiple attachment to be more common. Research support this. It has been found that the closeness of attachment with mother was almost twice as common in family based sleeping arrangements compared to communal environments.
• • Continuing weakness: they are cultural relative. This clearly undermines the stages of attachment theory as it suggests that the stage model applies specifically to individualist cultures and so lacks external validity. Thus, we should not see the stages of attachment theory as compelling evidence for how attachment occurs in real life, as it may tell us less about how attachment develop in other cultures.
• strength: it provides insight into the development of attachment. E.g. Bowlby believed that children who were separated from their mothers at birth would fail to form secure attachments later in life. He also suggested that if separation occurred during the critical period then the child will never form a secure attachment. These predictions were supported by empirical studies which showed that children who had experienced institutional care did indeed show signs of insecure attachment.