Development of attachments

• What was the Schaffer and Emerson investigation aiming to find out?

  The development of infant-caregiver attachments, including how intense attachments were and to who.
• What was the sample of the Schaffer and Emerson investigation?

  60 babies (29 female; 31 male) from a working-class area of Glasgow
• How was the Schaffer and Emerson investigation carried out?

  • Babies and mothers visited in their homes every 4 weeks for first year and again at 18 months
  • Measured strength of attachment by asking how distressed babies became when separated from main caregiver
  • Measured strength of attachment by observing how distressed babies were when left alone with an unfamiliar person
• What are the 2 forms of anxiety shown in infants which indicates an attachment has been developed?

  • Separation anxiety
  • Stranger anxiety
• What were the findings of the Schaffer and Emerson experiment?

  • First development to caregiver typically developed at 25-32 weeks
  • First attachment often occurred with adult who interacted with the infant the most and was most sensitive to the infants signals
  • Fear of strangers typically developed between 25-32 weeks (although there was a lot of variation)
• What does ecological validity mean?

  Ecological validity is a measure of how generalizable findings are to the real world
• What are the 4 stages of attachment that Emerson and Schaffer proposed infants have?

  • Asocial
  • Indiscriminate attachment
  • Specific attachment
  • Multiple attachments
• What are the characteristics of the asocial stage and when does it occur?

  • Occurs within the first few weeks
  • Recognising and forming bonds with carers
  • Have slight preference for familiar adults
  • Happy in presence of other humans
• What are the characteristics of the indiscriminate stage and when does it occur?

  • 2 - 6 months
  • Show a preference for people compared to inanimate objects
  • Recognise and prefer familiar adults
  • No signs of anxiety around unfamiliar people or when apart from main caregiver
• What are the characteristics of the specific attachment stage and when does it occur?

  • 7 months
  • Separation / stranger anxiety when separated from main caregiver
• What are the characteristics of the multiple attachments stage and when does it occur?

  • 12 months +
  • Start to form attachments with multiple adults who they spend regular time with (secondary attachments)
• What is the ecological validity evaluation of the Schaffer & Emerson study?

  P= High ecological validity

  E= Carried out in infants homes

  E= In familiar environment so likely to act as they would on an everyday basis. Therefore results are more valid
• What is the longitudinal evaluation of the Schaffer & Emerson study?

  P= A longitudinal design

  E= Schaffer & Emerson visited the same infants at fixed time points throughout the study

  E = Allowed them to see how attachments develop over time and compare with other infants data to identify patterns - valid results
• What is the generalisability evaluation of the Schaffer & Emerson study?

  P= Research is culturally biased & not generalisable

  E= Investigated infants who came from same part & social class of Glasgow

  E= Different social/cultural practices could affect how attachments develop therefore results could be unreliable for other cultures
• What is the difficulty observing infants evaluation of the Schaffer & Emerson study?

  P= Difficulty observing infants

  E= During asocial stage infants are immobile & coordination is poor which makes them hard to observe objectively

  E= Therefore could have underestimated infants emotions/cognitions which makes results unreliable
• What is the behavioural measures evaluation of the Schaffer & Emerson study?

  P= Only used 2 behavioural measures to investigate attachment development

  E= One investigated stranger anxiety and one investigated separation anxiety

  E= Hard to capture complexity of behaviour with only 2 measures so descriptions of stages likely incomplete - can't be used alone to understand attachment development