L2- Stages Of Attachment

Question 1

Who investigated the development of attachment in infants?

Answer 1

Shaffer and Emerson (1964)

Question 2

What type of study did Shaffer and Emerson use?

Answer 2

-Longitudinal study where they followed 60 infants and their mothers for 2 years

Question 3

What did Shaffer and Emerson find?

Answer 3

• there were four stages in the development of attachment in infants: pre-attachment, indiscriminate attachment, discriminate attachment, multiple attachments

Question 4

What is pre-attachment?

Answer 4

• 0-3 months
• 6 weeks of age= infants attracted to other humans, preferring them to objects and events —> demonstrated by smiling at people’s faces.

Question 5

What is indiscriminate attachment?

Answer 5

• 3-7 months
• Infants begin discriminating between familiar and unfamiliar people, smiling more at people they know. They will still allow strangers to handle them.

Question 6

What is discriminate attachment?

Answer 6

• 7 months onwards
• Infants develop specific attachment to primary attachment figure (often mother) staying close to that person.
• Show separation protest (distress an infant shows when primary attachment figure leaves them) and display stranger anxiety (distress infant shows when approached by someone they do not know).
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) noticed infant’s primary attachment figure was not always the person who spends the MOST time with the child —> QUALITY of relationship, not quantity that matters in formation of an attachment.

Question 7

What is multiple attachment?

Answer 7

• 7 months onwards
• After developing first attachment, infants develop strong emotional ties with other major caregivers (father, grandparents)and non- caregivers (siblings)
• These are called secondary attachments —> fear of strangers weakens but attachment to their primary attachment figure remains strongest.

Question 8

Weaknesses of stages of attachment

Answer 8

• Data may be unreliable- based on mothers’ reports of their infants. Some mothers may have
  been less sensitive to their infant’s protests and less likely to report them.
• Biased- only infants from working-class population —> findings may not apply to other social groups.
• The sample was also biased because it only included infants from individualist cultures, infants from collectivist cultures could form attachments in a different way.
• Lacks temporal validity - conducted in 1960, parental care of children has changed considerably since then (women go work and men stay home)
• Stage theories such as this one are inflexible and do not take account of individual differences —> some infants may form multiple attachment first, rather than starting with a single attachment.

Question 9

What has research suggested about the role of the father?

Answer 9

• inconsistency in research into role of father and if he plays a distinct role.
• Some research shows fathers provide play and stimulation to complement the emotionally supportive role of mother, and that both are crucial to a child’s wellbeing.
• Other research shows no such distinction. Research investigating effects of growing up in a single female or same-sex parent family shows there is no effect on development, and suggests the role of the father is not important

Question 10

What did Shaffer and Emerson find about the unimportance of the role of the father and why this may because of?

Answer 10

• found fathers less likely to be primary attachment figure than mothers
• may be because they spend less time with their infants.
• may be that men are not as psychologically equipped to form intense attachment because they lack the emotional sensitivity that women have —> due to biological factors (female hormone oxytocin underlies caring behaviours)
• may be due to societal norms - stereotype that it is feminine to be sensitive to needs of others

Question 11

What did Shaffer and Emerson find about the importance of the role of the father?

Answer 11

• men do form attachments with their children.
• found 75% of infants studied had formed an attachment with their father at 18 months.
• Fathers can also be primary attachment figure (Field, 1978)
• The role of the father in single-parent family is more likely to adopt traditional maternal role, to be the primary caregiver and a nurturing attachment figure.

Question 12

What factors affect the relationship between fathers and children?

Answer 12

• Degree of sensitivity
• Attachment with own parents
• Marital intimacy
• Supporting co-parenting

Question 13

Strengths of the role of the father

Answer 13

• children with secure attachments with fathers = good peer relationships and fewer behavioural issues showing positive influence of fathers
• children with our fathers = worse at school and show aggression showing fathers can help prevent negative behaviour

Question 14

Weaknesses of the role of the father

Answer 14

• inconsistent findings in fathers- some psychologists believe they are a secondary attachment figure ans some primary which makes it unclear
• study found that children growing up with single parent or same sex couples do not develop differently to kids with a mother figure suggesting role of father isn’t important