schaffer's stages

Question 1

schaffer’s stages of attachment theory

Answer 1

1) Asocial stage
- first few weeks
- similar behaviour to objects and humans, preffering humans

2) indiscriminate stage
- 2-7 months
- preferance for humans
- recognise key people
- no attachment

3) specific
- 7 months
- attachment to one adult
- stranger and separation anxiety

4) multiple
- 12 months
- multiple attachments to other relaives
- separation anxiety for other caregivers

• theory was developed on the basis of evidence from schaffer & emerson’s glasgow study

Question 2

schaffer and emerson procedure

Answer 2

• longitudinal study of 60 babies and mums in glasgow
• researchers visited babies once a month for the first year of their lives, and then again at 18 months.
• gave the mother 7 everyday scenarios and asked the mother to rank the baby’s separation anxiety in each one from a scale 1-3

Question 3

A03 for schaffer and emerson’s research

Answer 3

strengths:
- high ecological validity because the situations asked about were everyday situations

limitations:
- low population validity- only conducted on babies in glasgow
- problems with interpreting behaviour in asocial stages
- mother’s ratings are subjective
- mother’s ratings may be affected by social desirability bias

Question 4

schaffer and emerson’s findings

Answer 4

found findings of the four stages of attachment which lead to the development of their theory of the stages of attachment