Schaffer's stages ATM Flashcards
stages of attachment
many developmental theories identify a sequence of qualitatively different behaviours linked to specific ages
multiple attachments
attachments to two or more people
Schaffer and Emerson studied attachment in babies. The findings helped to develop an account for how attachment changes as babies get older. They proposed 4 stages:
- asocial stage
- Indiscriminate attachment
- Specific attachment
- Multiple attachments
Stage 1: Asocial stage
- Behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects is fairly similar
- Babies show signs that they want to be with other people
- Preference for familiar people
- Baby is forming bonds
Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachment
- 2-7 months babies display more obvious social behaviours
- Clear preference for benign with other humans
- Recognise and prefer company of familiar people
- Do not usually show separation anxiety or stranger anxiety
Stage 3: Specific attachment
- After 7 months babies display classic signs of attachment around 1 person
- Anxiety towards strangers and separation anxiety from attachment figure
- This person is called the primary attachment figure
- 65% of times this is the babies mother
Stage 4: Multiple attachments
- Extend this behaviour to more people
- Secondary attachment
- 29% of the children Schaffer and emerson observed form secondary attachments within month of forming primary attachment
Schaffer and Emersons research
They based their findings on observational study of formation in early infant-adult attachments.
Procedure
* 60 babies
* Glasgow
* Working-class families
Good external validity and counterpoint
strength and limitation
Schaffer and Emerson’s research has good external validity.
* Most of the observations were made by parents during ordinary activities and reported to the researchers
* alternative would have bee to have researchers present to record the observations
* distracted the babies or made them more anxious
This means that it is highly likely that the pp’s behaved naturally while being observed
BUT
but there are issues with asking the mothers to be the ‘observers’.
They were unlikely to be objective observers
They might have been biassed in terms of what they noticed and what they reported - for example they may have not noticed when their baby was showing signs of anxiety or could have misremembered it
This means that even if babies behaved naturally, their behaviour may have not been accurately recorded
real world appliction
strength
practical application in day care.
* In the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages daycare is likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult.
* But Schaffer and Emerson’s research tells us that day care , especially starting daycare with an unfamiliar adult may be problematic during the specific attachment age
This means that parents’ use of day care can be planned using Schaffer and Emerson’s stages.
poor evidence for the asocial stage
limitation
the validity of the measures they used to assess attachment in the asocial stage.
* Young babies have poor coordination and are fairly immobile.
* If babies less than two months felt anxiety in everyday situations they might have displayed this in quite subtle , hard to observe ways
* This made it difficult for mothers to observe and report back to the researcher on the signs of anxiety and attachment in this age group
This means that the babies may actually be quite social but because of flawed methods, they appear asocial
generalisability
On the positive side Schaffer and Emerson based their stage account on a large scale study with some good design features
On the other hand, they only looked at one sample which had unique features in terms of the cultural and historical context - 1960s working class Glasgow
In other cultures , for example collectivist cultures, multiple attachments from a very early age are more the norm
