Schaffer’s Stages Of Attachment

Question 1

Schaffer and Emerson’s research

Answer 1

Observational study of the formation of early infant-adult attachment

Question 2

Specific Attachment

Answer 2

• between 25 and 32 weeks of age about 50% of babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a specific adult (usually mother)
• attachment tended to be towards the caregiver who was most responsive to the infant’s signals and facial expressions (reciprocity).
• attachment did not depended on who fed the child

Question 3

Multiple Attachments

Answer 3

• by the age of 40 weeks, 80% of babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments

Question 4

Stage 1: Asocial

Answer 4

• usually lasts between 6-8 weeks after birth
• no discrimination between humans
• preference for humans over non-humans
• babies now have a preference over different expletive
• prefer familiar people
• baby forms bonds with certain people

Question 5

Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachment

Answer 5

• from 8 weeks-7months
• can tell people apart
• stronger bonds start to grow with familiar adults
• no fear of strangers
• more obvious and observable social behaviours
• recognise and prefer familiar people
• usually accept cuddles and comfort from any person (indiscriminate)
• don’t show separation anxiety when caregivers leave
• don’t show stranger anxiety in the presence of unfamiliar people

Question 6

Stage 3: Specific Aattachment

Answer 6

• usually develops around 7 months old
• strong displays of separation anxiety
• distress in the company of strangers
• specific attachment has been formed to a ‘primary attachment figure’
• this is the person who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby’s signals with the most skill.
  In 60% of cases this is the baby’s mother.

Question 7

Stage 4: Multiple Attachments

Answer 7

• from around 10 months old
• attachment with primary carers
• increased interest in developing bonds with others
• these relationships are called secondary attachments
• 29% of the children formed secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment

Question 8

Good external validity

Answer 8

• most of the observations (apart from stranger anxiety) were made by parents during ordinary activities and then reported to the researchers
• if the researchers were making the observations then this could have distracted them or made them feel more anxious
• therefore it is likely that the babies behave naturally whilst being observed

Question 9

Strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s research

Answer 9

• they compared the mother’s self-report with observations of the baby’s behaviour while they visited them at home (for example, when the mother left the room)
• They found that the interview data matched their observations 92% of the time

Question 10

Temporal Validity

Answer 10

The extent we can generalise results to other times in history eg Today

Question 11

Problems with temporal validity

Answer 11

• Parental care of children has changed wince the 1960s.
• Many more women go out to work so children care cared for outside of the home.
• Research shows that fathers staying at home to care for children has quadrupled since 1960s.
• We cannot conclude that stages of attachment would be the same today.

Question 12

Collectivist cultures

Answer 12

• Focus on the group
• Value obedience and ‘interdependence’
• Share possessions and child care
• Expect multiple attachments to be more common

Question 13

Individualist cultures

Answer 13

• Focus on the individual
• Value independence
  Each person is more concerned with their own needs or the needs of the immediate family group.

Question 14

The research suffers from cultural bias

Answer 14

• The theory suggests that the stages are inflexible EG- that it is normal for single attachments to come before multiple attachments
• However, in other collectivist cultures, multiple attachments may be formed from the outset. This suggests that the stage model applies only to individualist cultures.
• Cultural bias occurs if the stage theory becomes a standard by which other cultures are urged and they may consequently be classed as abnormal.

Question 15

Counterpoint to good external validity

Answer 15

• There are many issues when asking the mothers to be the observer.
• They are unlikely to be objective observers
• They might have been biased in what they observed/reported.
• They might not have noticed signs or misremembered them.
• Therefore, even if the babies behaved naturally, their behaviour may not have been recorded accurately.

Question 16

Poor evidence for the asocial stage

Answer 16

• Hard to measure such young babies
• Babies less than 2 months old will display anxiety in everyday situations in subtle, quite hard to observe ways.
• This makes it difficult for mothers to report back t the researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment at this age group
• Therefore the babies may be quite social, but appear to be asocial because of the flawed methods

Question 17

Real world application

Answer 17

• Schaffer’s stages have a practical application in day care
• In the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stage day care is likely to be easier as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult.
• Schaffer and Emerson’s research shows that starting day care with an unfamiliar adult may be more problematic during the specific attachment stage.