stages of attachment

Question 1

Who studied the stages of attachment ?

Answer 1

Schaffer and Emerson

Question 2

What was the procedure for the stages of attachment ?

Answer 2

• observational
• studied 60 working class babies
• visited every month for a year
• mothers interviewed
• wanted to find out how babies responded to seperation and at what age

Question 3

What are the 4 stages of attachment ?

Answer 3

• asocial stage
• indiscriminate stage
• specific attachment
• multiple attachment

Question 4

What is the first stage of attachment ?

Answer 4

Name: social stage
Age: 0-6 months
Responses: similar response
- forming bonds
- preference to facial features

Question 5

What is the second stage of attachment ?

Answer 5

Name: indiscriminate stage
Age: 2-7 months
Responses: - obvious and observable behaviours
- prefer humans over objects

Question 6

What is the third stage of attachment ?

Answer 6

Name: specific attachment
Age: 7 - 12 months
Responses: - signs of attachment to one person
- strangers and seperation anxiety
- there is a primary caregiver who infants interact with the most with

Question 7

What is the 4th stage of attachment ?

Answer 7

Name: Multiple attachment
Age: 12+ months
Responses: - show attachment to multiple people
- 29% formed attachment in the same months as the primary care giver

Question 8

What are the strengths of the stages of attachement theory ?

Answer 8

• completed in the child’s home which is a natural environment
• real-life application (in nursery there is more anxiety in the selective attachment age)
• high external validity
• longitudinal ( looked at over time)

Question 9

What are the limitations of the stages of attachment theory ?

Answer 9

• low internal validity as there may be the mothers bias as they conduct some of the observation
• the observer may not be able to pick up all of the details and anxieties
• ethnocentric - focuses on one location and class and not multiple cultures