stages of attachment - schaffer and emerson

Question 1

aim of research

Answer 1

To investigate the formation of early attachments and the age, at which they develop

Question 2

procedure of research

Answer 2

-Longitudinal study of 60 working-class newborn infants and their mothers from Glasgow

• The infant and mothers are visited at their homes every month for the first year of the infant life and again at 18 months
• Observations and interviews were used

Question 3

how was attachment measured?

Answer 3

Separation anxiety and stranger anxiety

Question 4

how is stranger anxiety assessed?

Answer 4

The researcher starts eat home visit by approaching the infant to see if this distresses the child

Question 5

how is separation, anxiety measured?

Answer 5

By the infant been left alone in a room

Question 6

Findings of research

Answer 6

Schaffer and Emerson found there were four stages, two attachment

– Asocial
– Indiscriminate
– Specific
– Multiple

Question 7

what is asocial attachment?

Answer 7

first few weeks
- infants behaviour to adults and inanimate objects was similar

Question 8

what is indiscriminate attachment?

Answer 8

2 to 7 months
– Infants show a preference to people over inanimate objects, but don’t show stranger or separation anxiety

Question 9

What is specific attachment?

Answer 9

around seven months
– Infants start form attachments and show separation and strange anxiety when separated
- 65% of cases was with the mother

Question 10

What is multiple attachment?

Answer 10

-within one month of forming a specific attachment 29% of children formed multiple attachment.

-By one year most inference had multiple attachment at 18 months,

-75% of children had an attachment with father.

Question 11

evaluation paragraphs

Answer 11

– High ecological validity
– Social desirability
– Culture bias

Question 12

high ecological validity

Answer 12

– The observations were carried out in the family’s homes

– Easy to generalise the findings to real life Examples of attachment.

-Children’s behaviour is likely to be representative of every day interactions

• Increasing external validity of the research

Question 13

Social desirability

Answer 13

– Interviews were used to gather information so mothers, could’ve lied about their child’s behaviour to present their parenting in the best possible light

– Results may lack internal validity and not measure of the true stages of attachment

Question 14

Culture bias

Answer 14

– The sample was used from the same city of Glasgow

– Difficult to generalise the findings of the stages of attachment to other cultures

– Example of non-western culture

Limiting the external ability of the research of stages/multiple attachments