Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Stage of Attachment. - Coggle Diagram
Stage of Attachment.
Evaluation.
Good External Validity?
- Most of the observations were made by the parents during activities and reported by the researchers. However, if the researchers did the observations during activities it made have distracted the babies or made them experience stranger anxiety.
- ON THE OTHER HAND, some mothers may have been less sensitive to their infant's protests therefore, would have not reported it. This would create systematic bias which would challenge the validity of the data.
Lack of evidence...
- Babies in the asocial stage are only a few weeks old, therefore, are uncoordinated and fairly immobile. This means it is hard for them to express any anxiety and would have only displayed this is in subtle ways. Meaning, the mother couldn't record this.
Generalisability! Bias!
- Infants were from working-class families thus, the stages of an attachment may only apply to that social group.
- It took place in the 1960s where there were different expectations of family life ie: the women stay home, married, etc. Now, there are more working mums, single parents raising children, or even two dads raising an infant. Therefore, this study is not reflective of current times.
-
Rudolf Schaffer and Peggy Emerson 1964 studied the attachment behavior of babies. This led them to discover that there were four stages of attachment.
- ASOCIAL SOCIAL.
- INDISCRIMINATE ATTACHMENT.
- SPECIFIC ATTACHMENT.
- MULTIPLE ATTACHMENT.
Produce:
- The study involved 60 babies (31 male and 29 female). The majority of the infants were from skilled working class families from Glasgow.
- Researchers would visit the family every months for one year and again at 18 months old. The researchers would ask the mother questions about the baby ie: what kind of protest their babies showed in seven days of separation, etc.
Asocial Stage.
BIRTH - TWO MONTHS.
- The infant produces similar behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects.
- However, Schaffer and Emerson did believe the infant is starting to develop a preference for humans and people they are familiar with as it brings comfort.
- During this period reciprocity and synchrony start to play a role in establishing the infant's relationships with others.
-
Specific Attachment.
SEVEN MONTHS.
- Infants begin to show attachment towards one particular person.
- They show signs of separation anxiety when away from their attachment and stranger anxiety in the presence of strangers.
- Schaffer and Emerson found that the primary attachment isn't always formed with the person the baby spent the most time with. Instead, with the person who responses t their needs and 'signals' the quickest and most sensitively.
- Quality, not quantality.
Multiple Attachment.
AFTER SEVEN MONTHS.
- After the infant forms primary attachment they began to develop a wider circle of multiple attachments.
- Schaffer and Emerson found that after one month of specific attachment 30% of infants have formed multiple attachments. After six months 80% have form multiple attachments.
- These are called secondary attachments.