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stages of attachment - Coggle Diagram
stages of attachment
stages
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- happier in presence of humans
- behaviour between humans and non human objects are similar
- prefer faces to non faces
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- indiscriminate attachment
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- recognise and prefer familiar people
- smile more at familiar faces
- preferences for people not objects
- accept comfort from any adult
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- primary attachment to one individual
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- unfamiliar adults as secure base
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- form secondary attachments with familiar adults - father, grandparents etc
Schaffer and Emerson
to investigate the formation of early attachments - the age attachments are developed and their emotional intensity and to whom they are directed
method - longitudinal study of 60 babies of working class backgrounds in Glasglow, babies visited in their homes every month for a year, then again at 18 months, mothers were questioned about the babies protest behaviour in separation and stranger anxiety
results - between 25+32 weeks of age, 50% of babies showed separation anxiety, attachment tended to be towards the carer that was most interactive and sensitive, by 40 weeks, 80% of babies had a specific attachment
study evaluation
strength - it has external validity. most of the observations were made by parents during ordinary activities so the babies behaviour was unlikely to have been affected. babies behaved naturally
strength - longitudinal study. same children were studied as they aged meaning the study will not have been affected by confounding variables such as individual differences
limitation - problems with measuring multiple attachments. just because a baby gets stressed when an individual leaves the room doesn't mean they are a true figure. this highlights a problem with internal validity
stages evaluation
limitation - it is difficult to study children in the asocial stage. young babies have poor co-ordination and are fairly immobile making it difficult to make judgements from their behaviour
limitation - there is conflicting evidence on the timing of multiple attachments. Bowlby argues that most babies form attachments to a single carer before multiple. however in more collectivist cultures where families work together in a joint way, multiple attachments form