SCHAFFER AND EMERSON (1964)
Schaffer and Emerson aimed to investigate the formation of early attachments, and in particular what age they occured.
The study involved 60 babies - 31 male and 29 female from working class families in Glasgow. The mothers and their babies were visited at home once a month for the first year, and then again at 18 months. The researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest the babies showed in seven everyday situations. e.g adult leaving the room. This was designed to measure the babies attachment. The researcher also investigated stranger anxiety - the infants response to unfamiliar adults.
Between 25 and 32 two weeks, 50% of the babies shown signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult - usually the mother. Attachment tended to be towards the primary caregiver who was most interactive and responsive to infant signals and facial expressions. (Recipricocity). This was not necessarily the person the baby spent the most time with. By the age of 40 weeks, 80% of the babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% and multiple attachments.
The study involved 60 babies - 31 male and 29 female from working class families in Glasgow. The mothers and their babies were visited at home once a month for the first year, and then again at 18 months. The researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest the babies showed in seven everyday situations. e.g adult leaving the room. This was designed to measure the babies attachment. The researcher also investigated stranger anxiety - the infants response to unfamiliar adults.
Between 25 and 32 two weeks, 50% of the babies shown signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult - usually the mother. Attachment tended to be towards the primary caregiver who was most interactive and responsive to infant signals and facial expressions. (Recipricocity). This was not necessarily the person the baby spent the most time with. By the age of 40 weeks, 80% of the babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% and multiple attachments.
SCHAFFER'S STAGES OF ATTACHMENT
Stage One - Asocial Stage (first few weeks)
The babies behaviour toward objects and humans are quite similar. Babies do show some preference for familiar adults in that those individuals find it easier to calm them down. Babies also seem happier when in the presence of other humans.
Stage Two - Indiscriminate Attachment
From 2-7 months, babies display more observable social behaviour. They show a preference for people rather than inaminate objects and recognise and prefer familiar adults. At this stage, they will usually accept cuddles and physical contact from any adult, and do not usually show seperation anxiety or stranger anxiety. Their attachment behaviour is therefore said to be indiscriminate because it is not different to any one person.
Stage Three - Specific Attachment
From around 7 months, most babies start to display anxiety towards strangers and become anxious when seperated from one particular adult. (The mother in 65% of cases). At this point it is said that the baby has formed a specific attachment, and this adult is termed the primary attachment figure. This person is not necessarily th person the child spends the most time with, but the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the babies 'signals'.
Stage Four - Multiple Attachments
Shortly after babies start to show attachment behaviour towards one adult, they usually extend this attachment behaviour to multiple attachments with other adults whom they regularly spend time with. These relationships are called secondary attachments. In Schaffer and Emersons study, 29% of the children had secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment. By the age of one year, the majority of babies had multiple attachments.
The babies behaviour toward objects and humans are quite similar. Babies do show some preference for familiar adults in that those individuals find it easier to calm them down. Babies also seem happier when in the presence of other humans.
Stage Two - Indiscriminate Attachment
From 2-7 months, babies display more observable social behaviour. They show a preference for people rather than inaminate objects and recognise and prefer familiar adults. At this stage, they will usually accept cuddles and physical contact from any adult, and do not usually show seperation anxiety or stranger anxiety. Their attachment behaviour is therefore said to be indiscriminate because it is not different to any one person.
Stage Three - Specific Attachment
From around 7 months, most babies start to display anxiety towards strangers and become anxious when seperated from one particular adult. (The mother in 65% of cases). At this point it is said that the baby has formed a specific attachment, and this adult is termed the primary attachment figure. This person is not necessarily th person the child spends the most time with, but the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the babies 'signals'.
Stage Four - Multiple Attachments
Shortly after babies start to show attachment behaviour towards one adult, they usually extend this attachment behaviour to multiple attachments with other adults whom they regularly spend time with. These relationships are called secondary attachments. In Schaffer and Emersons study, 29% of the children had secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment. By the age of one year, the majority of babies had multiple attachments.
EVALUATION
Strengths
Weaknesses
- Good external validity. The study was carried out in the families homes, and most of the observation was actually done by parents during ordinary day to day activities. This means that the behaviour of the babies was unlikely to be effected by the presence of observers. There is an excellent chance that the participants behaved naturally whilst being observed.
- Longitudinal Design. This was a huge strength of the study, the children were followed and observed over an 18 month period. It does not have the issue with cofounding variables that a cross sectional study would have had.
Weaknesses
- Sample size - although a participant size of 60 was good for the amount of data gathered, all of the participants were from the Glasgow area and from a working class background. Child rearing practices in different social classes and cultures vary greatly, so these results do not generalise well to the whole population.
- Problem studying the Asocial Stage - this is the first few weeks of a babies life. It is very difficult to observe behaviour during these first few weeks - as there isnt much of it!
- Conflicting Evidence on Multiple Attachments - Although is is clear multiple attachments do occur, it is still not clear when exactly this happens. Most research suggests that babies form a specific attachment first, before forming multiple attachments. However, some psychologists have researched attachments in culture where multiple caregivers are the norm, so multiple attachments occur from the beginning. (Van Ijzendoorn et al 1993)
- Measuring Multiple Attachments - There may be a problem with how multiple attachments are measured.Just because a baby gets distressed when an individual leaves the room, does not mean that that adult is a true attachment figure. Bowlby pointed out that children have playmates as well as attachment figures, and may get distressed when a playmate leaves the room but this does not signify attachment.
TEACHING IDEAS
- Could create some form of story board through the four different stages. - (possibly the online ones we looked at in subject sessions?)
- Practice Exam Q's - "Outline stages of development as identified by schaffer" (4 marks) and "Outline one criticism of schaffers stages of attachment" (4 marks). Complete and peer assess.
