Schaffer and Emerson

Schaffer and Emerson

1. Key Study

   • Aim
     • Investigate the formation of early attachments
     • In particular the age at which they developed, their emotional intensity and to whom they were directed
   • Method
     • 60 Babies
       • 31 male and 29 female
     • Glasgow, skilled working class family
     • Babies and mother was visited at home every month for the first year
       • Again at 18 months
     • Asked mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in seven everyday separations
       • E.g. adult leaving the room (a measure of separation anxiety)
       • Designed to measure the infant's attachment
     • The researchers also investigated stranger anxiety
   • Findings
     • Between 25 and 32 weeks of age about 50% of the babies showed separation anxiety towards a particular adult
       • Usually the mother
     • Attachment tended to be the caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to infants signals and facial expressions
       • Reciprocity- Respond to each others signals
       • Not necessarily the person you spent the most time with
     • By the age of 40 weeks 80% of the babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments

2. Stages of Attachment

   • Stage 1: Asocial Stage
     • First few weeks
     • Not really an asocial stage as the baby is recognising and forming bonds with its carers
       • However, the baby's behaviour towards non-human objects and humans is quite similar
     • Babies show some preference for familiar adults in that those individuals find it easier to calm them
     • Babies are also happier when in the presence of other humans
   • Stage 2: Indiscriminate Attachment
     • From 2-7 months babies display more observable social behaviour
     • Show a preference for people rather than inanimate objects, and recognise and prefer family adults
     • At this stage babies usually accept cuddles and comfort from any adult
       • They do not usually shop separation anxiety or stranger anxiety
     • Their attachment type is said to be indiscriminate because it is not different towards any one person
   • Stage 3: Specific Attachment
     • Around 7 months
     • The majority of babies start to display anxiety towards strangers
       • Become anxious when separated from one particular adult
     • At this point the baby is said to have formed a specific attachment
       • Primary attachment figure
     • The attachment is not necessarily with the person spends the most time with
       • The person who offers the most interaction and responds to the babies signals
   • Stage 4: Multiple Attachments
     • Shortly after babies start to show attachment behaviour towards one adult they usually extend this attachment behaviour to multiple attachments
       • With adults they regularly spend time with
     • Secondary attachments
     • In Schaffer and Emerson's study, 29% of the children had secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment

3. Evaluation

   • Good External Validity (P)
     • Carried out in families' own homes
     • Most of the observations (other than stranger anxiety) was actually done by parents during ordinary activities and reported to researchers later
       • Behaviour was less likely to be affected by the presence of an observer
     • Excellent chance that the participants behaved naturally while being observed
   • Longitudinal Design (P)
     • Same children were followed-up and observed regularly
     • The quicker alternative would have been to observe different children at each age
       • Cross-sectional design
     • Longitudinal designs have better internal validity than cross-sectional
       • Don't have cofounding variables or individual differences between participants
   • Limited Sample Characteristics (N)
     • The sample size of 60 babies and their carer was good considering the large volume of data that was gathered on each participant
     • The families involved were all from the same district and social class in the same city and at a time over 50 years ago is a limitation
     • Child-rearing practices vary from one culture to another and one historical period to another
     • These results do not necessarily generalise well to other social and historical contexts
   • Problem studying the asocial stage (N)
     • Schaffer and Emerson describe the first few weeks of life as the 'asocial' stage, although important interactions take place in those weeks
     • The problem is that babies that are young and have poor co-ordination and generally pretty much immobile
       • Therefore difficult to make any judgments about them based on observation of behaviour as there isn't much observable behaviour
     • This does not mean the child's feelings and cognitions are not highly social but the evidence cannot be relied on
   • Conflicting Evidence on Multiple Attachments (N)
     • It is not entirely clear when a child is capable of multiple attachments
     • Some research seems to indicate that most, if not all babies form attachments to a single main carer before they become capable of developing multiple attachments (Bowlby)
     • Other psychologists, particularly those who work in those cultural contexts where multiple caregivers are the norm, believe babies form multiple attachments from the outset (Van IJzendoorn)
       • Such cultures are called collectivist because families work together jointly in everything- such as producing food and child rearing
   • Measuring Multiple Attachment (N)
     • Just because a baby gets distressed when an individual leaves the room, it does not necessarily mean that the individual is a 'true' attachment figure
     • Bowlby pointed out that children have playmates as well as attachment figures
       • May get distressed when playmate leaves the room, this does not signify attachment
     • This is a problem for Schaffer and Emerson's stages because their observation does not leave us a way to distinguish between behaviour shown towards secondary attachment figures and shown towards playmates