Development of attachment

Development of attachment

1. stages of development

   • Stage 1: Asocial attachment (birth - 2 months) - babies behaviour towards human and non human objects is similar
   • Stage 2: indiscriminate attachment (2 - 7 months) - preference for people. They recognise and prefer familiar adults. Indiscriminate behaviour
   • Stage 3: specific attachment (from around 7 months) - displays anxiety towards strangers and form specific attachment (primary attachment figure - 65% mother)
   • Stage 4: multiple attachment - forms multiple attachments with other adults with whom they regularly spend time (secondary attachments)

2. Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

   • procedure
     • Procedure: longitudinal study on 60 Glasgow infants (5- 23 weeks at the start of the study) from working-class homes at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of their life. The children were all studied in their own home and a regular pattern was identified in the development of attachment. The babies were visited monthly for approximately one year, their interactions with their carers were observed, and carers were interviewed.
     • The mothers were asked to keep a diary of the infant’s response to separation in seven everyday situations: Left alone in a room, left with other people, left in their pram outside the house left in their pram outside the shops left in their cot at night, put down after being held by an adult, passed by while sitting on their cot or chair.
     • The researchers also carried out direct observations of the infants’ reaction when they approached him. (stranger anxiety). They were followed up again at 18 months.
   • Results
     • They discovered that baby's attachments develop in the following sequence: Up to 3 months of age - Indiscriminate attachments. After 4 months - Preference for certain people. After 7 months - Special preference for a single attachment figure. stranger fear and separation anxiety. After 9 months - Multiple attachments.
   • conclusions
     • The mother was the main attachment figure for 65% of the children at 18 months old, whilst only 3% of the infants studied developed a primary attachment to their father. By 18 months old, 31% of the infants had formed multiple attachments.
     • Attachments were most likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby's signals, not the person they spent most time with. Schaffer and Emerson called this sensitive responsiveness. The most important fact in forming attachments is not who feeds and changes the child but who plays and communicates with him or her.
   • Evaluation
     • carried out in homes, taking part in normal activities (good ecological validity)
     • Longitudinal study (good internal validity)
     • ethnocentric (reduces external validity)