Stages of attachment evaluation

Stages of attachment evaluation

1. Good External Validity- most of the observations (not stranger anxiety) were made by parent during ordinary activities and reported to researchers. - babies behaviour unlikely to be affected by observer being present. It is highly likely that the participants behaved naturally while being observed

2. It was carried out longitudinally- this means that the children were followed up and observed regulary. The quicker alternative would have been to observe differnt children at each age. This is called cross-sectional design. But longitudinal designs have better internal validity because they do not have cofounding variable of individual differences between participants

3. There may also be a problem with how multiple attachment is assessed. Just because a baby get's distressed when an individual leaves the room does not necessary mean that the individual is a 'true' attachment figure.

   • Bowlby pointed out that children may be distressed when a playmate leaves theroom, but this does not signify attachment to them. So Schaffer and Emerson's view of stages does not distinguish between behaviour shown towards secondary attachment figures and towards playmates

4. A broader limitation is that there is a problem in asocial year. Schaffer and Emerson describe the first few weeks as the 'asocial' stage, although important interactions take place. But young babies have poor coordination and fairly immobile making it difficult to make judgements based on observations of their behaviours. It may be the babies are actually quite social but, because of flawed methods they appear to be asocial.

5. Evidence on the timing of multiple attachments is conflicting. Bowlby argues that most (or all) babies form attachmetns to a single main carer before they are able to develop multiple attachments

   • But multiple attachments appear from the outset in cultures where multiple attachments are the norm- Van Ijzendoorn
     • Such cultures are called collectivists because families work together jointly in everything (e.g producing food and raising children)