Attachment - key words continued

Attachment - key words continued

1. Stages of attachment - Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson (1964)

   • Studied 60 babies at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of life. A diary was also kept by mother to examine evidence of attachment. Three measures were recorded: Stranger anxiety - response to stranger arriving. Separation anxiety - Distress level when separated from carer, degree of comfort needed on return. Social referencing - the degree a child looks at carer to check how they should respond to something new
   • Discovered baby's attachments developed in the following sequence:
     • Asocial (0-6 weeks) - Very young infants, are asocial in that many kinds of stimuli, both social and non-social, produce a favourable reaction, such as a smile
       • Indiscriminate attachments (6 weeks to 7 months) - Infants indiscriminately enjoy human company, and most babies respond equally to their caregiver. They get an upset when an individual ceases to interact with them. From 3 months infants smile more at familiar faces and can be easily comfortable by a regular caregiver
         • Specific attachments (7-9 months) - Special preference for a single attachment figure. The baby looks to particular people for security, comfort and protection. It shows fear of strangers and unhappiness when separated from a special person. Some babies show fear and separation anxiety much more frequently than others, nevertheless, they are seen as evidence that the baby has formed attachment. This has usually developed by one year of age
           • Multiple attachments (10 months and onwards) - The baby comes increasingly independent and forms several attachments. By 18 months the infants have formed multiple attachments. The results of the study indicated that attachments were more likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby's signals, not the one they spent more time with. Schaffer and Emerson called this sensitive responsiveness
   • Intensely attached infants had mothers who responded quickly to their demands, and interacted with the child. Infants who were weakly attached had mothers who failed to interact
   • Many of the babies had several attachments by 10 months old including people who weren't mum. The mother was the main attachment figure for about half of the children at 18 months and the father for most the others. The most important fact in forming attachments is not who feeds and changes the child but who communicates with him/her, Therefore responsiveness appeared to be the key to attachment.