Stages of attachment Schaffer and Emerson 1964 How

Stages of attachment Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

How long does it take to form an attachment? The time after birth is considered a very special time for parents to bond with their new baby. However, the whole process takes much longer in human infants. It’s around 7 -8 months before babies form their real first attachments

Research into the stages of attachment - procedure Schaffer and Emerson (1964) • Longitudinal study (1 year) of 60 babies from Glasgow • 5 -23 weeks old at the beginning, studied for 1 year • Mothers visited every 4 weeks • Mother’s reported on 3 factors; 1. Infants response to separation in 7 everyday situations (e. g. left alone, left with others) 2. Intensity of any protest on separation (4 point scale) 3. To whom the protest was directed • Stranger anxiety measured by response to interviewer

Research into the stages of attachment - findings & conclusion - Between 25 -32 weeks old, approx 50% of babies showed signed of Attachments tended to be separation anxiety with the caregiver who was towards a particular adult Conclusion most interactive and sensitive the infant’s signals and This research therefore suggeststothat attachment facial expressions (reciprocity). develops in stages. - By 40 weeks 80% of **This wasn’t necessarily the person the infant spent the Schaffer and Emerson then developed the Stages of babies had a specific most time with! attachment Attachment (colour in the sort activity) - By 40 weeks 30% of babies had multiple attachments

Stages of attachment evaluation - consider the example below and discuss how it might be criticism/support for the research Young babies in this stage have poor coordination and are generally pretty much immobile. It is therefore very difficult to make any judgements about the infants based on observations of their behaviour (there isn’t much observable behaviour).

Stages of attachment evaluation - consider the example below and discuss how it might be criticism/support for the research There is no doubt that children become capable of multiple attachments however; it is not clear at what age this happens. Some research seems to indicate that most babies form attachments to a single main carer before they become capable of developing multiple attachments. Other Psychologists, in particular those who work in those cultural context were multiple care givers are the norm, believe babies form multiple attachments from the outset.

Stages of attachment evaluation - consider the example below and discuss how it might be criticism/support for the research 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 (1969) pointed out that children have playmates as well as attachment figures and may get distressed when a playmate leaves.