Schaffer's Stages of Attachment

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  • Schaffer's Stages
    • 60 Glasgow babies observed every month for the year, then at 18 months
      • Mothers also given questionnaires
        • Social desirability bias
      • Researchers investigated stranger fear + separation anxiety
    • Stage 3: Specific attachments (from 7 months) is when babies show separation anxiety + stranger fear
      • Specific attachment to primary caregiver
    • Stage 1: Asocial stage (first few weeks) where baby's behaviour towards objects + humans is similar, with some preference for familiar adults
      • Social smile at 6 weeks
    • Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachments (2-7 months) when babies show preference for humans rather than objects, + recognise/ prefer familiar adults
      • Do not show stranger fear + separation anxiety
    • Stage 4: Multiple attachments (from 9 months) where babies extend attachment behaviours to various adults who they see regularly
      • Secondary attachments - 29% had these within a month of having primary
    • 25 - 30 weeks old - 50% showed separation anxiety, usually to mother
      • By 40 weeks, 80% had specific attachment + 30% had multiple attachments
    • High ecological/external validity as conducted in own homes
    • Longitudinal design rather than cross-sectional - better internal validity due to lack of confounding variable (individual differences between Ps)
    • Cultural relativism - in collectivist cultures, babies form multiple attachments from outset
      • Found by van Ijzendoorn

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