Stages of attachment as identified by Schaffer. Multiple attachments

Schaffer and Emerson Study (1964)

Aim: investigate the formation of early attachments, in particular the age at which they develop, their emotional intensity and to whom they were directed

Method: 60 babies - 31 mae, 29 female, all from Glasgow and the majority were from skilled working class families. the babies and thier mothers were visited at home each month for the first year and again at 18 months. researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest the babies showed in seven everyday seperations (e.g. an adult leaving the room, a example of seperation anxiety). this was designed to measure the infant`s attachment. they also assessed stranger anxiety.

Findings: between 25 and 32 weeks of age about 50% of babies showed signs of seperation anxiety towards 1 adult, usually the mother (specific attachment). Attachment tended to be towards the careiver that was most interactive and sensitive to infant signals and facial expressions (reciprocity). this was not necessarily the person with whom the infant spent the most time. By the age of 40 weeks 80% of babies had specific attachments and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments.

Schaffer and Emerson Evaluation:

Good external validity - study carried out in the babies` natural environment and most of the observation (with the exception of stranger anxiety) was done by parents during ordinary activities and fed back to researchers later. this means that the behaviour of the babies was unlikely to be affected by the presence of observers.  there is an excellent chance the babies were acting naturally, therefore the study has good external validity

Longitudinal design - a strength is that it was carried out lonitudinally - the same children were followed up on and observed regularly. the faster alternative would have been to use different children of varying ages (cross-sectional design). however longitudinal designs have better internal validity as there is not the confounding variable of individual differences between the children (participant variables)

Limited sample characteristics - sample size of 60 babies was good because of the large amount of data collated for each baby. However, all of the fanilies involved were from the same…