5. Describe and evaluate Schaffer and Emerson's stages of attachment ( 16 marks)

Describe and evaluate Schaffer and Emerson's stages of attachment ( 16 marks) Schaffer & Emerson (1964) investigated the age at which specific attachments developed and if this was common to all infants. Studied 60 babies that were all from Glasgow, the majority were from skilled working class families. Babies and their mothers were visited every month for the first year and then again at 18 months to observe their behaviour . The mothers were also interviewed about the child’s response in everyday separation anxiety related situations. Schaffer and Emerson found that Between 6-8 months of age 50% of the babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult (usually, mother) .Attachment tended to be to the caregiver who was most sensitive to infant signals and facial expressions (i.e. reciprocity/synchrony) and not necessarily the person that they spent the most time with.By 10 months ; 80% of babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments to other people who they spent time with. Schaffer and Emerson suggested that there were 4 stages of attachment. The 1st stage was asocial . When infants are 0 to 6 weeks they begin to form a bond with their carer. However, infant’s behaviour towards non-human objects and humans is similar. They may start to show preference for familiar adults, and are more easily soothed by these adults. Stage 2 – Indiscriminate attachment (6 weeks to 6 months). In this stage they show a clear preference for people for objects and recognise familiar adults. At this stage babies also accept comfort from adults, and do not usually show separation or stranger anxiety (indiscriminate as it is not towards any one specific person). Stage 3 – Specific attachment (7 months onwards) – Majority of the babies start displaying anxiety towards strangers and become anxious when separated from one adult (mother in most cases). The baby is said to form a specific attachment, and the adult is the primary attachment figure. The primary attachment is not who spends the most time with them but the one who responds the most to their signals. Stage 4 – Multiple attachments (11 months onwards) – Once they show attachment towards one adult they usually extend this attachment behaviour to multiple adults with whom they spend most time. These are called secondary attachments. In the study, majority of the infants had developed multiple attachments by the age of one year. A strength of the theory is that it is supported by a study which was longitudinal in design.For example, Schaffer and Emerson's study observed infants and their Mothers regularly; every month for a year and then again at 18 monthsThis is a strength as this allows for rich in-depth data on the participants and provides better opportunities to compare their attachment over time. It provides more internal validity than one-off observations which provide only a snapshot of the type of attachments that the children have and would compare different children at different ages (cross-sectional design). This adds to the validity of the theory, as it is based on evidence which has high validity A limitation of Schaffer stages of attachment