Shaffer's Stages Of Attachment

Front 1

Methodology

Back 1

60 babies-31 male 29 female. All from Glasgow and a working class background. Visited from home every month for a year and then at 18 months. Asked questions about children's reaction to seperation and stranger anxiety and then assessed them.

Front 2

Findings

Back 2

Found that 50% of babies showed seperation anxiety towards a particular adult between 25-32 weeks. (Usually the mother) by 40 weeks 80% of babies had formed a specific attachment and 30% had formed multiple attachments. Attachment was formed with the most interactive not who spent most time .

Front 3

4 stages of attachment

Back 3

A social, indiscriminate, specific attachment, multiple attachments

Front 4

Asocial stage

Back 4

Babies actions toward inanimate objects and humans are similar. Babies show some preference for familiar adults and they find it easier to calm them. Happier when around them.

Front 5

Indiscriminate attachment

Back 5

2-7 months. Preference for people rather than objects and are more social. Start to accept comfort.

Front 6

Specific attachment

Back 6

Around 7 months they form a specific attachment and display seperation and stranger anxiety. (65% the mother) person who interacts and responds to alerts signals is the primary attachment

Front 7

Multiple attachments

Back 7

Extended attachments are formed after primary. 29% of children had secondary attachments within a month of forming their primary. By age of one year most had formed secondary.

Front 8

External validity

Back 8

Due to it being done at their own homes and babies not being affected by the psychologists being there, many extraneous variables were ruled out. As it was natural aswell it made it valid.

Front 9

Limited sample characteristics

Back 9

As each family was from the same district and social class it was hard to generalise to everyone else, even though it had a large amount of data collected from the 60 families. Also cultural differences of parenting styles could also make it less generalisable to other historical times.

Front 10

Problem studying the asocial stage

Back 10

As children at a young age are immobile and have poor Co ordination, it is hard to make judgments on what their actions mean. This makes it hard to rely on the data observed even if the children are being social.

Front 11

Conflicting evidence on multiple attachments

Back 11

There is conflicting evidence on when children form multiple attachments. Bowlby says you have to form primary before secondary but ijzendoorn says it can form at the same time. These are child rearing differences.

Front 12

Measuring multiple attachments

Back 12

Children can get distressed when a secondary attachment figure leaves the room and when a playmate leaves the room so it is hard to distinguish between behaviour towards a secondary attachment or a playmate and contradicts shaffer and Emersons stages