SCHAFFER’S STAGES OF ATTACHMENT
Schaffer and Emerson studied the attachment behaviours of babies- they found how
attachment behaviours change as a baby gets older- there are 4 stages of attachment
stages of attachment
-> qualitatively different infant behaviours are linked to specific ages, all babies go through
them in the same order
attachment
-> a close two-way emotional bond between 2 people in which each sees the other essential
for their own emotional security
STAGES OF ATTACHMENT
Stage 1: Asocial stage
-> in a baby’s first few weeks of life its observable behaviour towards humans/objects is fairly
similar- hence ‘asocial’
-> Schaffer and Emerson did not believe it is entirely asocial because even at this stage
babies show signs they prefer to be with other people- typically a preference for familiar
people and are more easily comforted by them
-> in this stage the baby is forming bonds with certain people- these form the basis of later
attachments
Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachment
-> 2 to 7 months babies display more obvious and observable social behaviours
-> show clear preference for being with humans rather than inanimate objects
-> recognise + prefer company of familiar people
-> at this stage usually accept cuddles/comfort from any person hence term ‘indiscriminate’
-> do not usually show separation anxiety when caregivers leave their presence or
stranger anxiety in the presence of unfamiliar people
Stage 3: Specific attachment
-> around 7 months majority of babies display the signs of attachment towards 1 particular
person- eg. stranger anxiety + separation anxiety (separated from their attachment figure)
-> baby is said to have formed a specific attachment- the person the attachment is formed
with is called the primary attachment figure
➔ This person doesn’t have to be the individual the child spends the most time with but
rather the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby’s signals
with the most skill- 65% cases it is the baby’s mother
Stage 4: Multiple attachments
-> after babies show attachment behaviour (stranger/separation anxiety) towards one person
they usually extend this behaviour to multiple attachments with other people whom they
regularly spend time- these relationships are called secondary attachments
-> Schaffer and Emerson observed 29% children formed secondary attachments within a
month of forming a primary attachment
-> by age of one majority of babies had developed multiple attachments
SCHAFFER AND EMERSON’S RESEARCH
-> don’t need to know but useful to understand
They based their stage theory on an observational study of the formation of early infant-adult
attachments
Procedure:
-> 60 babies from Glasgow and the majority were from skilled working-class families
-> researchers visited babies and mothers in their homes every month for the first year and
again at 18 months
-> researcher asked the mother questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in 7
everyday separations (measure of separation anxiety) and when presented to unfamiliar
people (measure of stranger anxiety)
-> this was designed to measure the babies’ attachment
Findings:
-> Schaffer and Emerson identified 4 distinct stages in the development of infant attachment
behaviour- these make up their stage theory (above)
A03- EVALUATION
GOOD EXTERNAL VALIDITY
A strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s research is that it has good external validity. Most of
the observations were made by parents during ordinary activities and reported to the
researchers
-> this means it is highly likely that the pp behaved naturally while being observed
➔ COUNTERPOINT!
➔ however, there are issues with asking the mothers to be the observers as they were
unlikely to be objective observers- thus may have been biased in terms of what they
noticed and what they reported eg. might not have noticed when their baby was
showing signs of anxiety
-> this means that even if babies behaved naturally their behaviour may not have
been accurately recorded
POOR EVIDENCE FOR THE ASOCIAL STAGE
A limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages is the validity of the measures they used to
assess attachment in the asocial stage. Young babies have poor co-ordination and are fairly
immobile- if babies less than 2 months felt anxiety in everyday situations they might have
displayed this in quite subtle, hard to observe ways. This made it difficult for mothers to
observe and report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment in this age group
-> this means that the babies may actually be quite social but because of flawed methods
they appear to be asocial
REAL WORLD APPLICATION
Another strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages is that they have practical application in
day care- in the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages daycare is likely to be
straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult. However, their research
tells us that day care especially starting it with an unfamiliar adult may be problematic during
the specific attachment stage
-> this means that parents’ use of day care can be planned using Schaffer and Emerson’s
stages
GENERALISABILITY
On the positive side Schaffer and Emerson based their stage account on a large-scale study
with some good design features. On the other hand, they only looked at one sample which
had unique features in terms of the cultural and historical context- 1960s working class
Glasgow. In other cultures like collectivist cultures, multiple attachments from a very early
age are more the norm (IJzendoorn)
-> this suggests their findings may not be universally applicable as attachment patterns can
vary across different cultural and historical contexts
