Schaffer & Emerson study PDF

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Lesson 2: Development of Attachment Schaffer and Emerson (1964) The researchers designed a large-scale longitudinal study to find out more information about the development of attachment. Over a period of two years they followed 60 infants from a mainly working class area of Glasgow, keeping a detailed record of their observations. The infants were observed every four weeks until they were 1 year old and then again at 18 months. At the start of the investigation the youngest participant was 5 weeks and the oldest was 23 weeks. Attachment was measured in two ways: Using separation protest in 7 everyday situations. The infant was left alone in a room, left with other people, left in his/her pram outside the house, left in his/her pram outside the shops, left in his/her cot at night, put down after being held by an adult, or passed by while sitting in his/her cot or chair. Using stranger anxiety. Every visit started with the researcher approaching the infant and noting at what point the infant started to whimper, thus displaying anxiety. Separation protest and stranger anxiety are signs that an attachment has formed. Before this stage of specific attachments infants show neither of these behaviours.

Schaffer and Emerson found that: Half of the children showed their first specific attachment between 25 and 32 weeks (6-8 months). Fear of strangers occurred about a month later in all the children. The intensity of attachment peaked in the first month after attachment behaviour first appeared, as measured by the strength of separation protest. However there were large individual differences. Intensely attached infants had mothers who responded quickly to their demands (high responsiveness) and who offered the child the most interaction. Infants who were weakly attached had mothers who failed to interact.

Multiple attachments: soon after one main attachment was formed, the infants also became attached to other people. By 18 months very few (13%) were attached to only one person, 31% had five or more attachments, such as father, grandparent, or older sibling. In 65% of the children the first specific attachment was to the mother, and in a further 30% the mother was the first joint object of attachment. Time spent with infant: in 39% of the cases the person who usually fed, bathed, and changed the child was not the child’s primary attachment object. In other words, many of the mothers were not the person who performed these tasks yet they were the main attachment object.

Questions 1) Explain what is meant by separation anxiety and stranger anxiety 2) Evaluate Schaffer & Emerson's study...