Schaffer's Stages of Attachment

Stages of Attachment

Schaffer and Emerson in 1964 studied the attachment behaviour of babies. The research led them to develop a theory of how attachment behaviours change as the baby gets older. They suggested that there were four stages of attachment.

Stage one: Asocial Stage

 In the first few weeks of life, the baby is considered to be asocial. This means that they treat humans and inanimate objects the same. Babies do tend to show a preference for the company of familiar people but at this stage they haven’t formed any meaningful attachments.

Stage two: Indiscriminate Attachment

From around 2 months of age to 7 months of age babies start to show more observable obvious social behaviours. In this stage they show a clear preference for other humans rather than inanimate objects. They also prefer the company of people who they find familiar. However, at this stage the baby can accept comfort from any person and that is why it is referred to as the indiscriminate stage. In this stage babies do not show separation anxiety from the caregivers or show stranger anxiety whilst in the presence of unfamiliar people.

Stage three: Specific Attachment

From around seven months of age most babies start to show the signs that they have made an attachment to one particular person. In this stage they start to show anxiety towards strangers. They also show separation anxiety when separated from the primary attachment figure. Schaffer suggested that this is because the baby has formed a specific attachment and this is to one primary attachment figure. He was clear that this person might not necessarily be the person who they spend the most time with, but it’s the person who is most sensitive and responsive to the child’s signals, i.e. the person with the most skill. In 65% of cases this tends to be the mother.

Stage four: Multiple Attachments

Schaffer suggested that once a child had made one attachment, this attachment behaviour is extended to other people whom they spend time with. This is referred to as the multiple attachment stage and the relationships that the baby forms now are referred to as secondary attachments. Schaffer and Emerson found that 29% of children appeared to form the secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment. At the age of 1 year the majority of babies have shown that they have developed multiple attachments.

​

Schaffer and Emerson‘s Research:

The study conducted in 1964 included involved 60 babies of which 31 were boys and 29 were girls. All babies were from the Glasgow area and the majority were from working class families. The researchers visited the babies and the mothers in their own homes every month for the first year and then again when the babies were 18 months of age. The researcher asked the mothers to keep a diary and also when they visited they asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest that their baby showed across seven every day separations, for example, when the adult left the room. All of this was designed to measure the type the attachment. The researcher also assessed stranger anxiety. It is from this research study that the stages of attachment were developed.

​

Evaluation

1. One strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s research is that it has good external validity. This is because the observations were made by parents during ordinary activities and then reported back to the researchers. The observations were completed in the child’s usual environment and therefore it is likely that the babies behaved naturally whilst being observed. On the other hand, there are issues with asking the mothers to be the observers as they might not be objective. Furthermore, they may have forgotten to record some of the data, which impacts the validity of the findings.

​

2. One limitation of Emerson stages is the validity of the measures they used to assess the attachment in the asocial stage. With all research involving very young babies there are problems because babies have very poor coordination and are largely immobile. Therefore, it might be very difficult to know how exactly the babies are feeling. Even if the babies do feel anxious it might be difficult for the mothers to pick up on this and report back to the researchers. This too causes issues with the validity of the data collected.

​

3. Another strength of Schaffer and Emerson‘s research into stages of attachments is that they it has good practical applications to daycare. It is it is thought that when babies are in the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages daycare should be straightforward as they do not show stranger anxiety and should be easily comforted by any skilled adult. However, the research does show us that daycare especially starting daycare with an unfamiliar adult during the specific attachment stage might be problematic for the child. This means that knowledge of the stages in the development of attachments can be used when parents are planning the use of daycare.

​

4. Another strength of Schaffer and Emersons research is that it was a reasonably large-scale, longitudinal study with a number of good design features. However, they only looked at one sample of children which might be specific to that cultural and historical context, i.e. 1960s working class Glasgow. It is known that in other cultures e.g. collectivist cultures, multiple attachments start from a very early age and are more the norm (van Ijzendoorn, 1993).