Aims
- To investigate early attachments, in particular the age at which they developed, to whom and the emotional intensity
Procedure
- 60 babies (31 male, 29 female) from skilled working-class families in Glasgow
- The babies and mothers were visited every month for the first year and then at 18 months
- Researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in 7 everyday separations, i.e.,
- Adult leaving the room (separation anxiety)Infant’s anxiety response to un
- familiar adults (stranger anxiety)
Findings
- Between 25 – 30 weeks of age, about 50% of the babies showed signs of separation anxiety to a particular adult, usually the mother (specific attachment)
- Attachment tended to be the caregiver who was the most interactive/sensitive to infant signals (i.e., reciprocity)
- By 40 weeks of age, 80% of the babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments
Stages
- Indiscriminate attachments
- Birth till approx. 2 months
- Produce similar responses to all objects – animate or inanimate
- Towards the end, infants are more content when with people
- Reciprocity and interactional synchrony play a role in establishing infant’s relationships with others
- The beginnings of attachment
- 2 – 4 months
- Infants become more social
- Prefer human company to inanimate objects
- Can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people
- Still relatively easily comforted by anyone
- Do not yet show stranger anxiety
- General sociability – enjoyment of being with people
- Discriminate attachment
- 4 - 7 months
- Start becoming anxious when separated from one particular adult (65% biological mother)
- Show joy when reunited
- Said to have formed a specific attachment – primary figure attachment
- Start to display anxiety towards strangers
- Primary attachment figure not necessarily person the child spends most time with – it is the adult who offers the most interaction to and responds to the baby’s signals the most
- Multiple attachment
- Soon after main attachment is formed, the infant extends this attachment behaviour to multiple adults
- These are adults with whom they regularly spend time with
- These relations are called secondary attachments
- Schaffer and Emerson found 29% of children had secondary attachments within a month of forming primary attachments
By the age of 1, most children had developed multiple attachments