Key Takeaways
- John Bowlby was particularly interested in the mother-child bond and its impact on the child’s psychological development.
- In contrast, Schaffer and Emerson focused more on developing social bonds, noting that children can form multiple attachments of varying strength.
- While both theories examine the attachment process, they were developed independently and reflect different perspectives.
| Stages | John Bowlby | Schaffer and Emerson |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pre-attachment (Birth to 6 Weeks): The infant does not discriminate between caregivers. | Asocial Stage (0-2 months): Infant behavior is directed at anyone or anything with a positive reaction, such as a smile. |
| 2 | Attachment-in-the-Making (6 Weeks to 7 Months): Prefers familiar people but accepts care from anyone. | Indiscriminate Attachment (2-7 months): Infants prefer people to inanimate objects, but not one person specifically. |
| 3 | Clear-Cut Attachment (7-24 Months): Specific attachment to the primary caregiver(s) develops. | Specific Attachment (7-9 months): Infants prefer particular caregivers and look to them for comfort, security, protection, and reassurance in stressful situations. |
| 4 | Formation of Reciprocal Relationships (24 months +): Children will acquire language skills and better understand the pattern of carers leaving and returning. | Multiple Attachments (10-18 months): Infants become increasingly independent and form attachments with multiple people in their lives who respond sensitively to them, including grandparents, siblings, or neighbors. |
Bowlby’s phases of Attachment?
John Bowlby, a British psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst, developed attachment theory, which focuses on the importance of a secure and trusting mother-infant bond on development and wellbeing.
He identified four phases of attachment.
These stages reflect a process where each step builds upon the last, leading to a strong, secure attachment under ideal circumstances.
Bowlby believed that these attachments serve a crucial evolutionary function: they increase the infant’s chance of survival by ensuring its safety and care.
Pre-attachment phase (Birth to 6 Weeks):
In this stage, infants show innate behaviors (like crying and smiling) that help attract caregiver attention and response but do not prefer a specific caregiver.
They accept care and comfort from any adult and do not yet understand that they are separate individuals from their caregivers.Attachment-in-the-Making (6 Weeks to 7 Months):
During this stage, infants develop a sense of trust in the people who respond to their needs.
They start to distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people, preferring familiar people, but they still accept care from strangers. They don’t yet protest when separated from a parent.Clear-Cut Attachment (7 Months to 24 Months):
Specific attachment to the primary caregiver(s) develops at this stage.
Infants seek regular contact with their caregivers and may show distress upon separation, demonstrating behaviors like “clinging” and “following.”
This stage also includes the development of “stranger anxiety” and “separation anxiety.”
The onset of stranger anxiety around 7-9 months reflects cognitive advances enabling infants to distinguish familiar from unfamiliar people.
While strangers provoke uncertainty, repeated comforting interactions with a sensitive caregiver provide the infant with the confidence to overcome this wariness.
By age 2, stranger anxiety typically resolves as the child becomes more socially adept.Formation of a Reciprocal Relationship (24 Months and Onwards):
As language develops, toddlers understand their parents’ actions and motivations and can negotiate with them.
They can now tolerate separations with less distress and use mental representations of their caregivers for comfort.
Critical Evaluation
- Bowlby proposed that babies are born with a limited ability to discriminate between caregivers and will accept care from whoever provides it. To get care, babies rely largely on crying at first.
- We now know babies have some innate abilities to recognize their mothers, like discerning her voice and smell soon after birth (Kisilevsky et al., 2003; Porter & Winberg, 1999).
- While these suggest basic recognition and orienting towards the mother, many caregivers can still soothe a distressed newborn. The mother’s presence is not required.
- A newborn’s interactions with caregivers represent initial attempts at self-regulation – expressing a need through crying and then being soothed.
- Over the first months, babies develop a larger repertoire of attachment behaviors beyond just crying.
Schaffer & Emerson’s Stages of Attachment
Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson (1964) studied 60 babies at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of life (this is known as a longitudinal study).
The children were all studied in their own homes, and a regular pattern was identified in the development of attachment. The babies were visited monthly for approximately one year, their interactions with their carers were observed, and carers were interviewed.
The mother kept a diary to examine the evidence for the development of an attachment. The following measures were recorded:
• Stranger Anxiety – response to the arrival of a stranger.
• Separation Anxiety – distress level when separated from a carer, degree of comfort needed on return.
• Social Referencing – the degree to which a child looks at a carer to check how they should respond to something new (secure base).
They discovered that baby’s attachments develop in the following sequence:
Asocial (0 – 6 weeks):
Very young infants are asocial in that many kinds of stimuli, both social and non-social, produce a favorable reaction, such as a smile.
During the asocial stage, the infant’s behavior does not appear specifically directed towards primary caregivers over others. The infant may respond to humans and objects similarly, showing generalized responses like crying, smiling, and looking at faces or objects.
Although termed “asocial,” it doesn’t imply that the baby has no interest in social interaction. Still, rather than undifferentiated interactions, they do not yet show a strong preference for any one person or display an understanding of social behavior. This is the period before specific, strong social bonds are formed.
Remember that despite its name, the asocial stage is important for social development. The interactions during this stage lay the groundwork for later stages of attachment.Indiscriminate Attachments (6 weeks to 7 months):
During this stage, infants start to display more social behavior and begin to show a preference for social stimuli, preferring human interaction over inanimate objects. They smile, babble, and reach out more to people rather than objects.
Infants indiscriminately enjoy human company; most babies respond equally to any caregiver. They get upset when an individual ceases to interact with them.
The infants are sociable and “indiscriminate” in their attachment because they do not show a strong preference for a single caregiver over others. They recognize and respond to more people, but they do not yet differentiate significantly between familiar and unfamiliar adults.
From 3 months, infants smile more at familiar faces and can be easily comfortable by a regular caregiver.Specific Attachment (7 – 9 months):
Special preference for a single attachment figure. The baby looks to particular people for security, comfort, and protection. It shows fear of strangers (stranger fear) and unhappiness when separated from a special person (separation anxiety).
Some babies show stranger fear and separation anxiety much more frequently and intensely than others, but they are evidence that the baby has formed an attachment. This has usually developed by one year of age.
The study’s results indicated that attachments were most likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby’s signals, not the person they spent more time with. Schaffer and Emerson called this sensitive responsiveness.
Intensely attached infants had mothers who responded quickly to their demands and, interacted with their child. Infants who were weakly attached had mothers who failed to interact.
The most important fact in forming attachments is not who feeds and changes the child but who plays and communicates with him or her. Therefore, sensitive responsiveness to the baby’s signals appeared to be the key to the attachment.Multiple Attachment (10 months and onwards):
The baby becomes increasingly independent and forms several attachments. By 18 months, the majority of infants have formed multiple attachments.
The study’s results indicated that attachments were most likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby’s signals, not the person they spent more time with. Schaffer and Emerson called this sensitive responsiveness.
Intensely attached infants had mothers who responded quickly to their demands and interacted with their children. Infants who were weakly attached had mothers who failed to interact.
Critical Evaluation
The Schaffer and Emerson study has low population validity. The infants in the study all came from Glasgow and were mostly from working-class families. In addition, the small sample size of 60 families reduces the strength of the conclusion we can draw from the study.
However, the accuracy of data collection by parents who were keeping daily diaries while clearly being very busy could be questioned. A diary like this is also very unreliable, with demand characteristics and social desirability being major issues. Mothers are not likely to report negative experiences in their daily write up.
The study lacks historical validity. It was conducted in the 1960s when gender roles were different – Now, more men stay at home to look after their children, and more women go out to work, so the sample is biased.
References
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment. Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Loss. New York: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss. Volume II. Separation, anxiety and anger. In Attachment and loss. volume II. Separation, anxiety and anger (pp. 429-p).
Bowlby, J. (1980). Loss: Sadness & depression. Attachment and loss (vol. 3); (International psycho-analytical library no.109). London: Hogarth Press.
Kisilevsky, B. S., Hains, S. M., Lee, K., Xie, X., Huang, H., Ye, H. H., … & Wang, Z. (2003). Effects of experience on fetal voice recognition. Psychological science, 14(3), 220-224.
Porter, R., & Winberg, J. (1999). Unique salience of maternal breast odors for newborn infants. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 23(3), 439-449.
Schaffer, H. R., & Emerson, P. E. (1964). The development of social attachments in infancy. Monographs of the society for research in child development, 1-77.
