Stages of attachment and the role of the father

Study into stages of attachment

: Schaffer and Emerson (1964) conducted a study on the development of attachments.

P: Sixty infants from mainly working class homes in Glasgow were studied. At the start of the investigation the infants ranged from five to twenty-three weeks of age. They were studied until the age of one year. The mothers were visited every four weeks. At each visit each mother reported on their infant’s response to separation in seven everyday situations (such as being left alone in a room, or with other people). The mother was also asked to describe the intensity of any protest (for instance a full-blooded cry, or a whimper) which was then rated on a four-point scale. Finally, the mother was asked to say to whom the protest was directed. The children’s response to the interviewer at each visit was also measured to assess their levels of stranger anxiety. They used the findings from this study to construct a description of how attachment develops.

C: By the age of one year, the majority of infants had formed multiple attachments.

These usually developed after the infant had formed their specific attachment to

the primary attachment figure.

Stages of attachment - stage 1: indiscriminate attachment

From birth to around two months infants produce similar responses to all objects, be they inanimate or animate. Towards the end of this period, infants are beginning to show a greater preference for social stimuli, such as a smiling face, and to be more content when they are with people. During this period of time reciprocity and interactional synchrony play a role in establishing the infant’s relationships with others.

Stages of attachment - stage 2: the beginnings of attachment

Around the age of four months infants become more social. They prefer human company to inanimate objects and can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people. However, they are still relatively easily comforted by anyone, and do not show stranger anxiety. The most distinctive feature of this phase is their general sociability (enjoyment of being with people).

Stages of attachment - stage 3:

By seven months old most infants begin to show a distinctly different sort of protest when one particular person puts them down (separation anxiety). Equally, they show joy at reunion with that person and are most comforted by this person. They are said to have formed a specific attachment to one person, their primary attachment figure. Around the same time, the infant also begin to display stranger anxiety, another sign of the specific attachment being formed.

Schaffer and Emerson found that primary attachments were not always formed with the person who spent the most time with the child. They observed that intensely attached infants had mothers who responded quickly and sensitively to their “signals” and who offered their child the most interaction. Infants who were poorly attached had mothers who failed to interact. Thus, they concluded that it is quality of the relationship, not quantity that mattered most in formation of attachment.

In 65% of the children the first specific attachment was to the mother, and in a further 30% the mother was first joint object of attachment. Fathers were rarely the first sole object of attachment (3%), but 27% of them were the joint first object.

Stages of attachment - stage 4: multiple attachments

Very soon after the main attachment is formed, the infant also develops a wider circle of multiple attachments depending on how many consistent relationships he/she has. Specifically, Schaffer and Emerson found that, within one month of first becoming attached, 29% of the infants had multiple attachments to someone else – to their other parent, grandparents, siblings, other relatives, friends and/or neighbours. These are called secondary attachments. Infants also display separation anxiety in these relationships. Within six months this had risen to 78%. In other words, by the age of about one year the majority of infants had developed multiple attachments, with one third of the infants having formed five or more secondary attachments, such as their father, grandparent or other sibling.

stages of attachment evaluation summary

• invalid data

• temporal validity

• biased sample

• implications

stages of attachment evaluation - invalid data

the data collected by Schaffer and Emerson may be invalid because it is based on mothers’ reports of their infants. Some mothers might have been less sensitive to their infants’ protests and therefore less likely to report them. Others may bias reports due to social desirability, this is because mothers will want to be seen as the child’s primary attachment. This reduces the internal validity of the data.

stages of attachment evaluation - temporal validity

the sample was from the 1960s. Parental care of children has changed considerably since that time. More women go out to work so many children are cared for outside the home, or fathers stay at home and become the main carer. Research shows that the number of dads who choose to stay at home and care for their children and families has quadrupled over the past 25 years (Cohn et al. 2014). Therefore, it is likely that, if a similar study to that of Schaffer and Emerson was conducted today, the findings might be different.

stages of attachment evaluation - biased sample

the sample was biased in a number of ways., it was from a working-class population and thus the findings may apply to that social group and not others.

Secondly the sample has Cultural bias: the study used an individualistic sample, this may not apply to collectivist societies where parenting and childcare are likely to be different. Therefore, the study lacks population validity.

stages of attachment evaluation - implications

one of the central discussions relating to multiple attachments is whether all attachments are equivalent or whether one or two have some special significance. Schaffer and Emerson called them secondary attachments suggesting that they are not as important. Bowlby’s view was that an infant forms one special emotional relationship (monotropy hypothesis). He said secondary attachments are important for different reasons; fathers offer a very different kind of care and siblings help infants learn how to negotiate with peers. Whereas Rutter (1995) has argued that all attachments are equivalent. He believes that all attachments are integrated to produce an infant’s attachment type. Therefore, the status of the multiple attachments made in stage 4 is unclear.

role of the father introduction

role of the father

explanations for the role of the father - biological factors

explanations for the role of the father - social factors

role of the father evaluation summary

• play an important role

• inconsistent findings

• not as important as mother

• socially sensitive

• economic implications

role of the father evaluation - play an important role

Although evidence suggests that fathers are rarely a primary attachment figure they still play an important role in being the secondary attachment figure. Research has consistently shown that fathers are more playful, physically active and generally better at providing challenging situations for their children. A lack of sensitivity from fathers can be seen as positive because it encourages the child to develop problem solving skills. The child will need to develop greater communication skills and learn to think for themselves (develop cognitive skills) if the father is less responsive than the mother.

role of the father evaluation - inconsistent findings

However, findings on the role of the father have been inconsistent because some research investigates the role of the father as a primary attachment figure & other research looks at the father as a secondary attachment figure.

The differences in the studies therefore make it difficult to determine what the role of the father actually is.

role of the father evaluation - not as important as mother

* Evidence suggests that the role of the father is not as important as the role of the mother. If fathers did play a vital role, we would expect children who grow up without a father to be negatively affected. But McCallum (2004) found that children bought up with a single mother or in same sex families do not develop any differently to those brought up in a household with both a mother & father. Therefore, it is likely that fathers do play more of a secondary role in attachment which may not be as important as the role of the mother.

role of the father evaluation - socially sensitive

However, research suggesting that mothers play a more important role in attachment can be considered to be socially sensitive. It suggests that children might be disadvantaged if their mother returns to work shortly after giving birth or if they. live with a single father.

But research shows that when a male is the primary caregiver, they adopt behaviours more typical of a mother. Eg Field filmed 4 month old babies interacting with primary caregiver mothers, primary caregiver fathers & secondary caregiver fathers. Primary caregiving fathers (like primary caregiving mothers) spent more time smiling, imitating & holding their babies compared to secondary caregiving fathers. The key to attachment is therefore the level of responsiveness & not the gender of the parent.

role of the father evaluation - economic implications

More women go out to work so many children are cared for outside the home, or fathers stay at home and become the main carer. Research shows that the number of dads who choose to stay at home and care for their children and families has quadrupled over the past 25 years (Cohn et al. 2014)

The increase in the number of stay at home dads signals that attitudes are changing to home roles, with greater acceptance for men to be the housekeeper and to look after the children. This means that when a child is born and one of the parents needs to stay at home to care for them, parents are able to select the person with the highest salary to return to work (regardless of whether it was the mother or father). In the long term this is likely to mean more families having more money to spend and thus strengthening the economy.

Another factor that may have led to the rise in stay at home dads could be recent economic recessions.

After each recession it tends to be professions such as healthcare, teaching, retail, etc. (predominantly female workforce) that recover fastest and suffer fewest redundancies than professions such as construction, office work or manufacturing (predominantly male workforce). This could indicate that the rise in stay at home dads has not been a voluntary decision.

role of the father conclusion

It is clear that men can still form secure attachments with their children, as is the case in single (male) parent families. But research has found that in two-parent families where the father is the primary caregiver, both parents often share the role of primary attachment figure. So men CAN be primary attachment figures but biological & social factors may discourage this.