Attachement- The Starnge Situation

Question 1

What is the strange situation

Answer 1

A controlled observation designed to test attachment security.
Infants are assessed on their response to playing in an unfamiliar room , left with stranger and being reunited with care giver

Question 2

What is the procure of the strange situation

Answer 2

In a room with controlled conditions with two way mirror through which psychologists can observe infants behaviour without infant noticing

Question 3

What are the behaviours used to judge attachment

Answer 3

Proximity seeking, exploration and secure base behaviour , stranger anxiety , separation anxiety , response to union

Question 4

List all 7 episodes and what they test

Answer 4

1. Caregiver takes the infant into labs and leaves them to explore - tests exploration and secure base behaviour
2. A stranger enters and interacts with the infant - tests stranger anxiety
3. The caregiver leaves child and stranger together - tests separation and stranger anxiety
4. The caregiver returns and stranger leaves - tests reunion behaviour + exploration/secure base
5. The caregiver leaves the child alone - tests separation anxiety
6. The stranger returns - tests stranger anxiety
7. The caregiver returns and is reunited with child - tests reunion behaviour

Question 5

What is secure attachment

Answer 5

Type b in attachment types
Most desirable attachment type
Associated with psychologically healthy outcomes
60%-75% infants most common

Question 6

In the strange situation how did infants act if they had secure attachment

Answer 6

Explore happily - regularly went back to caregiver

• moderate separation distress
• moderate stranger anxiety
• require comfort from caregiver , ease of comfort at reunion

Question 7

Explain insecure avoidant attachment

Answer 7

An attachment characterised by low anxiety but weak attachment
20-25% toddlers
Type A

Question 8

What do infants that are insecure avoidant attachment act in the strange situation

Answer 8

• explore freely but no proximity or secure base behaviour
  No interest in where mum is
• no reaction or little when their caregiver leaves - no separation anxiety
• no interest when caregiver returns - no reunion behaviour
• not anxious by appearance of stranger - low stranger anxiety

Question 9

Explain insecure resistant attachment

Answer 9

Type c
Around 3% or British toddlers
Characterised by strong attachment and high anxiety
Caused by eg overprotective parents

Question 10

What will a child with insecure resistant attachment type act in strange situation

Answer 10

Seek greater proximity
Explores less

Extremely upset when caregiver leaves

Huge stranger and separation distress

Resist comfort when reunited with carer
Not easily comforted

Question 11

What is a strength of the strange situation

Validity

Answer 11

The attachment type identified by the strange situation is strongly predictive of later development

Eg babies identified as secure typically have better outcomes
In many areas from success at school to romantic relationships
Insecure resistant type associated with worse outcomes
Adult mental health problems and bullying

Results from ss are consistent later on in life increasing predictive validity

Just correlation between attachment type and outcome of life not cause

Question 12

What is another strength of the strange situation ?

Interater reliability

Answer 12

The SS shows very good interrater reliability.
For example Bick et al (2012)looked at interrater reliability in a team of trained SS observers and found agreement on attachment type for 94% of tested babies

Attachment type of an infant identified in the SS does not depend on who’s observing them

Question 13

What is another limitation of the strange situation (what does it measures)

Answer 13

Confounding variables rather than attachment could influence the behaviour presented in the SS.

For example the ss measures a childs response to anxiety produced by being in unfamiliar environment

however rather than main influence on anxiety being attachment Kagan 1982 suggested that temperament the genetically influenced personality of child may be more important

This shows defeats the purpose of the ss as temperament rather than attachment may be the thing that is getting observed

Question 14

What is another limitation of the SS (more than 3 types)

Answer 14

There may be atleast one more attachment type.

Eg Main and Solomon (1986)pointed out that a minority of children display atypical attachment that do not fall in any of the types

This commonly known as disorganised attachment who display an odd mix of resistant and avoidant behaviours.

This goes against ainsworths notion that a child can only be placed in 1 of the 3 attachment types