ainsworth’s strange situation

Question 1

procedure - ss

Answer 1

7 stage controlled observation

assesses proximity-seeking, exploration and secure base, stranger and separation anxiety, response to reunion

Question 2

findings - ss

Answer 2

babies show consistent patterns of attachment behaviour

secure - enthusiastic greeting, generally content, moderate anxiety

avoidant - avoids reunion, generally reduced responses

resistant - resists reunion, generally more distressed

Question 3

ss - culture-bound

Answer 3

limitation of the research is that the test may be culture-bound. This is due to the strange situation having been developed in Britain and the US, meaning that those cultures, such as Japan, that have different experiences such as having a collectivist culture may not be accurately represented or measured in the strange situation. This causes some to question the validity of it being a measure of attachment as in one Japanese study, babies displayed very high levels of seperation anxiety and so disproportionate number were classified as insecure-resistant. This means that it is very difficult to know what the strange situation is measuring when used outside europe and the US

Question 4

ss - reliability

Answer 4

good inter-rater reliability. This is due to the 94% agreement between trained observers, who also viewed the observations, This high level of reliability may be because the procedure takes place under controlled conditions and because behaviours involve large movements and are therefore easy to observe. This means that we can be confident that attachment type as assessed by the strange situation does not depend on subjective judgements.

Question 5

ss - application

Answer 5

This is due to it being used by social workers during intervention classes to help change attachment style to benefit the child. They also were able to test whether this was successful, which was found that it was. This is a strange as infants having secure attachments are important for their later attachments and general mental health.

Question 6

ss - validity

Answer 6

strength of the strange situation is the good predictive validity that it holds. This is due to attachment types being able to predict later social behaviour such as school success and bullying

Question 7

ss - ethics

Answer 7

further problem of the strange situation is the psychological harm , separation & stranger anxiety, episodes stopped if too stressed, but in every day life mothers do leave their babies