Ainsworth strange situation

Question 1

What was the aim of her studies

Answer 1

To see the quality of attachment to caregivers

Question 2

Who were the participants?

Answer 2

100 middle class american babies

Question 3

what was the procedure

Answer 3

• controlled environment
• two way mirror
• the behaviours that were judged were proximity seeking, exploration, stranger and seperation anxiety and response to reunion
• there are 7 episodes

Question 4

What is type A

Answer 4

Insecure avoidant attachment
- (20 - 25%) - explores readily
- shows no stranger or seperation anxiety
- requires no comfort at reunion

Question 5

What is type B?

Answer 5

• secure attachment
• 65 - 70%
• explores happily and comes regularly
• requires some comfort at renuion
• shows relative seperation and stranger anxiety

Question 6

Type C

Answer 6

• insecure resistant attachment
• 3%
• doesnt explore
• shows high seperation and stranger anxiety
• cant be comforted at reunion

Question 7

Give two strengths

Answer 7

Strength - Good inter- rater reliability, Bick et al tested this and found that 94% of the observers agreed with the behaviour. This high level of reliability is due to the controlled conditions and how easy it was to observe the behaviour
Strength = Good predicitive validity, research shows that type B babies are more likely to have better outcomes than others and have better achivements in school. They are also less likely to be involved in bullying

Question 8

What were the 7 episodes?

Answer 8

• episode 1, the baby is encouraged to explore
• 2, the stranger comes in talks to caregiver and approaches baby
  -3, the caregiver leaves and stranger stays with baby
  -4, the caregiver returns and the stranger leaves
  -5, the caregiver leaves the baby alone
  -6, the stranger returns
  -7. the caregiver returns and is reuninted with the baby
• each episode lasted 3 minutes

Question 9

What is a weakness?

Answer 9

• the test may be culture bound. It was developed in the USA and Britain and only is valid for western cultures as in other cultures some behaviours are more accepted. For example, in a japanese study, many babies were insecure resistant due to collectivist cultures. This shows how the strange situation is very culture bound