Exam Focus: Types Of Attachment - The Strange Situation

Question 1

Outline and Evaluate Ainsworth’s strange situation (16 marks)

Answer 1

A01: 
•Aim 🎯 
•Procedure 
•Findings 🔎
•Conclusion 📊

A03:
✅ Strength- predictive validity
✅ Further strength - good reliability, inter-rater reliability 
⛔️ Limitation- cultural validity 
⛔️ Limitation- other types of attachment

Question 2

What is the AIM of Ainsworth’s strange situation?

Answer 2

Ainsworth et al aimed to investigate individual differences in types of attachments, especially differences between secure and insecure attachments.

She wanted to see how infants 👶🏻 respond in a new & mildly stressful situation.

Question 3

What was the PROCEDURE of Ainsworth’s strange situation?

Answer 3

Strange situation took place in a purpose-built laboratory 🔬 playroom 🎪 and the method used was a controlled observation.

It was a specially set up room in university 🏢 with researchers watching 👓 the infants 👶🏻 through a one-way mirror and whilst watching the event they videotaped 🎥 the research.

The strange situation method consisted of eight episodes each of which lasted three minutes this included:

1. mother 👩🏻 and baby 👶🏻 entering the room/ being introduced.
2. child being left alone
3. stranger 👻 entering the room
4. mother of child leaving
5. mother returning
6. Child being left alone
7. Stranger leaving
8. Mother leaving

American 🇺🇸 infants 👶🏻 aged 12 - 18 months were used in the research study. The observers recorded 🎥 the infants 👶🏻 and mothers 👩🏻behaviour to assess secure and insecure attachments noting key 🔑 behaviours:

> Exploration and secure base - more securely attached child will explore more wildly using their care giver as a secure base, i.e. point of contact 🙏🏼 that will make them feel safe.

> Separation anxiety - the response the child makes when mother departs.

> Stranger anxiety - reaction of child to stranger

> reunion behaviour - how the child behaves when mother returns .

Question 4

What were the FINDINGS of Ainsworth’s strange situation?

Answer 4

Using the analysis of the observations in the strange situation, Ainsworth identified 3 main attachment types:

1. Type B – Secure 70% :
   •Willingness to explore - the infant 👶🏻 explores happily 😃 but regularly goes back to their caregiver 🤰🏻,they show proximity seeking 👀and secure base behaviour.

• Separation anxiety – moderate distress. 😖
• Stranger anxiety – moderate distress.😖 The 👶🏻 treats the mother 👩🏻 and stranger 👻differently.
• Reunion behaviour – The infant 👶🏻 is at joy 🤗 on reunion with mother 👩🏻.

2. Type A – insecure avoidant 20%

• Willingness to explore – the infant 👶🏻 explores freely but does not🚫👀 seek proximity or shows any secure base behaviour. Play is not affected by the presence or absence of the mother.
• Separation anxiety – the infants 👶🏻 experiences little distress 😣 on separation with mother.
• Stranger anxiety – the infant 👶🏻 responds in a similar way to the mother and stranger.
• Reunion behaviour – infant 👶🏻 avoids contact with the mother on reunion.

3. Type C – Insecure resistant 10%

• Willingness to explore – infant 👶🏻 has no secure base and no will to explore.
• Separation anxiety – very distressed 😖 at separation.
• Stranger anxiety – infant resists 🚫 the stranger 👻
• Reunion behaviour – infant seeks 👀 and resists 🚫 contact 🙏🏼 on reunion, for example they would put up their arms 🙌🏼 in order to be picked up but then would immediately struggle to get down.

Question 5

What did Ainsworth CONCLUDE from strange situation?

Answer 5

Ainsworth believed there are significant individual differences between infants 👶🏻 , which may be related to the behaviour and responsiveness of the caregiver. 🤰🏻

This suggests that an innate tendency for attachment is affected by life experiences.

Question 6

A03:

What are the evaluation points from the strange situation study?

Answer 6

✅ Strength – predictive validity

✅ Further strength - good reliability, inter-rater reliability

⛔️ Limitation – cultural validity

⛔️ Limitation – other types of attachment

Question 7

✅ Strength – predictive validity

Answer 7

Strength of strange situation is that it provides good measure of attachment that differentiates between the different attachment types and also strongly predicts later development in the infants 👶🏻 .

Infants 👶🏻 assessed as secure, typically go on to have better outcomes in many areas, ranging from success at school📚 to romantic relationships 💑 and friendships 👭 in adulthood.👩🏻‍💼

Insecure resistant attachment is associated with the worst outcome including bullying 👊🏼 in later child hood (Myron-Wilson and Smith 1998) and adult mental health problems (Ward et al 2006).

This supports the predictive validity of the types of attachment identified by Ainsworth.

Question 8

✅ Further strength - good reliability, inter-rater reliability

Answer 8

Strange situation also shows very good inter-rater reliability.

In other words different observers watching the same children 👶🏻 in the strange situation generally agree on what attachment type to classify them with.

This may because the strange situation takes place under controlled conditions and because the behavioural categories are easy to observe.

In a recent study Bick et al 2012 looked at inter-rater reliability in a team of trained strange situation observers and found agreement on attachment type for 94% of tested infants 👶🏻 .

This means we can be confident that the attachment type of an infant 👶🏻 identified in the strange situation does not just depend on who is observing them.

Question 9

⛔️ Limitation – cultural validity

Answer 9

Strange situation was created and tested In USA 🇺🇸 , which means it may be culturally biased (ethnocentric) as it will reflect the norms and values of American culture.

Cultural differences in childhood experiences are likely to mean that children respond differently to the strange situation.

For example, Takahashi 1990, noted that the strange situation did not work in Japan 🇯🇵 , as Japanese 🇯🇵 mothers 👩‍👦 are so rarely separated from their babies 👶🏻 that there are very high levels of separation anxiety.

At the reunion stage Japanese 🇯🇵 mothers 👩‍👦rushed to the babies 👶🏻 and scooped them up, meaning the child’s response was hard to observe.

Therefore the usefulness of the strange situation in assessing attachment across cultures may be limited.

Question 10

⛔️ Limitation – other types of attachment

Answer 10

However Main and Soloman 1986 found that Ainsworth et al overlooked a 4th type of attachment.

They analysed over 200 strange situation videotapes and proposed insecure-disorganised attachment type D, which is characterised by a lack of consistent patterns of social behaviour.

Such infants lack a coherent strategy for dealing with the stress if separation.

For example, they show very strong attachment behaviour which is suddenly followed by avoidance or looking fearful towards their caregiver.

Van Ijzendoorn et al 1999 further supported this with a meta-analysis of nearly 80 studies in the US 🇺🇸 .

They found 15% were classified as insecure-disorganised.

Therefore the existence of a disorganised attachment type challenges Ainsworth’s notion of attachment types.