Ainsworth's strange situation

Question 1

Attachment types

Answer 1

-Ainsworth categorised attachment styles of infants into three styles:
-Insecure avoidant (Type A) infants do not use their mother as a safe base and explore their environment freely. They display little stranger anxiety and when the mother leaves the room, show little separation anxiety; when the mother returns, the infant is indifferent and does not seek comfort from their mother. Their mothers show little sensitive responsiveness to their infant’s needs
-Secure attachment (Type B) infants use their mother as a safe base to return to when exploring their surroundings. These infants display moderate stranger anxiety, and when the mother leaves the room displays separation anxiety, but have a positive rapid recovery, allowing them to return to their exploration quickly. Mothers show sensitive responsiveness
-Insecure-resistant (Type C) Infants do not explore their environment and are clingy with the mother, wanting to be close to them. These infants display high stranger and separation anxiety, but when the mother returns the infant has mixed emotions about them, appearing to both crave and reject their attention. Mothers are inconsistent with their sensitive responsiveness

Question 2

Ainsworth’s strange situation (Process)

Answer 2

-Ainsworths strange situation involves observing mother-infant pairs in a controlled lab setting with each stage lasting three minutes. Two observers behind a two-way mirror observe the infant’s responses at each stage. The stages assess the proximity of the infant to the mother, the willingness of the infant to explore, the use of the mother as a safe base, separation anxiety, stranger anxiety, reunion response, and the sensitive responsiveness of the mother

Question 3

Ainsworth strange situation Episodes

Answer 3

Episode one: infant can explore environment freely without the mother interacting with them (this is measuring the infant’s use of the mother as a safe base)
Episode 2: a stranger enters the room (this measures stranger anxiety as the observers see the reaction of the infant to the presence of the stranger
-Episode 3: the mother leaves the room and the infant is left alone in the room with the stranger (separation anxiety is measured and stranger anxiety as the observers see the reaction of the infant to the stranger trying to comfort them)
-Episode 4: the mother returns and the stranger leaves (this measures reunion response, observers watch to see whether the infant seeks comfort and proximity from the mother, and how quickly they go back to exploration)
-Episode 5:the mother leaves and the infant is left on its own (this measures separation anxiety once again as the observers watch to see how the infant deals with being alone)
-Episode 6: the stranger returns to the room (this measures stranger anxiety as the observers watch how the infant reacts to a stranger trying to comfort them)
-Episode 7: the mother returns (this is the seconds reunion response)

Question 4

Ainsworth strange situations results

Answer 4

-From the results; Ainsworth identified three distinct types of attachments that also correlated with the amount of sensitiveness responsiveness shown by mothers
-Secure 66%-mothers show consistent SR
-Insecure avoidant 22%-mothers show little SR
-Insecure resistant 12%-mothers show inconsistent SR

Question 5

positive evaluation of the strange situation: highly controlled

Answer 5

-The strange situation is a highly controlled observation using standardised procedures and clearly defined behavioral categories
-The standardised procedures used has allowed researchers to replicate the study and compare results across different groups

Question 6

Positive evaluation of the strange situation: predictive validity

Answer 6

-The attachment styles identified by the strange situation have high predictive validity; infants classified as securely attached tend to have better social, emotional and academic outcomes than those who ere classed as insecurely attached

Question 7

Negative evaluation of the strange situation: cultural bias

Answer 7

-The strange situation has been criticised as suffering from cultural bias; as the strange situation was only done in one culture, it is difficult to generalise these results to other cultures. For example, in some cultures children are taught to be more independent, so may not show signs of distress when left by their primary caregiver, which may be interpreted as an insecure attachment type according to the strange situation