Ainsworth’s Stranger Situation - Topic 5 Flashcards
(13 cards)
What was the stranger situation?
Was a procedure for assessing the quality of attachment between the infant and mother. It was developed by Ainsworth and it involves a series of episode where the child is left alone and adults come in and out of the room. The procedure lasts for 24 mins in total.
What was the aim of the study?
To measure the security of attachment that the child displays towards caregiver.
What is meant by proximity seeking?
It is the way that infants try to maintain physical contact or be close to their attachment figure.
What is meant by exploration and secure base behaviour?
It is about how far infants are happy to explore the environment.
What is meant by stranger anxiety and separation anxiety?
-stranger anxiety is how infants react when they encounter a stranger.n
-separation anxiety is how infants react when separated from caregiver.
What is meant by response to union?
How infants react when reunited with their caregiver.
What is the episodes included in the procedure of the strange situation and what is it measuring?
- The child is encouraged to explore- secure base
- Stranger enters and tries to interact with the child- tests stranger anxiety
- The caregiver leaves the child and stranger together- separation anxiety & stranger anxiety
- Caregiver returns and stranger leaves- proximity seeking
- Caregiver leaves so child is alone- separation anxiety
- Stranger enters and interacts with the child- stranger anxiety
- Caregiver returns and is reunited with the child- response to reunion
What are the three different types of attachment?
-secure attachment
-insecure avoidant attachment
-insecure resistant attachment
What were the results of the stranger situation for those who were SECURELY attached?
75% were securely attached they used the mother as a safe base to explore their environment, were avoidant of stranger when alone but friendly when mother was present. When the mother left they were distressed and accepted comfort from the mother once she returned.
What were the results of the stranger situation for those who had an INSECURE AVOIDANT attachment ?
15% had a insecure avoidant attachment. The mother and stranger were able to comfort infant equally well in the end, they showed little stranger anxiety, showed no signs of distress when mother left and showed little interest when she returned.
What were the results of the stranger situation for those who had an insecure resistant attachment?
15% had a insecure resistant attachment. They seemed more proximity from the mother and explored less. Avoids and shows signs of fear of stranger, show signs of distress when mother leaves and approaches mother but resists contact when she returns.
What did Ainsworth conclude ?
-attachment differs depending on the sensitivity of the mother, sensitive mothers had securely attached children.
-mothers who were less sensitive and less responsive had babies who were more likely to be insecurely attached.
What are some evaluations?
-strange situation has good reliability. The reliability was demonstrated by main et al who tested babies at 18 months and then at 6 years old and found that 100% of the secure babies were still classified as secure and 75% of the avoidant babies were still the same classification. This is called test retest reliability.
-ethical concerns are associated with the study as leaving the infant alone in the room knowing they will get distressed can cause psychological harm to the infant. It also has low ecological validity as the procedure takes place in an artificial setting, meaning it can’t be applied to the real world.
