Ainsworth Strange Situation

Question 1

AO1 - procedure

Answer 1

Ainsworth developed the strange situation in order to assess the strength and types of attachment formed by babies and caregivers.
Sample consisted of American middle class infants and their mothers.
The caregiver and child are taken to an unfamiliar room and observed with a 2-way mirror and/or cameras whilst subjected to a scenario.
Ainsworth tested 4 behaviours - separation anxiety, willingness to explore, stranger anxiety and reunion behaviour through 7 different stages.
Caregiver sits and watches the infant play with toys.
Stranger enters, interacts with caregiver, then plays with infant.
Caregiver leaves the room, stranger continues to play with infant.
Caregiver returns, greets and comforts the infant. Stranger leaves.
Caregiver leaves infant alone in the room.
Stranger enters and tries to interact with infant.
Caregiver returns, greets and picks up infant. Stranger leaves.

Question 2

AO1 - findings

Answer 2

From this, Ainsworth discovered 3 main attachment types.
Secure (approx 70% infants) - moderate levels of stranger and separation anxiety, willing to explore but used mother as a safe base, on reunion, needs and accepts comfort from mother.
Insecure-avoidant (approx 20% infants) - low separation and stranger anxiety, explore freely and do not show secure base behaviour, avoidant behaviour when mother returns.
Insecure-resistant (approx 10% infants) - high separation and stranger anxiety, not interested in exploring and seek proximity, resist comfort when reunited with caregiver.

Question 3

AO3 - controlled observation

Answer 3

Ainsworth’s study was a controlled observation. Therefore, it is not conducted in a real life setting and follows a script that is unlike real life separations. For example, a researcher found that infants were more distressed when separated from caregiver in a laboratory setting than at home due to the unfamiliar environment. This means it has low ecological validity and cannot be generalised or applied to real-life attachments.
However, the procedure was highly controlled and defined with operationalised variables, which makes the study highly replicable. This has led to high inter-rater reliability in further replications - researchers reported over 90% agreement between observers.

Question 4

AO3 - culture bound

Answer 4

The strange situation may be culture bound. This is because it was primarily based on Western cultures and almost all of the studies were carried out in America. However, in Japan, there are much higher levels of separation anxiety and insecure-resistant attachments. This is because the mother does not leave the baby until they are 6. Therefore, the strange situation is culturally biased as babies are brought up differently in different cultures. Therefore the results cannot be generalised.
Also, it has low population validity as only American-middle class infants were used.

Question 5

AO3 - good predictive validity

Answer 5

The strange situation has good predictive validity. This is because it can be used to predict a number of aspects of the baby’s later development. In childhood, secure attachments achieve more in school and are less involved in bullying, and in adulthood secure attachments have better mental health. Whereas insecure-resistant have the worst outcome as they tend to bully others and suffer from poor mental health. Therefore it could be useful in schools as it can be applied to children’s behaviour to gain better understanding.
However, ethical concerns - the strange situation causes distress to the infants.