attachment -> Ainsworth's Strange Situation

Question 1

Who developed the Strange Situation?

Answer 1

Mary Ainsworth and Silvia Bell (1970)

Question 2

What was the aim of Ainsworth’s study?

Answer 2

To observe key attachment behaviours as a means of assessing the quality of a baby’s attachment to a caregiver

Question 3

What was the procedure of Ainsworth’s study?

Answer 3

• Infants aged between 9-18 months took part in a controlled observation through a two-way mirror during a set of eight different predetermined activities, each lasting approximately 3 minutes
• Observations of the following behaviours were video recorded:
  -> Separation anxiety
  -> Reunion behaviour/proximity seeking
  -> Exploration/safe-base behaviour
  -> Stranger anxiety
  -

Question 4

When did Ainsworth find that there were three types of attachment?

Answer 4

1978

Question 5

What are the three different types of attachment?

Answer 5

• Type A: Insecure avoidant (22%)
• Type B: Secure (66%)
• Type C: Insecure resistant (12%)

Question 6

How do insecure-avoidant attachments demonstrate exploration?

Answer 6

Infant explores the unfamiliar environment but does not return to the mother and does not use her as a safe base

Question 7

How do insecure-avoidant attachments demonstrate separation and stranger anxiety?

Answer 7

• Separation anxiety: low separation anxiety as the infant is not concerned by the mother’s departure
• Stranger anxiety: low stranger anxiety as they are unconcerned about the stranger and shows little preference between mother and stranger

Question 8

How do insecure-avoidant attachments demonstrate reunion behaviour?

Answer 8

Showed little interest when the mother returned, sometimes ignoring the mother and not seeking proximity/joy on reunion and avoids intimacy

Question 9

How do securely attached babies demonstrate exploration?

Answer 9

Would explore the unfamiliar room, returning to the mother at regular intervals to use her as a safe base

Question 10

How do securely attached babies demonstrate separation and stranger anxiety?

Answer 10

• Separation anxiety: Moderate separation anxiety - the infant is seriously disrupted when the mother leaves
• Stranger anxiety: moderate stranger anxiety as the infant is wary of strangers but friendly when the mother is present

Question 11

How do insecure resistant babies demonstrate exploration?

Answer 11

The infant does not explore the environment around them, choosing to stay close to the mother

Question 12

How do insecure-resistant babies demonstrate stranger and separation anxiety?

Answer 12

• Separation anxiety: high separation anxiety by showing intense distress, particularly when the mother was absent
• Stranger anxiety: showed uncertain behaviour towards the stranger, similar to the pattern of resistance and interest shown with their mother

Question 13

How do insecure-resistant babies demonstrate reunion behaviour?

Answer 13

The infant is not easily comforted by their mother and seeks but rejects attempts of mother’s comfort at reunion

Question 14

Evaluation: Good reliability -> strength

Answer 14

• Has good inter-rater reliability
• The observations took place under strict and controlled methods (including video recording) using predetermined behavioural categories
• Since Ainsworth had several observers watching and coding the same infant behaviours, agreement on attachment classifications could be ensured
• Ainsworth et .al (1978) found 94% agreement between observers and when inter-rater reliability is assumed to a high degree the findings are considered more meaningful
• Main et.al (1985) demonstrated good test-retest reliability by testing babies at 18 months and then at 6 years of age
• They found that 100% of the secure babies were still classified as secure and 75% of the avoidant babies were still under the same classification

Question 15

Evaluation: Imposed etic bias/culture bias -> limitation

Answer 15

• Not a valid measure of attachment in different cultural contexts
• Ainsworth’s theory and methods were based on Western ideals in relation to infant behaviour, categorising a higher proportion of children from other cultures as insecure-avoidant (e.g. Japan) or insecure-resistant (e.g. Germany)
• However, babies have different cultures and different experiences that may affect their responses to the Strange Situation
• e.g. Takahashi (1990) noted that the test does not really work in Japan because Japanese mothers are so rarely separated from their babies that, as we would expect, there are very high levels of separation anxiety
• In the reunion stage, Japanese mothers rushed to the baby to scoop them up meaning the child’s response was hard to observe

Question 16

Evaluation: lacks ecological validity -> limitation

Answer 16

• The highly controlled methodology of the Strange Situation has been criticised as highly artificial
• As they are held in a laboratory, not a familiar environment like the family home, observations lack ecological validity
• Therefore, the children she was observing may have acted differently to how they would act in a more familiar environment
• Additionally, the observation was overt in its design, meaning the mother would know her behaviour was being monitored
• She may show more sensitive responsiveness than usual due to demand characteristics
• Therefore, we do not know if the behaviours displayed by the children and the mother would be the same when they are not in a novel environment, making Ainsworth’s findings less externally valid