Child

Question 1

What is the strange situation procedure

Answer 1

Step 1 - mother comes in room
Step 2 - Child explores room with mother (use of parent as safe base)
Step 3 - Stranger enters the room and tries to interact with the child
Step 4 - Mother leaves, leaving child and stranger alone (separation anxiety)
Step 5 - Mother rejoins the child, consoles the child and stranger leaves (reunion behaviour)
Step 6 - Mother leaves the child alone (separation anxiety)
Step 7 - Stranger enters and tries to interact and consoles the child (stranger anxiety)
Step 8 - Mother returns to child and stranger leaves (reunion behaviour)

Question 2

Type A

Answer 2

Insecure avoidant
-High willingness to explore
-Low stranger anxiety
-Indifferent separation anxiety
-Avoids contact at reunion with caregiver
-Typically German children
-Mother consistently emotionally unavailable
-22% of infants

Question 3

Type B

Answer 3

-High willingness to explore
-High stranger anxiety
-Some separation anxiety but easy to soothe
-Enthusiastic at reunion with caregivers
-Most common in Western cultures
-Mother consistently unavailable
-66% of infants

Question 4

Type C

Answer 4

-Low willingness to explore
-High stranger anxiety
-Distressed at separation with caregiver
-Seeks contact then rejects it at reunion with caregiver
-Mother inconsistently emotionally unavailable
-12% of infants

Question 5

Advantages of Ainsworth SSP

Answer 5

-Structured observation so highly controlled
-Behaviours reported by many observers so high inter rater reliability

Question 6

Disadvantages of Ainsworth SSP

Answer 6

-Lacks environmental validity, children may act different in familiar surroundings
-Ethically flawed as it causes distress to the child
-May not be useful for children used to daycare

Question 7

Conflicting evidence for Ainsworth SSP

Answer 7

-Mannal et al (2006) studied 118 Portuguese babies and mothers until 2 years of age doing SSP in labs
-Found temerament an overwhelming influence on attachment types
-Supports Kegan theory. Especially with children who are in daycare where interaction with strangers is common, will be misclassified.

Question 8

Application to childcare

Answer 8

-Processes that faciliate secure attachment can be applied to any situation where children are cared for
-In situations where disordered patterns of attachment develop between baby and caregiver, intervention strategies can be developed