Strange Situation Flashcards
(11 cards)
Outline secure attachment type
Type B
Caregiver is secure base
Moderate stranger and separation anxiety
Joy on reunion
Result of sensitive caregiving
Most desirable and associated w healthy psychological outcomes
Outline insecure - avoidant attachment type
Type A
Low anxiety but weak attachment
Low stranger and separation anxiety
Little response to reunion
Result of lack of sensitive responsiveness
Outline insecure resistant attachment type
Type C
High anxiety and strong attachment
High levels of stranger and separation anxiety
Seeking and resisting
Results of caregivers ambivalence / inconsistency to infants needs
What was the aim of Ainsworths strange situation
To investigate individual differences in types of attachment (difference between secure and insecure attachment)
To see how infants responded in new and mildly stressful situations
Outline the procedure of the strange situation
Controlled observation in purpose built laboratory playroom
Researchers watched through 1 way mirror and videotaped research
Consisted of 8 epidodes which each lasted 3 mins eg stranger entering room, mother returning etc
American infants 12- 18 months
Observers recorded 4 key behaviours to assess secure and insecure attachments
1)Exploration and secure base
2) Separation anxiety
3) Stranger anxiety
4) Reunion response
Outline what Ainsworth found in the strange situation
Secure 70% - explore happily but regularly go back to caregiver (secure base)
Moderate separation distress, moderate stranger anxiety, treat mother and stranger different, joy on reunion
Insecure avoidant 20% - explore freely, don’t seek proximity or show secure base behaviour, play not affected by absence or presence of mother, little distress on separation, respond to mother and stranger similarly, avoid contact on reunion
Insecure resistant 10% - no secure base and not willing to explore, very distressed on separation (clingy)
Resists the stranger, seeks and resists on reunion
What did Ainsworth conclude from the strange situation
Significant individual differences between infants, which may be related to behaviour and responsiveness of caregiver
Suggests our innate tendency for attachment is affected by life experiences
Evaluate the strange situation using predictive validity
Strength of strange situation is provides good measure of attachment that differentiates between different attachment types and strongly predicts later development
Secure infants had better outcomes (success at school, friendships and romantic relationships)
Insecure resistant associated w worst outcome eg bullying in later childhood (Myron Wilson and Smith) and adult mental health problems (Ward et al)
Supports the predictive validity of the strange situation as a useful tool to identify early types of attachment and predict adult relationships
Evaluate the strange situation using reliability
Strange situation shows very good inter rater reliability (different observers watching same children in SS generally agree on what attachment type to classify them)
Because SS has standardised procedures, controlled conditions and behavioural categories are easy to observe and operationalised
Bick et al (2012) looked at inter rater reliability in team of trained strange situation observers and found agreement on attachment type for 94% of infants
Confident that infants attachment type doesn’t depend on who is observing them
Evaluate the strange situation using idea test is culturally bound
SS created and tested in USA therefore is culturally biased / ethnocentric
Reflects norms of American culture
Cultural difference mean children and their caregivers respond differently to SS
Eg Takahashi (1990) found SS didn’t work in Japan as Japanese’s babies rarely separated from mothers so had high levels of separation anxiety
At reunion episode, mothers rushed to babies and scooped them up quickly, meaning child’s response was hard to observe
Suggests Mary Ainsworth assumed the American based model of classifying attachment was the norm and so imposed her own cultural understanding on rest of world (imposed etic)
Evaluate the strange situation using the 4th type
Main and Solomon (1986) found Ainsworth overlooked 4th type of attachment
Analysed over 200 SS videotapes and proposed insecure disorganised attachment, type D
Characterised by lack of consistent patterns of social behaviour
Infants lack a coherent strategy for dealing with stress of separation
Eg show very strong attachment and sudden avoidance or fear towards caregiver
Van Ijzendoorn et al supported this w meta analysis of 80 studies in US and found 15% were classified as insecure disorganised
Existence of disorganised type challenges Ainsworths notion of attachment types
