Ainsworth’s strange situation

Describe procedure of strange situation AO1

• Strange situation 1970 used controlled observational study to assess & measure quality of attachment. Sample: 100 middle class American infants between 9-18 months. Used to assess behaviours that affect attachment styles

• 8 predetermined stages lasting 3 mins long inc mother leaving child to play with toys in presence of stranger & alone and mother returning

• Stage 1- mother + child enter playroom, 2- child encouraged to explore, 3- stranger enters + interacts, 4- mother leaves with stranger present, 5- mother returns + stranger leaves, 6- mother leaves, 7- stranger returns and tries to interact, 8- mother returns + greets child + stranger leaves

• Categories of behaviour: exploration + secure base, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety and response to reunion

Describe results of strange situation AO1

• 3 attachment types- secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-resistant

• Secure: (66%) babies explored happily, regularly returned to caregiver (secure base), moderation stranger + sep anxiety

• Insecure-avoidant: (12%) not use mother as safe base, low sep and stranger anxiety

• Insecure-resistant: (22%) no secure base, not willing to explore, high sep anxiety, hot, cold stranger anxiety, seek and resistant contact on reunion

Evaluation point 1 - ethical concerns

• P - limitation, unethical, caused psychological distress to infants involved

• E - infants deliberately separated from caregiver + left alone with stranger, intense anxiety for infants, esp those with insecure-avoidant

• L - weakness as infants suffered psychological harm, reducing credibility of study as it is ethically biased

• H - argued separation times was short (only 3 mins) to minimise lasting psychological harm. Furthermore, strange situation produces valuable research about attachment types, benefits outweigh costs

Evaluation point 2 - internal validity

• P - strength, high internal validity due to highly controlled procedure

• E - each infant experiences same sequence of events: separation from caregiver + interaction with stranger in standardised routine in lab, this increases the internal validity

• L - strength because consistent and objective procedure allows strange situation to be repeated many times to obtain same results, increasing the reliability Of study

• H - controlled lab experiment may not reflect environment infants usually behave and play in everyday life, weakness as reduces applicability to real-life attachment behaviour, reducing usefulness of strange situation

Evaluation point 3 - culturally biased

• P - limitation, culturally biased

• E - designed in USA and based on US child-rearing norms, behaviours judged according to US standards. In metanalysis by Van Ljzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) Japanese classified as insecure-resistant due to high distress on separation, but this reflects lack of experience being separated not attachment insecurity

• L - weakness as suggests Strange situation not valid measure of attachment across cultures as behaviours have different meanings in different cultural contexts

• H - despite this, secure attachment most common type in many cultures- supports some level of cross-cultural validity