Strange situation

AO1

Describe what the strange situation did and who did it

• Ainsworth devised a controlled observation called the range situation to assess types of attachment in 9-18 month old infants

• the strange situation involves placing a child and their mother in a novel environment of mild stress, whereby they would be observed and videoed through a one way mirror during a series of 8 different situations

more AO1

purpose of strange situation

• to measure 4 behaviours including exploration behaviours - how the child explores the environment and whether they use the mother as a safe base

• separation anxiety - how the child responds to/behaves when the mother leaves the room

• stranger anxiety - how the child responds in the presence of a stranger

• and reunion behaviours - how the child acts when reunited with their mother

depending on how the child responds to int eh strange situation would lead to one of the three attachment classifications:

• secure

• insecure-avoidant

• insecure-resistant

in the original experiment Ainsworth found

securely attached =66%

insecure avoidant =22%

insecure resistant=12%

AO3 - weakness of observation methodology

A methodological weakness of ainsowrth stance situation is the type of observation she used which was an overt observation

the parents in the Ainsworth study knew they were being observed through the one way mirror and therefore may have displayed demand characteristics

this meant that the mothers may have been overly affectionate towards their children as they believed this is the behaviour that the scenario demanded of them

in turn this could have altered the chuldren’s behaviour and therefore lowers the internal validity of the experiment making the strange situation a less valid method of assessing attachment

AO3 - however high reliability

however, the stance situation method of assessing attachment type is said to have high reliability

the observations took place under strict and controlled methods (including video recording) using predetermined behavioural categories

since Ainsworth has several observers watching and coding the same infant behaviours, agreement on attachment classifications could be ensured

ainsworth et al found that 94% agreement between observers and when inter-observer reliability is assumed to a high degree, the findings are considered more meaningful.

AO3 - classification system incomplete - of attachment

Finally there is the possibility that Ainsworth classification system of attachment types is incomplete b

main and Solomon 1986 conducted subsequent research whereby they analysed several hundred strange situation episodes via videotape and suggested that Ainsworth overlooked a fourth attachment type

it was noted that some infants showed in consistent patterns of behaviour which they termed ‘Type D - insecure-disorganised’.

further support for this claim comes from a meta-anlaysis of studies from the US conducted by Van Ijzendoorn et al 1999 which found that 15% of infants were, in fact, classified as Type D, suggesting that Ainsworths original assessment of attachment is unable to fully explain all of the different types of attachment in children