Ainsworth's Strange Situation

types of attachment: secure, insecure avoidant, insecure resistant. cultural variations in attachment, including van Ljzendoorn (name)

who was Mary Ainsworth

student of Bowlby’s then became his colleague. originally believed attachments could be explained by learning theories then changed mind. created The Strange Situation to test attachment.

The Strange Situation method

1. Mother, baby, and experimenter: The mother, accompanied by an observer, carried the baby into the room, and then the observer left.  This episode lasts less than one minute.

2. Mother and baby alone: The mother places the baby in a designated area, then sits quietly, only interacting if the baby initiates. This episode lasts for three minutes.

3. A stranger joins the mother and infant: A stranger enters the room, sitting silently for a minute, then conversing with the mother for another minute before gradually approaching the baby with a toy. After the third minute, the mother discreetly exits the room.

4. Mother leaves baby and stranger alone: If the baby was contentedly playing, the stranger didn’t intervene. If the baby was inactive, the stranger attempted to engage him with the toys. If the baby was upset, the stranger sought to distract or soothe him. If comfort couldn’t be provided, the episode was cut short; otherwise, it continued for three minutes.

5. Mother returns, and the stranger leaves: The mother enters and momentarily pauses at the doorway, allowing the baby to react to her presence spontaneously. The stranger discreetly exited.

6. Mother leaves; infant left completely alone: The baby was left by themself for three minutes unless their distress level necessitated shortening this time frame.

7.  Stranger returns: The stranger returned, acting as in the fourth episode for three minutes unless the baby’s distress led to a premature ending.

8. Mother returns, and the stranger leaves: The mother comes back, the stranger exits, and once the mother-child reunion is noted, the scenario is concluded.

The Strange Situation method shorter

1. exploration and secure base behaviour

2. stranger anxiety

3. separation anxiety and stranger anxiety

4. reunion behaviour and exploration and secure base behaviour

5. separation anxiety

6. stranger anxiety

7. reunion behaviour

3 types of attachement

Type A - avoidant insecure. Type B - secure. Type C - resistant insecure

Type B - secure attachment

children play independently but seek proximity to parent using them as a secure base for exploration. infant shows moderate distress and stranger and separation anxiety. infant accepts comfort from caregiver at reunion. 60 to 75% British infants are type B.

Type A - avoidant insecure attachemnnt

do not seek proximity with parent / use parent as secure base to explore. show no distress when caregiver leaves. do not make contact when parent returns. 20 to 25% of British infant are Type A.

Type C - resistant insecure

explore less than other attachment types due to infant seeking proximity to carer. become very distressed when separated and left with stranger. resist comfort when reunited with caregiver, 3% of British infants are type C.

The Strange Situation findings

exploratory behaviours declined in all infants from episode 2 onwards, whereas the amount of crying increased. found 3 main patterns of behaviour - secure attachment, insecure-avoidant, insecure-resistant

evaluate Ainsworth's Strange Situation A03 - 4th attachment type overlooked

limitation - Main and Solomon analysed over 200 strange situation videotapes and proposed that there is a 4th attachment type: type D - insecure disorganised. Type D is infants that do not have a consistent type of attachment and lack a coherent strategy to cope with the stress of separation from their caregiver. Van Ijzendoorn et al conducted a metanalysis of 80 US studies finding 62% secure, 15% insecure-avoidant, 9% insecure-resistant, 15% insecure-disorganised. This suggests that Ainsworth’s original conclusions were oversimplified and do not account for all attachment types.

evaluate Ainsworth's Strange Situation A03 - observations had high reliability

strength - Ainsworth et al found almost perfect agreement between an experienced panel of judges when rating exploratory behaviour of an infant. They found .94 agreement between observers (1.00 would be perfect). This means the strange situation has high inter-observer reliability so the observations made from the experiment can be accepted as reliable.

evaluate Ainsworth's Strange Situation A03 - real world application

strength - intervention strategies can be developed to tackle situations with an insecure attachment between caregiver and infant occur. For example, the Circle of Security Project teaches caregivers to better understand their infants’ signals of distress. The project showed a decrease in the number of caregivers classed as disorganised and an increase in infants classed as securely attached. This research can be used to improve children’s’ lives but helping them develop secure attachments.

evaluate Ainsworth's Strange Situation A03 - culturally biased

limitation - the sample for the strange situation was restricted to 100 middle class Americans & their infants, so it is unlikely that findings would be representative of the wider population. So observations of non-Americans will judged according to American standards. For example, Japanese infants were judged as being resistant due to high levels of distress that were observed but this reflects their lack of experience during the “infant alone” part of the observation, rather than an resistant attachment type. This means the Ainsworth’s findings have low population and ecological validity.

what did Van Ijzendoorn do