Topic 7: Ainsworth's strange situation

Describe the Strange situation by Ainsworth

- The strange situation is a procedure for assessing the quality of attachment between infant and mother. The child is left alone and adults come in and out of the room

- Lats for 24 minutes

Aim - To observe the key attachment behaviours in order to measure the quality of attachment of the child to its caregiver.

PPTS- 100 middle class american families with infants aged between 12 and 18 months

Describe proximity seeking and exploration and secure base behaviour

Proximity seeking- Whether the infant stays close to the caregiver.

Exploration and secure base behaviour- The infant feels confident to explore, using their caregiver as a secure base if the attachment is a good one

Describe separation anxiety and stranger anxiety

Separation anxiety- Protest at separation

Stranger anxiety- Anxiety when a stranger approaches

Describe response to reunion

- How the baby reacts to the caregiver when they are reunited

Describe the procedure of the strange situation

1. Child and caregiver enter the room

2. Child is encouraged to explore

3. A stranger comes in and tries to interact with the child

4. The caregiver leaves the child and stranger together

5. The caregiver returns and the stranger leaves

6. The caregiver leaves the child alone

7. The stranger returns

8. The caregiver returns and is reunited with the child

Describe the results the strange situation

SECURE 60-75%

-Explore happily but keep going back to caregiver. Strong secure base behaviour

- Moderate separation distress and moderate stranger anxiety

- They require and accept comfort at reunion

INSECURE AVOIDANT 20-25%

- Infants explore but do not seek proximity or show secure base behaviour

- Low separation distress and low stranger anxiety

They don not require comfort at reunion

INSECURE RESISTANT 3%

- They seek greater proximity to caregiver and explore less than the other types

- High separation distress and high stranger anxiety

- They resist comfort from caregiver at reunion

Describe The conclusion of the strange situation

- Children develop different attachment types because of the interaction of the child's innate temperament and their parents sensitivity towards their needs.

● Belskey and Rovine argue that the child's attachment type is a result of both the child's innate temperament and also how the parent responds to them.

● The child's innate temperament may influence the way their parent responds to them.

Strange situation AO3

😁 It has good reliability. Main et al tested babies at 18 months and then retested at 6 years old. 100% of the secure babies were still classified as secure and 75% of the avoidant babies were still under the same classification.

This means that the method and researchers using it are consistent I. their observations

😁 It has good validity. It is strongly predictive of later development. Securely attached babies tend to have better outcomes in many arras. Insecure resistant babies are associated with the worst outcomes

☹️ The study has been criticised as it only identifies the type of attachment to the mother. The child may have a different attachment to the father or grandmother. This means it lacks validity. This limits the extent to which we can generalise the findings.

☹️ The test may be culture bound. Cultural differences in childhood experiences means children are likely to respond differently to the strange situation. Takahashi has noted that the test doesn't really work in Japan because Japanese mothers are so rarely separated from their babies.