6. Ainsworth's 'Strange Situation'- Types of attachment: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant

secure attachment

• strong and contented attachment of an infant to their caregiver.

• This type of child has a harmonious relationship with their caregiver

• explores freely when in the same room

• distressed when separarted- but easily soothed on return.

• This is created as a result of sensitive responding by the caregiver to the infant’s needs.

Insecure-avoidant

• This type of child avoids interaction with their caregiver

• treats stangers and their caregiver in a similar way.

• Little or no separation anxiety

• Created as a result of caregiver’s lack of sensitive responding to infant’s needs

• avoids social interaction and intimacy with others

Insecure-resistant

• infants both seek and reject intimacy and social interaction

• does not explore and clings to caregiver

• high separation anxiety

• created due to caregiver’s lack of sensitive responding to the infant’s needs

original strange situation study procedure

• strange situation took place in a laboratory

• ps were American infants ages 12-18 months and their caregivers (usually mother)

• same stranger used each time

• infant closely observed over 20 mins

Strange Situation stages

1. caregiver, infant, reseacher

2. caregiver, infant

3. caregiver, infant, stranger

4. infant, stranger

5. infant, caregiver

6. infant

7. infant, stranger

8. caregiver, infant

percentage securely attached

66%

percentage insecure-avoidant

22%

percentage insecure-resistant

12%

secure attachment signs

• harmonious and cooperative relationship

• high willingness to explore- secure-base behaviour

• high stranger anxiety

• enthusiastic on reunion with caregiver

• some separation anxiety but may be soothed

insecure-avoidant signs

• high willingness to explore- independent from caregiver

• avoid social interaction and intimacy with others- treat caregivers and strangers similarly

• low stranger anxiety

• little/no separation anxiety

• avoids contact on reunion with caregiver

insecure-resistant signs

• low willingness to explore

• high stranger anxiety

• both seek and reject intimacy and social interaction

• high separation anxiety

• seek and reject reunion with caregiver

Ainsworth’s strange situation evaluation- ecological validity

p- controlled observation so validity of findings have been questionned

e- Strange situation is most popular and common way of investigating attachment. HOWEVER, it can be argued that as the mother and child are in an unfamiliar play room and mothers know they are being observed- artificiality may lead to distortion of children and mother’s behaviour. Need to question the ecological validity of the findings as behaviour observed may not actually reflect the real attachment types of mother and child in own home

e- HOWEVER, research by Vaughn and Waters compared behaviour of 1 year olds in strange situation and at home- securely attached children showed more security and sociability at home (still securely attached). Insecurely attached children only showed very small and insignificant differences

l-suggests findings of strange situation are ecologically valid- reflects actual attachment types of infants

Ainsworth’s strange situation- inter-rater reliability

p- one strength of strange situation- inter-rater reliability

e- different observers watching the same children tend to agree on what attachment type to classify infants as. Bick found inter-rater reliability to be as high as 94%. This strengthens support for the study- we can be confident that attachment type of infant observed using strange situation does not just depend on who is observing them- RELIABLE.

e- numerous studies have found similar things to Ainsworth and bell- findings can be replicated

l- reliable

Ainsworth’s strange situation evaluation- culture bound

p- WEAKNESS- may be a culture bound test

e- Developed in America, on American infants so it may not be valid to use to study attachment types in different cultures where children and caregivers may respond differently to the strange situation. Also certain attachment behaviours regarded as healthy in US may not be regarded as healthy in other cultures and vice versa

e- Takahasi- strange situation does not work on Japanese children because Japanese mothers are so rarely separated from their children- show very high levels of separation anxiety (appear resistant). Also Japanese mothers tended to race to pick up children on reunion- response was hard to observe. Similarly, German children are encouraged to be independent and so may appear to show avoidant attachments

l- so strange situation may only be a truly valid test of attachment in cultures which raise children in similar ways to America. In cultures not similar, such as Japan and Germany, incorrect conclusions about attachment may be drawn