Discuss the strange situation as a way of assessing types of attachment

AO1: What was Ainsworth’s research?

Ainsworth devised a controlled observation called the Strange 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 eight different situations.

AO1 What was the purpose of the Strange Situation?

The purpose of the Strange Situation is to measure four key 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.

• Reunion behaviours - how the child acts when reunited with their mother.

AO1 What were Ainsworth’s findings?

Depending on how the child responds in the Strange Situation would lead to one of three attachment classifications: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant. In her original experiment, Ainsworth found the following distribution of attachment types: securely attached - 66%, insecure-avoidant - 22%, and insecure-resistant - 12%.

AO3: Methodology (Limitation)

A methodological weakness of Ainsworth's Strange Situation is the type of observation she used, which was an overt observation.

The parents in Ainsworth's 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 children's behaviour and therefore lowers the internal validity of the experiment making the Strange Situation a less valid method of assessing attachment.

AO3 (limitation - culture bias)

Furthermore, Ainsworth's Strange Situation demonstrates a culture bias. Her theory and methods were based on Western ideals in relation to infant behaviour, categorising a higher proportion of children from other cultures as insecure-avoidant (eg Japan) or insecure-resistant (eg Germany). Consequently, the Strange Situation may not be a valid method of assessing attachment in other, non-American, cultures.

AO3 (Counterpoint)

However, the Strange 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. (1978) found 94% agreement between observers and when inter-observer/inter-rater reliability is assumed to a high degree the findings are considered more meaningful.

AO3 (attachment types incomplete)

Finally, there is the possibility that Ainsworth's classification system of attachment types is incomplete. Main & Solomon (1986) conducted subsequent research whereby they analysed several hundred Strange Situation episodes via videotape and suggested that Ainsworth overlooked a fourth types. It was noted that some infants showed inconsistent patterns of behaviour which they termed Type D; insecure-disorganised. Further support for this claim comes from a meta-analysis 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 Ainsworth's original assessment of attachment is unable to fully explain all of the different types of attachments in children.