-The strange situation was developed by Mary Ainsworth in 1969.
-The aim was to be able to observe key attachment behaviours as a means of assessing the quality of a child’s attachment to a caregiver.
PROCEDURE
– Controlled observation with a two-way mirror – psychologists can observe the infants behaviours.
– The behaviours used to judge attachment were:
Proximity Seeking
– An infant with a good attachment will stay fairly close to the caregiver
Exploration and Secure-base Behaviour
– Good attachment enabled a child to feel confident to explore, using their caregiver as a secure base
Stranger Anxiety
– One of the signs of becoming closely attached is a display of anxiety when a stranger approaches
Separation Anxiety
– Another sign of being too closely attached is a protest in separation from the caregiver
Response to Reunion
– With the caregiver after seperation for a short period of time under controlled conditions
– The procedure has seven episodes, each of which last three minutes
FINDINGS
– Ainsworth found that there distinct patterns in the way that the infants behaved.
– She identified three main types of attachment:
Insecure-avoidant attachment (TYPE A)
– These children explore freely but do not seek proximity or show secure base behaviour.
– They show little or no reaction when their caregiver leaves and they make little effort to make contact when the caregiver returns.
– They also show little stranger anxiety and they do not require comfort at the reunion stage.
– About 20-25% are classified as insecure-avoidant.
Secure attachment (TYPE B)
– These children explore happily but regularly go back to their caregiver.
– They usually show moderate separation distress and moderate stranger anxiety.
– Securely attached children require and accept comfort from the caregiver in the reunion stage.
– About 60-75% of British toddlers are classified as secure.
Insecure-resistant attachment (TYPE C)
– Both seek and resist intimacy and social interaction
– These children seek greater proximity than others and so explore less.
– They show huge stranger and separation distress but they resist comfort when reunited with their carer.
– Around 3% of British toddlers are classified as insecure resistant
EVALUATION OF AINSWORTH’S SITUATION
STRENGTHS
High Validity
– Attachment type can predict future behaviour
– Babies assessed as secure typically go on to have better outcomes in many areas, ranging from success at school to romantic relationships and friendships in adulthood.
– Insecure-resistant attachment is associated with the worst outcomes including bullying in later childhood and adult mental health problems.
– This is evidence for the validity of the concept because it can explain subsequent outcomes.
Good Inter-rater Reliability
– The strange situation shows very good inter-rater reliability.
– This means that different observers watching the same children in the strange situation generally agree on what attachment type to classify them with- they agreed on attachment types for 94% of tested babies.
– This might be because the strange situation takes place under controlled conditions so behavioural changes are easy to observe
– Bick et al looked at the inter reliability of the observers and found a 94% agreed attachment type
-This means we can be confident that the attachment type of an infant identified in the strange situation does not just depend on who is observing them.
Easy to Conduct
– This study is very easy to do, and requires very little equipment.
– This means the study can be replicated many times to check for consistency of results.
– This means that large sample can be used to ensure population validity and generalisability
– Also, researchers stood behind a one-way mirror and observed Mother-Child and stranger-child relations so it is clear what type of attachment the child shows.
– Therefore, as this study is so easy to conduct it can be repeated many times to firstly ensure reliability but also ensure generalisability as you could have a large sample size
LIMITATIONS
Not Generalisable
– This study was only initially performed on American Mothers and babies.
– This means that the majority of the population was not represented in the sample and this research shows culture bias
– This is because she collected research created in the context of America and tried to apply it to the rest of the world
– In other cultures people have different child rearing cultures which would lead to them been seen as bad parents if their child was classified as type C but in that culture that is what is considered desirable
– Therefore, this research lack population validity and cannot be generalised the whole world, only the American population and this shows culture bias