The Strange Situation

• Who carried out the strange situation?

  Mary Ainsworth
• What was the aim of the strange situation?

  Measure the security of attachment a child shows towards their caregiver
• What was the method of Ainsworth's strange situation?

  She used a controlled observation and 100 American infants (9-18 months).

  Psychologists observed the child's behaviour through a two way mirror and found three patterns of attachment:

  • Secure (66%)
  • Insecure Avoidant (22%)
  • Insecure resistant (12%)
• What was the conclusion of Ainsworth strange situation?


  She suggested that attachment type was determined by primary caregiver's behaviour (i.e. the mother’s behaviour).
• What were the four behaviours observed during the observation?

  • Exploration and secure base behaviour
  • Separation anxiety
  • Stranger anxiety
  • Behaviour on reunion
• Describe what behaviours securely attached children displayed:

  • Secure base and exploration = Uses mother as a safe base
  • Separation anxiety = Medium
  • Stranger anxiety = Medium
  • Behaviour on reunion = Joy on reunion
• Describe what behaviours insecurely avoidant children displayed:

  • Secure base and exploration = Does not use mother as a safe base
  • Separation anxiety = Low
  • Stranger anxiety = Low
  • Behaviour on reunion = No joy on reunion
• Describe what behaviours insecurely resistant children displayed:

  • Secure base and exploration = seek greater proximity
  • Separation anxiety = High
  • Stranger anxiety = High
  • Behaviour on reunion = Resists mother on reunion
• Describe the procedure of the strange situation:

  1. Baby is encouraged to explore in unfamiliar play room
  2. Stranger comes in, talks to caregiver and approaches baby
  3. Caregiver leaves baby with stranger
  4. Caregiver returns and stranger leaves
  5. Caregiver leaves baby alone
  6. Stranger returns
  7. Caregiver returns and is reunited with baby
• Strength - Good predictive measures

  • Attachment type as defined by the Strange Situation is strongly predictive of later development.
  • Babies assessed as secure typically go on to have better outcomes in many areas e.g.  romantic relationships and friendships in adulthood
  •  Insecure-resistant attachment is associated with the worst outcomes e.g.  including bullying in later childhood and adult mental health problems.
• Strength - High inter-rater validity:

  • When different observers watch the same children in the Strange Situation, they generally agree on what attachment type to classify them with.
  •  Strange Situation takes place under controlled conditions and because the behavioural categories are easy to observe
  • Research has found agreement on attachment type for 94% of tested babies in a team of trained observers.
• Limitation - Culture bound experiment:

  • Cultural differences in childhood experiences are likely to mean that children respond differently to the Strange Situation
  • Caregivers from different cultures behave differently in the Strange Situation.
  • Takahashi (1990) noted that the test doesn’t really work in Japan, because Japanese mothers are so rarely separated from their babies that there are very high levels of separation anxiety. 
• Limitation - Not fully developed

  • There is a fourth type of attachment called insecure-disorganised (type D).
  • Disorganised children display an odd mixture of resistant and avoidant behaviours.
  • They show very strong attachment behaviour which is suddenly followed by avoidance or looking fearful towards their caregiver
• Strength - Real world application:

  • In situations where disordered patterns of attachment develop between infant and caregiver, intervention strategies can be developed
  • For example, teaching caregivers to better understand their infants’ signals of distress and to increase their understanding of what it feels like to feel anxious
  • Decrease in caregivers classified as disordered (60% to 15%) and an increase in infants classified as securely attached (32% to 40%).