Ainsworth - The Strange Situation

• Securely attached children are confident that their caregiver will be there when they need them, so they can explore the world around them without fear.
• Avoidant infants show little distress at separation from their mother but do not seek her out upon reunion.
• Insecure-avoidant attachment is characterized by an avoidance of proximity seeking to the primary caregiver.
• Children with insecure attachments may struggle with forming close relationships later on in life.
• Anxious/resistant infants display intense distress during separations and reunions with their mothers.
• What is the Strange Situation?

  An experiment designed by Mary Ainsworth to find attachment styles
• What were the procedure of the Strange Situation experiment.

  1. Infant and Caregiver will be in a room playing together.
  2. Caregiver will sit whiles infant explores. (Security of exploration)
  3. A stranger now enters and has a conversation with caregiver (Stranger Anxiety).
  4. Caregiver leaves, the infant explores, stranger offers comfort (Separation Anxiety)
  5. Caregiver returns and comforts infants, stranger now leaves (Reunion behaviour)
  6. Caregiver leaves infant alone = Separation Anxiety
  7. Stranger enters and comforts infant = Steanger Anxiety
  8. Caregiver returns and offers comfort = Reunion Behaviour
• What caused Stranger Anxiety

  When the stranger entered the room
• The 4 types of attachment by Ainsworth or Ijzendoorn (1999)

  • Insecure-Avoidant [22%] or [15%]
  • Secure - [66%] or [62%]
  • Insecure-Resistant [12%] or [9%]
• What does Ainsworth Research suggest?

  Secure attachment develops due to the attention of a consistently sensitively responsive mother.
• EVALUATION - STRENGTH

  The strange situation is highly controlled observational study with standardised procedures and clear behavioural categories.

  The standardisation has allowed for a systematic and consistent and consistent approach to studying attachment; researchers have been able to replicate this study and compare it different groups
• EVALUATION - STRENGTH

  The attachment styles that have been identified in the strange situation have predictive validity;

  For example; Children that have been classified securely attached have better social, emotional outcomes in later childhood and adulthood.

  McCarthy studied 40 adult women assessed with the strange situation as infants and found that adults with the most long-lasting friendship were securely attached.
• EVALUAUTION - WEAKNESS

  CULTURE BOUND TEST: IMPOSED ETIC

  Strange situation was developed in one culture (AMERICA), thus it may be culture-bound test so not valid when applied to other cultures.

  An Imposed Etic is when researchers assume that their own cultural standards apply to other cultures without considering the cultural context of other cultures.

  E.g. In some cultures children are thought to be more independent or used to being cared for by many caregivers; this infant would not show distress which would be misinterpreted in the strange situation as insecure
• VAN IJZENDOORN - Strength Evaluation

  As dominant attachment was secure, there may be evidence for Bowlby's theory that there is a biological, instinctive drive to parent in a way that produces secure attachment.
• VAN IJZENDOORN - EVALUATION - STRENGTH

  Meta-analysis as it included a very large same so any study with unusual results has a small effect on the overall results - increases confidence in validity of overall findings.
• WEAKNESS - VAN IJZENDOORN

  ETHNOCENTRICISM

  Suffer from culture bias as it uses approach from Ainsworth which suffers from etic approach to research.

  Sees secure as superior but this may not be the case everywhere.