Strange Situation - Ainsworth

• Mary Ainsworth - The Strange Situation (1971-78) - Aim


  To see how infants behave under conditions of mild stress and novelty - with a target age of 12-18 months
• Strange Situation - Method

  Conducted in a lab room

  Through eight unique episodes, caregivers or strangers alternatively stay or leave and note infants response
• Seperation Anxiety

  Seperation from caregiver
• Reunion behaviour

  Reunion with caregivers
• Stranger Anxiety

  Response to a stranger
• Novel environment

  To test secure base concept
• Episodes

  1 - Mother and baby are introduced to experimental room

  2 - Baby explores alone, mother can play

  3 - Stranger enters, can talk with mother and approach baby - then mother leaves

  4 - Seperation - strangers behaviour is geared towards baby

  5 - Reunion - Mother greets and comforts baby, settles baby into play, then leaves

  6 - Second Seperation

  7 - Stranger enters and gears behaviour to baby

  8 - Second Reunion - Mother enters, greets baby, stranger leaves
• Data Collection

  • Group of Observers (Inter Observer Reliability)
  • Video recorder and one way mirror
  • Infants actions recorded every 15 seconds

  Categories of behaviour listed and ranked on a scale of intensity (1-7)

  1. Proximity and Contact seeking behaviour
  2. Contact maintaining behaviours
  3. Proximity and interaction avoiding behaviours
  4. Contact and interaction resisting behaviours
  5. Search Behaviours
• Findings 


  Combined data from several studies - 106 middle class infants observed

  Explorative behaviour declined in all infants from episode 2 onwards

  Amount of crying increased

  Three distinct consistent clusters of behaviours she referred to as A, B and C
• B - Secure


  Explores unfamiliar room with an unfamiliar

  Some discomfort when mother leaves

  Comfortable with stranger if mother is present

  Greeted mother positively when she returned

  Mother displayed sensitive support
• A - Insecure-avoidant 


  No orientation to other while exploring room

  Unconcerned with mothers absence

  Comfortable with stranger

  Uninterested with mothers return

  Mother rejected/ignored infant
• C - Insecure-Resistant 


  Unconcerned with exploring room

  intense distress when mother leaves

  Uncomfortable with stranger

  Rejected mother when she returned

  Mother showed inconsistent behaviour
• Weakness - other types of attachment

  Main and Solomon (1986)

  • Analysed the video tapes and proposed a type D - insecure organised
  • This type had a lack of consistent patterns of social behaviour and attachment type

  Van Ijzendoorn (1999)

  • Supported this through her meta-analysis of over 80 studies
  • 62% were secure, 15% Insecure-avoidance, 9% insecure-resistant, and 15% insecure-disorganised
• Evaluation - Observations had high reliability and high internal validity 


  If observers agree, the measurements are deemed meaningful

  Ainsworth et al (1978) - strength

  • Had almost perfect agreement between raters
  • Shows observations are reliable

  Kagans temperament hypothesis - limitation

  • The intrinsic personality of the child may have confounded these results
  • Ainsworth ignored the role of other factors in eliciting the behaviour in children
• Strength - Real World Application 


  With knowledge of attachment types, we can further support those with disordered patterns of attachment

  Circle Security Project - Copper et al (2005)

  • Teaches caregivers to better understanding their infants signals of distress, and increases their understanding of what it feels like to be anxious
  • An increase in infants classes as securely attached (32-40%)
  • Decrease in number of caregivers classified as disordered (60-15%)
• Weakness - The test may be culture bound 


  The test may not have the same meaning outside of individualistic cultures such as the USA and UK

  Takashi (1990)

  • Found the test lacks application in japan as children are rarely seperated from their caregivers, so they show high seperation anxiety
  • This means that behaviour is varying due to cultural factors, rather than attachment quality and the classifications lack application to other cultures