Types of attachment (strange situation)

• What three environments did the infant respond to in the SS in order to assess attachment type?

  • Separation anxiety
  • Reunion behaviour
  • Stranger anxiety
• What environment enabled ainsworth to investigate the secure base concept?

  The novel environment
• State behaviours observed by infants with secure attachment in the SS

  SECURE (type B)

  • Willingness to explore: high
  • Stranger anxiety: moderate
  • Separation anxiety: some easy to soothe
  • Reunion behaviour: enthusiastic
• State behaviours observed by infants with insecure avoidant attachment in the SS

  AVOIDANT (type A)

  • Willingness to explore: high
  • Stranger anxiety: low
  • Separation anxiety: indifferent
  • Reunion behaviour: avoids contact
• State behaviours observed by infants with insecure resistant attachment in the SS

  RESISTANT (type C)

  • Willingness to explore: low
  • Stranger anxiety: low
  • Separation anxiety: distressed
  • Reunion behaviour: seeks and rejects
• What percentage of infants were secure in SS?

  66%
• What percentage of infants were avoidant in SS?

  22%
• What percentage of infants were resistant in SS?

  12%
• Describe the procedure of the strange situation

  • 8 episodes
  • 16 squared marked to record infants movements
  • Behaviours recorded- response to stranger and separation anxiety, reunion behaviour and secure base concept in novel environment
  • Time sampling- record what infant is doing every 15s
  • Used behavioural categories (eg proximity seeking behaviours)- each scored on a scale of 1-7
  • similarities recorded- eg exploratory behaviours declined from episode 2 onwards
  • differences- different attachment types
• Describe what is meant by insecure avoidant

  • Avoid social interaction and intimacy
  • Characterised by high levels of anxiousness
• Describe what is meant by insecure resistant

  • Infant seeks and resists social intimacy and interaction
  • Display conflicting desires for and against contact
• Two advantages of the SS?

  • 😊high reliability- high inter observer reliability - ainsworth found almost perfect agreement when rating exploratory behaviour- 0.94 agreement
  • 😊real world applications- circle of security project (cooper et al) teaches caregivers to better understand infant signals of distress. Decrease in number of caregivers considered as disordered (from 60-45%), can improve children’s lives
• How many infants were observed in the strange situation?

  106 middle class infants
• outline what is meant by secure attachment

  strong, contented and harmonious attachment of an infant to a caregiver
• outline what is meant by insecure avoidant

  infants who avoid social intimacy and interaction
• outline what is meant by insecure resistant

  infants who both seek and reject intimacy and social interaction
• Two disadvantages of the SS?

  • ☹️ cultural bias- Ainsworth was American and conducted the study in America- specific to attachment types in America (individualistic culture) attachments in different cultures may be specified as insecure resistant because of a lack of cultural relativism (Van Izjendoorn and Kroonenberg)
  • ☹️ low internal validity- lab study, doesn't reflect how infants and caregivers interact in every-day life, artificial materials. Also only measuring the attachment of an infant to one person, infant may act different in other relationships so this cannot determine attachment characteristics lodged within an individual (Main and Weston)