Ainsworth's Strange Situation

    Cards (33)

    • What is the Strange Situation designed to measure?
      The security of attachment a baby displays towards a caregiver
    • What are the controlled conditions of the Strange Situation?
      Room with a two-way mirror/camera
    • How many episodes are in the Strange Situation procedure?
      Seven episodes
    • What is the aim of the Strange Situation?
      To observe key attachment behaviors
    • What behavior indicates a good quality attachment?
      Staying fairly close to a caregiver (proximity seeking)
    • What does separation anxiety indicate in a baby?
      Becoming closely attached to a caregiver
    • How do securely attached babies respond to reunion?
      They greet caregivers with pleasure and seek comfort
    • What are the steps in the Strange Situation procedure?
      1. Baby encouraged to explore
      2. Stranger enters, talks to caregiver and approaches baby
      3. Caregiver leaves baby and stranger together
      4. Caregiver returns, stranger leaves
      5. Caregiver leaves baby alone
      6. Stranger returns
      7. Caregiver returns and is reunited with baby
    • What percentage of British babies are securely attached?
      60-75%
    • What percentage of British babies are insecure-avoidant attached?
      20-25%
    • What percentage of British babies are insecure-resistant attached?
      Around 3%
    • What is a characteristic of secure attachment (Type B)?
      Moderate separation and stranger anxiety
      Happily explore, regularly go back to caregiver
      Require and accept comfort on reunion
    • What is a characteristic of insecure-avoidant attachment (Type A)?
      Show little/no reaction when caregiver leaves
      Babies explore freely, do not seek proximity or show secure base behaviour.
      Little stranger anxiety
      Little effort to make contact on reunion, may avoid contact
    • What is a characteristic of insecure-resistant attachment (Type C)?
      High levels of stranger and separation anxiety
      Seek greater proximity, so explore less.
      Resist comfort on reunion
    • What are the findings regarding the predictive validity of the Strange Situation?
      • Secure attachment predicts better outcomes in childhood and adulthood (better achievement in school, less involvement in bullying, better mental health in adulthood)
      • Insecure-resistant attachment, and those not falling into any category predicts worse outcomes
      • Suggests Strange Situation measures meaningful aspects of development
    • What did Kagan suggest about attachment behaviors?
      Genetically influenced anxiety levels could account for variations in attachment behaviours in the strange situation and later development
      May to accurately measure attachment
    • What did Bick et al. find regarding inter-rater reliability in the Strange Situation?
      Agreement on attachment type in 94% of cases
      May be due to controlled conditions and easy to observe behaviours
      We can be confident attachment type is measured objectively
    • What is a limitation of the Strange Situation regarding cultural contexts?
      It may not be a valid measure in different cultures
      Developed in Britain and US
      may only be relevant in these cultures, as babies have different experiences in different cultures which affect responses to strange situation
    • What did Takahashi's study suggest about Japanese infants in the Strange Situation?
      High levels of separation anxiety were observed - disproportionate amount classified as insecure resistant
      May be due to separation from primary caregiver being rare in Japan
      So it is difficult to know what the strange situation is measuring earn used outside the US and Europe
    • What did Solomon and Main identify in attachment types?
      A fourth category called disorganized attachment - mix of resistant and avoidant behaviours
      Unusual and generally in children who experiences some from of severe neglect or abuse
      Most develop psychological disorders by adulthood
    • What were the findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg's study on cultural variation?
      • Wide variation in attachment types across cultures
      • Secure attachment was most common in all countries (proportions varied from 75% in Britain to 50% in China)
      • Individualist cultures showed similar insecure-resistant rates to Ainsworth's sample (under 14%)
      • Collectivist cultures had higher rates of insecure-avoidant attachments (above 25%)
      • Variations within countries were greater than between countries
    • What did Simonelli et al. find regarding attachment types in Italy?
      Lower rate of secure attachment and higher rate of insecure avoidant than found in previous studies
      Assessed 76 babies aged 12 months
      50% secure
      36% insecure avoidant
      Believed to be due to many mothers with young children working long hours and using childcare
    • What did Jin et al. find regarding attachment types in Korea?
      Similar proportions to most countries, mostly secure
      Assessed 87 babies
      only one baby insecure avoidant
      similar distribution as found in Japan (Japan and Korea have similar child rearing styles)
    • What conclusions can be drawn from cultural variation research on attachment?
      • Secure attachment is the norm across cultures
      • Cultural practices influence attachment types
      • Bowlby’s idea of attachment being innate is supported
    • What is the role of indigenous researchers in cross-cultural studies?
      They help avoid potential problems in communication
      Enhance validity
      Although not all studies used indigenous researchers - Morelli and Tronick were outsiders from America when studying child attachment in the Efe of Zaire
      So data may be influenced by difficulties in gathering data from participants outside own culture, due to difficulty in communication.
    • limitation of cross-cultural research - confounding variables
      Studies often lack matched methodology when compared in reviews or meta-analyses (eg age, poverty, social class)
      or size of room, toy availability,
      strange situation may be different in other countries
      so may not tell us about attachment in other countries
    • What does imposed etic refer to in cross-cultural psychology?
      Assuming a test works in all cultural contexts
      Behaviours measured by strange situation may not have the same meanings in different cultural contexts and comparing them is meaningless
    • What alternative explanation do van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg suggest for attachment similarities?
      Global media represents a particular view of how parents and babies are meant to behave
      may override traditional cultural differences in the way children are brought up
    • Secure base behaviour
      Good attachment enables a baby to feel confident to explore, using caregiver as a secure base
    • stranger anxiety
      display of anxiety when stranger approaches
    • What did Van iJzendoorn and Kroonenburg do

      Looked at 32 studies of attachment that used the strange situation (8 countries, 15 studies from the US)
      To investigate proportion of babies with different attachment types
      Yielded results for 1990 children
      Data was meta-analysed (combined and analysed together)
    • emic
      cultural uniqueness
    • etic
      cross cultural universality