Strange Situation

• The strange situation aim:

  • to observe attachment behaviours as a way of assessing a child's attachment to a caregiver
• The strange situation method:

  • controlled observation in a room with a two-way mirror
  • caregiver or stranger would enter/leave the room in 8 stages
  • combind the data over studies across 9 years using 106 middle class infants and a group of observers
• The strange situation findings:

  • observed 3 distinct consistent behaviour groups (attachment styles): A, B, C
  • observers agreed 94% of the time
• A - Insecure avoidant

  • high willingness to explore, low stranger anxiety and indifferent to seperation, avoids contact at reunion
  • 22% of infants
• B - Secure

  • high willingness to explore, moderate stranger anxiety and some separation anxiety, enthusiatic at reunion
  • 66% of infants
• C - Insecure resistant

  • low willingness to explore, high stranger and seperation anxiety, seeks and rejects at reunion
  • 12% of infants
• (SS) + Reliabilty

  • shows very good inter-rater reliability as they generally agreed on which attachment type to classify each infant as (94%)
• (SS) - Culture bound

  • cultural differences in childhood experiences likley mean children/caregivers behaviour differently, so western research might not be generalisable (e.g. in Japan)
• (SS) + Long term validity

  • babies assessed as secure typically went on to having better social outcomes, insecure resistant tended to have the worst (including mental health conditions), show validity as it explains subsequent outcomes