strange situation

• The 5 key behaviours that are used to measure attachment are: proximity seeking, secure base, response to reunion, stranger anxiety and separation anxiety
• ainsworths strange situation is a controlled observation that used time sampling to observe the behaviour of infants across 5 behavioural criteria
• a limitation of ainsworths strange situation is that it has low external validity due to he controlled, artificial conditions
• secure attachment - associated with psychologically healthy outcomes - children show moderate stranger and separation anxiety. Child is happy to explore but regularly return to caregiver (proximity seeking behaviour)
• insecure-avoidant - low anxiety but weak attachment. Children explore freely but don't seek proximity or show secure base behaviour with caregiver - they make little contact with caregiver after they return
• insecure-resistant - high anxiety and strong attachment. Children show high levels of stranger and separation anxiety (overly clingy) but resist comfort from caregiver when reunited (resentful) - explore less than other babies
• the aim of the strange situation was to categorise early attachment stages in infants
• in Ainsworths strange situation study, 66% of infants showed secure attachments, 22% showed insecure avoidant and 12% showed insecure resistant
• strange situation has good predicative validity- meaning its outcome can predict a number of features in the infants later development. Research has suggested securely attached infants have the best outcomes in adulthood/later childhood - suggests the strange situation actually measures something meaningful. However, some researchers have suggested that genetically-influenced anxiety could have influenced behaviours shown in S.S - not measuring attachment
• main & Solomon analysed 200 videos of the strange situation and proposed a 4th attachment type - insecure-disorganised - Ainsworths types may not be a full explanation/representation of attachment styles
• limitation of strange situation is that it has low external validity due to the artificial conditions which were unfamiliar to the child
• reunion response:

  secure- happy

  resistant - resentful/distressed

  avoidant - careless