How does the Strange Situation have good predictive validity?
McCormick et al and Kokkinos: type B babies tend to have better outcomes in later childhood and adulthood, involving better achievements in school and less involvement in bullying
Ward et al: type B babies go on to have better mental health in adulthood
Suggests the study measures something real and meaningful in a baby's development
How does the Strange Situation have good reliability?
Highly controlled conditions and efficient behavioural categories that are easy to observe lead to good reliability
Bick et al. found 94% of agreement on attachment type when testing inter-rater reliability for the experiment
Means we can be confident that the findings are accurate and not based on subjective judgements
How are the Strange Situation's findings culture-bound?
May not have same meaning in countries outside of Western Europe and USA as cultural differences in childhood are likely to mean that children from different cultures will respond differently
Takahashi: babies displayed high levels of separation anxiety and were classed as type C - yet this was not due to attachment insecurity but rather the fact that it is highly unusual for mother-child separation as it is rare for mothers to return to work in Japan
Shows lack of generalisability of findings
What is a weakness of the Strange Situation?
Solomon: identified a 4th category of attachment - disorganised (type D) attachment
Display a mix of resistant and avoidant behaviours, but are unusual and have generally experienced neglect or abuse and will go on to develop psychological disorders in adulthood
Shows the Strange Situation's findings are a limited explanation of attachment types
