Types of attachment

• What is the purpose of the Strange Situation procedure?

  To assess attachment between infant and mother
• What age range of infants was studied in the Strange Situation?

  9 to 18 months
• How many middle-class infants were included in Ainsworth's study?

  200 infants
• What are the key components of the Strange Situation procedure?

  • Controlled observation
  • Research room: 8x8 feet, marked into 16 squares
  • Consists of 7 episodes
  • Data recorded every 15 seconds
  • Observers use a two-way mirror
  • Behavioural categories for scoring
• How often was data recorded during the Strange Situation?

  Every 15 seconds
• What scale was used to score the intensity of behaviour?

  A scale from 1 to 7
• What five behaviours did Ainsworth assess for attachment quality?

  • Proximity seeking
  • Exploration and secure base
  • Stranger anxiety
  • Separation anxiety
  • Reunion behaviour
• What does proximity seeking refer to in attachment behaviour?

  How close the caregiver the child stays
• What is meant by exploration and secure base?

  How the infant explores using parent as base
• What does separation anxiety indicate in infants?

  The infant's response to separation from caregiver
• What does stranger anxiety measure in infants?

  The infant's response to a stranger
• What does reunion behaviour assess in the Strange Situation?

  The infant's reaction upon reunion with caregiver
• What are the three types of attachment identified by Ainsworth?

  • Secure (Type B)
  • Insecure avoidant (Type A)
  • Insecure resistant (Type C)
• What percentage of infants were classified as secure in Ainsworth's study?

  60%
• How did insecure avoidant infants respond to separation anxiety?

  Low separation anxiety
• What was the reunion behaviour of insecure resistant infants?

  Both seek and reject caregiver
• What percentage of infants were classified as insecure resistant?

  20%
• How did secure infants behave during reunion?

  Easily comforted
• What was the response of insecure avoidant infants during reunion?

  Avoid contact on reunion
• How did secure infants respond to stranger anxiety?

  Moderate stranger anxiety
• What was the response of insecure resistant infants to separation anxiety?

  High separation anxiety
• A strength of the strange situation is that it has high reliability

  • Bick et al looked at inter-rater reliability in a team of trained strange situation observers
  • Found agreement on attachment type for 94% of tested babies
• A weakness of the theory is that there may be more attachment types

  • Ainsworth conceived three attachment types: Insecure avoidant, insecure resistant, and secure
  • However, Soloman pointed out that a minority of children display atypical attachments that do not fall in within types A, B or C behaviour
  • Commonly known as 'disorganised attachment'.
  • Theory is limited in attachment types
• What are the 3 aims of the Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg study?3

  • To investigate any pattern in attachment types across 8 countries/cultures
  • To see whether there are intra-cultural variations as well as inter-cultural differences
  • To evaluate similarities and differences in the profiles of attachment types
• What is the procedure for the Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg study?

  • Meta analysis of 32 different studies carried out in 8 countries
  • Uses the Strange Situation
  • Looked at the differences between and within cultures
• What were the findings of the Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenbeg study?

  • Secure attachments were most common in all cultures
  • Insecure Avoidant Attachments were more common in individualist cultures such as Germany
  • Insecure Resistant Attachments were most common in collectivist cultures such as Japan
  • However, there was a 1.5x greater variation within a culture than between a culture
• What did Grossman and Grossman (1991) find in terms of cultural variations?

  • German infants tended to be classified as insecurely attached
  • May be due to child rearing practices as German culture involves keeping some interpersonal distance between parent and child
• What did Takahashi (1990) find in terms of cultural variations?

  • Japanese infants showed no evidence of insecure-avoidant attachment and high rates of insecure-resistant (32%)
  • May be due to the fact that Japanese infants rarely experience separation from their mothers
• One strength is that most studies were carried out by indigenous researchers. Explain

  • In Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg's meta-analysis, there was a total of nearly 2000 babies and their primary attachment figure
  • Even Simoneli et al's study had large comparison groups from previous research, although their own samples were small
• A weakness of cultural variations is that there may be imposed etic. Explain

  • SS designed by an American researcher based on Bowlby's theory
  • Imposed etic - applying theory from one culture the other culture
  • Lack of separation anxiety and lack of pleasure on reunion indicate attachment in SS