Evaluation

• Good sample size

  However

  Not exactly generalisable due to only being middle class and American
• Kayan disagreed with good internal validity because..

  Genetically influenced anxiety levels may account for variations in attachment behaviour thus meaning you are not observing the child's response to the Strange Situation but their genetic behaviour

  Potential wider family circumstances that are not accounted for as well
• Kayan said there could be low external validity because..

  High control could detract from external validity of findings , not a naturalistic setting
• P - Limitation , Culture Bound

  Developed in western cultures and lacks generalisability meaning that it loses external validity

  Takahashi - babies showed very high separation anxiety and so were seen as insecure resistant when this may not have been the case

  D - However , babies may just have been reacting to the abnormality of the situation as it is very rare for a mother to be without her child in Japan
• P - Strength , High Reliability

  Entirely controlled environment - timings and procedure

  Bick found 94% inter observer agreement on the types of attachment which further boosts its reliability

  D - Furthermore , Bick may have found these results due to the clear behavioural codes that the Strange Situation has making it less subjective and more objective
• P - Strength , Real World Applications

  Good predictive value - helps us understand importance of attachment in later life

  Babies with a secure attachment often have better outcomes as opposed to those with an insecure attachment or one that is unclassified

  D - However , this puts a lot of pressure on the parents to make sure their child has a secure attachment and so makes this piece of research very socially sensitive
• P - Strength , High Internal Validity

  Able to intend what we want to measure due to the controlled nature of the Strange Situation which mitigates confounding variables

  D - However , Kagan disagreed and said that genetically influenced anxiety levels cannot be controlled for and so we may be seeing the reactions based off of the babies genes as opposed to their attachment type
• P - Limitation , Unethical

  Study broke ethical guideline protection of participants

  Protection from harm - child is put under stress

  Withdraw - a child is unable to withdraw

  D - However , separation episodes were stopped prematurely if the child became too stressed meaning that the guidelines were trying to be adhered to as much as possible