Ainsworth's Strange Situation

• Ainsworth's Strange Situation:

  • Attachment relationships vary in quality.
  • Mary Ainsworth is largely responsible for the work on attachment types.
  • Attachment type= quality of attachment.
  • Ainsworth (colleague of Bowlby) developed a procedure for assessing attachment types systematically, in infants specifically.
  • She called the method 'The Strange Situation'.
• The Strange Situation- Ainsworth & Bell (1971):

  • The SS is a controlled observational technique used to assess the quality of an infant's attachment type, & is used between 9-18 months.
  • It involves a situation which is novel & mildly stressful for the infant.
• The SS- 4 main types of behaviour observed:

  1. The child's reaction when separated from caregiver- separation anxiety.
  2. The child's reaction to a stranger- stranger anxiety.
  3. The Child's reaction to reunion with parent- reunion behaviour.
  4. The child's use of the parent as a secure base to explore the novel environment- willingness to explore.
• The Strange Situation- procedure:

  • Procedure takes place in a 9x9 foot room, marked off into squares to help track infant movement.
  • Behaviours are recorded by a group of observers using a video recorder or a two-way mirror.
  • Each stage lasts 3 minutes.
• Episodes & behaviours assessed in Strange Situation:

  1. Parent & infant play- parent & child given chance to settle into environment.
  2. Parent & infant alone, infant plays- willingness to explore.
  3. Stranger joins parent & infant- stranger anxiety.
  4. Parents leaves infant & stranger alone- separation anxiety.
  5. Parent returns & stranger leaves- reunion behaviour.
  6. Parent leaves & infant now alone- separation anxiety.
  7. Stranger returns- stranger anxiety.
  8. Parent returns & stranger leaves- reunion behaviour.
• Evaluation for the SS- weakness:

  • The Strange Situation lacks ecological validity.
  • The SS uses a highly controlled lab setting, which is likely to produce behaviours which are unlike those in a natural setting.
  • If the artificial environment is producing artificial behaviour, then the SS is not a valid measure of attachment types.
• Evaluation for the SS- weakness:

  • The Strange Situation has poor ethics.
  • The procedure is designed to cause distress & 20% of infants are described as 'crying desperately' when assessed.
  • Many psychologists say that we should not rely upon the SS to assess attachment type, if it is not ethical.
• Evaluation for the SS- strength:

  • Good inter-rater reliability.
  • As the Strange Situation relies on groups of observers, there needs to be an agreement in their ratings.
  • Ainsworth found a correlation of +0.94 between raters.
  • We are more able to draw firm conclusions from reliable results.
• Evaluation for the SS- weakness:

  • The Strange Situation is culturally biased.
  • The procedure is heavily biased towards an American viewpoint of what 'normal' attachment looks like, however, other cultures may rear their children differently, which isn't acknowledged within this measurement (links to cultural variations).
  • This reduces the validity of the SS & therefore its generalisability across cultures.