Evaluation

• Low internal validity

  -measures infants familiarity with experiencing 'strange situations' so infants who are familiar with separation and strangers likely to show little separation/stranger anxiety so would be misclassified as insecurely attached.
• Ethical issues

  -Separation and strangers may cause distress of infants so psychologically harmed but not more than they would have in everyday life.

  -Socially sensitive as mothers have pressure put on them to have a securely attached relationship with their child - they may have to work and do other jobs so don't see the child as much which leads to an insecure relationship.
• Realistic setting

  -the set up id like a playroom at a Nursery which is a familiar setting for a child to see in everyday life so they won't be confused about the setting.
• Researcher bias is low

  -there are two independent researchers observing the same situation from a two way mirror.
• Can't be applied cross culturally

  -Western cultures are similar. Research was done in America so can be generalised to European counties as have similar ways of raising children but not same as cultures in Africa who might have a different primary caregiver than the mother or may have multiple when growing up.