Types of Attachment/ Strange situation

• What is proximity seeking?

  The tendency to seek closeness or physical contact with a caregiver.
• What are examples of proximity seeking behaviour?

  Climbing, reaching, clinging, directed cries
• What is meant by exploration and secure-base behaviour?

  The child's willingness to explore their environment, particularly when the caregiver is nearby, whilst using them as a 'secure base' to return to for reassurance.
• What is stranger anxiety?

  Distress a child may feel when a stranger enters their environment, especially in the absence of their caregiver.
• What is separation anxiety?

  Distress a child may feel when a child's caregiver is no longer in sight.
• What is meant by response to reunion?

  How a child reacts when the caregiver returns after a separation. If they seek comfort or no response.
• How do differing attachment types perform proximity seeking?

  Securely attached= shows p.seeking

  Anxious avoidant= no p.seeking

  Anxious resistant= excess levels of p.seeking
• What determines attachment type?

  How much sensitive responsiveness is towards to child's signals, how often this occurs
• What creates a securely attached child?

  Caregiver is responsive to infant
• What creates an anxious avoidant infant?

  Caregiver doesn't really respond
• What creates an anxious resistant child?

  Sometimes responds, sometimes doesn't
• What are characteristics of a securely attached child?

  Is indifferent to the stranger when mother is present but ignores the stranger when alone (stranger anxiety is moderate). Becomes upset when mother leaves (separation anxiety is moderate). Is happy when mother returns in both reunions, the child easily calms and exploring resumes.
• What were the findings of Ainsworth's study?

  S.A= 66%

  A.A= 22%

  A.R= 12%
• What are characteristics of an insecure-avoidant attached child?

  Plays with stranger regardless of mother's presence, does not check for mother's presence (no stranger anxiety). Is not distressed at mother's absence and can seek comfort from the stranger (no separation anxiety). Shows no interest in mother's return.
• What are characteristics of an insecure-resistant attached child?

  Shows fear of the stranger and avoids the stranger with or without the mother being there (high stranger anxiety). Intense reaction to mother's absence, clearly distressed (high separation anxiety). The child wants comfort of the mother but pushes away when approached, resists comfort even if it's desired.
• A disadvantage of the strange anxiety is that it lacks internal validity as only the mothers were tested, meaning results may not be generalisable to fathers, which is also socially sensitive. Overall, the study measures attachment styles specific to the mother, not attachments in general (fathers, grandparents).
• A strength of the strange situation is that it has high ecological validity as there are real-life application as the child experiences similar situations, for example nursery. Information collected by this study could be used to help day care workers comfort children depending on attachment style.
• A strength of the strange situation is that it was reliable, due to its controlled, standardised procedure. Also, Bick (2012) looked at inter-rater reliability in observers and found an agreement of attachment type for 94% of tested babies.
• A weakness of the strange situation is that there was a fourth attachment style that was only included after the experiment, a disorganised attachment style, combining features of both insecure attachment styles. This was found mostly in cases of abuse by Main and Soloman in 1986, also, the most uncommon attachment style.
• A weakness of the strange situation was the sample, for example, the infants and mothers were (106) middle class and from the USA. This is an issue as the sample may not represent other classes and countries, therefore are not generalisable. For example, Takahasi (1986) found that there were high levels of separation anxiety so more infants were classed as I.R, this was due to babies rarely separating from their mothers. This is a weakness as the strange situation was based on cultural bias so observations were conducted to what was normal for US infants, which is ethnocentric.
• Another weakness is that a child's temperament was not taken into consideration in the strange situation, for example, more genetically shy infants may have more separation anxiety, not due to their attachment but due to their personality
• How many stages were in the strange situation and how long did they last?

  8 stages, 3 minutes
• Describe each stage of the strange situation

  Infant and mother enter room=secure base, infant explores room= proximity seeking, stranger enters room= stranger anxiety, mother leaves =separation anxiety, stranger leaves + mother returns=reunion behaviour, mother leaves = separation anxiety, stranger returns= stranger anxiety, mother returns= reunion behaviour
• What was the aim of the strange situation?

  To see how infants aged between 9-18 months behave under conditions of mild stress and also novelty.