Ainsworth strange situation

• Aim

  Assess how infants 9-18 months before under conditions with mild stress (stranger, separation anxiety, safe base) and the quality of attachment
• sample

  106 infants
• type of experiment

  • controlled observation- laboratory experiment
  • two way where psychologists can observe the behaviour
  • observation recorded every 15 seconds
• Procedure

  1. Mother and child introduced to room
  2. Mother and child left alone for the child to investigate
  3. A stranger enters the room and talks to the mother before bringing a toy to the child
  4. mother leaves the room and the infant is with the stranger
  5. Mother returns
  6. Mother and stranger leave and the infant is alone
  7. Stranger returns and plays with infant
  8. Mother returns and stranger leaves
• behaviours recorded

  • Exploration- how willingly the infant explored the room with the mother as a safe base
  • Stranger anxiety- how distressed the infant was when the stranger was there
  • Separation anxiety- how distressed the infant was when the mother left the room
  • Reunion behaviour- how the mother was greeted by the infant when returning
• securely attached

  • 70% of infants were secure
  • they explored the room freely and frequently referred to their mother
  • mildly distressed when the mother left
  • greeted the mother warmly when returned
  • mothers reacted sensitively to them infants
• insecure avoidant

  • 15% were insecure avoidant
  • they explored the room without reference to the mother
  • showed no reaction when the mother left
  • ignored the mother when she returned
  • the mother often ignored the infants
• insecure resistant

  • 15% were insecure resistant
  • showed intense distress when the mother left the room
  • reacted angrily when the mother returned
  • the mothers were ambivalent towards the infants
• Caregiver sensitivity hypothesis

  • The way the caregiver behaves towards the infant affects the infant‘s attachment type
  • Securely attached infants have mothers who are sensitive to their needs
  • Insecure-avoidant infants have mothers who ignore them when they need conform or are distressed
  • Insecure-resistant infants have mothers who behave ambivalently/inconsistently towards them
• Temperament hypothesis

  • Some infants have an innate personality to be more friendly so its easier for the caregiver to be caring and more nurturing
  • infants with difficult personalities make it less likely the mother will want to comfort them
  • Belsky and Rovine- babies born with signs of behavioural difficulties are less likely to become securely attached to their mother than babies who seemed normal when born
• Evaluation

  • Real life application- easy judgement made about attachment type of infants in clinical and research settings
  • 100 middle-classed American infants- ignores other cultures so lacks population validity, can’t be generalised to other infants so is ethnocentric
  • easy to replicate- standardised procedure, compare results easily, cause and effects as easily identified
  • lacks ecological validity- unrealistic, mundane realism lacked, can’t generalise results to real life, attachment stronger at strange situation than home because its less familiar