The Strange Situation

• Aim of Ainsworth's 'strange situation'

  To see if the key attachment behaviours as a means of assessing the quality of a baby's attachment to a caregiver
• Methodology of the strange situation

  - controlled observation

  - lab setting

  - psychologists used a 2 way mirror to observe behaviour

  - the study has eight episodes each lasting 3 minutes
• Procedure of the strange situation

  1. Mother is in the room with the baby and the baby is encouraged to explore

  2. Stranger enters and talks to mum

  3. Stranger approaches baby and tries to play with them

  4. Mum leaves the room and the stranger tries to comfort the baby if they are upset

  5. Mum returns and stranger leaves

  6. Mum leaves baby alone briefly

  7. Stranger enters and offers to comfort and play with the baby

  8. Mum returns and stranger leaves
• 5 behaviours used to judge attachment in strange situation

  - proximity seeking

  - secure-base behaviour

  - stranger anxiety

  - separation anxiety

  - response to reunion
• Secure attachment

  showing proximity seeking and secure-base behaviour, show moderate separation distress but accept comfort from the caregiver
• insecure-avoidant attachment

  doesn’t seek proximity or secure-base behaviour, little or no reaction when caregiver leaves and little effort to make contact with caregiver on return
• insecure-resistant attachment

  seeking greater proximity and exploring less, high levels of distress when caregiver leaves and resists comfort at return
• 2 strengths of Ainsworth’s strange situation

  • good predictive validity: the outcome predicts a number of aspects of the baby’s later development - people with secure attachments tend to have better outcomes
  • good reliability: procedure takes place under controlled conditions and behaviours are easier to observe as they involve large movements
• 1 weakness of Ainsworth’s strange situation

  it may be culture-bound: not a valid measure of attachment in different cultural contexts as babies may have different experiences in different cultures