Types of attachment

• Strange situation composed by Ainsworth, assessed the quality of attachment between mother and infant. The specific behaviour they observed for was: Secure base, exploration, proximity seeking, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety and reunion
• Secure attachment(60-75%) = The infant would happily explore but regularly go back to the mother. Showed moderate levels of stranger and separation anxiety. Would accept comfort from caregiver
• Insecure-avoidant (20-25%) = would explore freely but doesnt seek proximity/secure base. Shows little to no reaction to both stranger and separation anxiety. Would make little effort to make contact the caregiver.
• insecure-resistant (3%)= Would explore less and seek greater proximity. Has high stranger and separation anxiety. Would seek comfort but reject it.
• Study has good reliability for the different classifications. Another study conducted by Main et al retested infants and found that 100% of the secure babies were still secure. This is called test retest reliability and checks for consistency over time. Ainsworth also retested inter-rater reliability which was found to be very high. This means we can be confident that attachment type does not depend on judgements.
• There is evidence for lack of external validity as the study mainly focuses only on the type of attachment to the mother. The infant might have a different attachment type to the father or grandparents. The study lacks validity as it is not measuring a general attachment.