strange situation

Cards (32)

  • who is it by
    ainsworth (slay girlie)
  • what does the ss investigate
    types of attatchment
  • aims of the ss
    to see if mothers sensitivity affects child attatchment
  • procedure of build up to strange situation
    100 middle class child mother pairs from america were assessed

    they conducted a naturalistic observation for the first year of infants lives
    - visting every 3-4 weeks for 3-4 hours and observed infant behaviour and interviewed the mother

    they conducted a controlled observation when the babies were 1year+, the mum and babies went to a lab to take part in the strange situation
  • procedure of the strange situation
    1. observer leaves caregiver and infant alone in experimental room
    2. caregiver watches child play and encorages it to explore
    3. stranger enters, silent then talks to caregiver, then interacts with kid
    4. 1st separation caregiver leaves the room, stranger tries to interact with kid
    5. first reunion, caregiver comforts child, stranger leaves, caregiver then leaves
    6. second separation, child = alone
    7. stranger enters and tries to interact with child
    8. second reunion caregiver comforts child and stranger leaves
  • behaviour assessed in each stage of the ss
    1. none
    2. willingness to explore
    3. stranger anxiety
    4. separation anxiety
    5. reunion behaviour
    6. separation anxiety
    7. stranger anxiety
    8. reunion behaviour
  • how long was each stage of thess and how often were observations made
    each was 3 mins
    observations recorded every 15 seconds- time sampling
  • what were the findings of ainsworths study
    found that behaviour fell into 3 categories
    - secure attatchment 66%
    - insecure avoidant attatchment 22%
    - insecure resistant attatchment 12%
  • willingness to explore of secure attatchment
    high, they use the caregiver as a 'safe base
  • willingness to explore of insecure avoidant attatchment
    high
  • willingness to explore of insecure resistant attachment
    low
  • stranger anxiety of secure attatchment
    moderate
  • stranger anxiety of insecure avoidant attachment
    low
  • stranger anxiety of of insecure reistant attachment
    high
  • separation anxiety of secure attatchment
    distressed
  • separation anxiety of insecure avoidant attatchment
    indifferent
  • separation anxiety of insecure resistant attachment

    intense distress
  • reunion behavior of secure attachment
    enthusiastic and happy when mother returns
  • reunion behavior of insecure avoidant attachment
    avoids contact
  • reunion behavior of insecure resistant
    seeks and rejects it
  • why might insecure attachment be due to
    spending time with multiple carers eg grandparents, they have a secure attachment but the 'strange' situation of being left alone etc is not so strange to them
  • what did ainsworth also find in the ss (appart from attachment types)
    that the mothers sensitivity levels correlated with the attachment type
  • what is the maternal sensitivity hypothesis
    ainsworths suggestion of a relationship between a mothers sensitivity and the attachment type of their child
  • what type of mother sensitivity would lead to secure attachment
    the mother is constantly sensitive and provides comfort quickly
  • what type of mother sensitivity would lead to insecure avoidant attachment
    the mother is consistantly not sensitive and shows little affection
  • what type of mother sensitivity would lead to insecure resistant attachment
    the mother is inconsistant with comfort and frequently misunderstands the babies needs eg whether it needs affection or otherwise
  • conclusions from ainsworths study
    children fit into one of the three different categories of attachment with their primary caregiver

    a mothers sensitivity can affect the type of attachment their child has
  • negative eval for ainsworths ss - limitation of the 3 attachment types

    main and soloman disagree that all babies fit into ainsworths 3 attachment categories
    - they analysed 200+ ss videos and suggested a 4th type

    the 4th type: Insecure disorganised
  • what is insecure disorganised characterised by
    -lack of consistant social behaviour
    -some infants dont have a consistant attachment type + lack a coherent strategy for dealing with separation eg they show very strong attachment followed by strong avoidance or looking fearful to caregiver
  • criticism of maternal sensitivity explanation of attachment (negative eval)
    Kagan suggests that temperament has more important influence on the behaviour in the ss than attachment type

    this means that temperament may be a confounding variable
    - this is a problem for its validity
  • what is temperament
    innate, genetically influenced aspect of personality
  • evaluation for the strange situation
    artificial situation

    cultural relativism

    temperament

    4th attachment type