Strange Situation

• Ainsworth's strange situation is an observational method for testing strength of attachment between a caregiver and an infant devised by Ainsworth.
• In her experiment, Ainsworth measured 4 different behaviours:

  • separation anxiety/distress on separation
  • reunion behaviour/seeking proximity
  • exploration/safe base behaviour
  • stranger anxiety
• Ainsworths aim was to measure the security of attachment a child shows towards their caregiver
• Ainsworth used a controlled observation and observed the childs behaviours through a 2-way mirror and found three patterns of attachment:

  Secure

  Insecure avoidant

  Insecure resistant
• What was the conclusion of the strange situation experiment?

  Ainsworth suggested that attachment type was determined by primary caregiver's behaviour (i.e the mothers behaviour).