Ainsworth Strange Situation

• What is the procedure of Ainsworth's strange situation?

  • Developed by Mary Ainsworth
  • Controlled observation in a lab with infants aged 9-18 months
  • Measures attachment styles
  • Two way mirror so psychologists can observe behaviour
• What type of behavioural categories did Ainsworth assess?

  1. Proximity seeking
  2. Exploration and secure base behaviour
  3. Stranger anxiety
  4. Separation anxiety
  5. Response to reunion
• What are the 7 steps in Ainsworth Strange Situation?

  1. Child encouraged to explore (test exploration and secure base)
  2. Stranger comes in and tries to interact with child (tests stranger anxiety)
  3. Caregiver leaves child and stranger together (tests separation and stranger anxiety)
  4. Caregiver returns and stranger leaves (tests reunion and secure base)
  5. Caregiver leaves child alone (tests separation anxiety)
  6. Stranger returns (tests stranger anxiety)
  7. Caregiver returns and is reunited with child (tests reunion behaviour)
• What is a Type B attachment?


  Secure attachment
• What is a Type A attachment?

  Insecure-avoidant attachment
• What is a Type C attachment?

  Insecure-resistant attachment
• What is the findings in terms of the Type B attachment?

  • Explored happily but regularly went back to caregiver (used mother as secure base)
  • Moderate separation and stranger anxiety but accept comfort from caregiver at reunion
  • Most common type of attachment (60-75%)
• What is the findings in terms of Type A attachment?

  • Explore freely but do not seek proximity, shows no reaction when caregiver leaves (doesn't use mother as secure base)
  • Low separation and stranger anxiety
  • Doesn't make contact when caregiver returns and do not require comfort at reunion stage
  • 20-25%
• What is the findings in terms of Type C attachment?

  • seek greater proximity so explore less
  • Show huge stranger and separation anxiety
  • Show little joy and resist comfort when reunited with caregiver
  • 3%- least common type of attachment
• Evaluation of Ainsworth Strange Situation: High inter-rater reliability

  • The procedure had operationalised variables and takes place in controlled conditions and the behavioural categories are easy to observe
  • Researchers looked at the inter-rater reliability and found agreement on 94% of tested babies
  • Shows that Ainsworth was replicable and reliable
• Evaluation of Ainsworth Strange Situation: Lack of ecological validity

  • The procedure is conducted in a lab and follows a script so it is not like real life
  • A researcher found infants were more distressed when separated from parents in the lab than at home due to the unfamiliar environment.
  • Findings from these studies may lack ecological validity when applied to real life attachments
• Evaluation of Ainsworth Strange Situation: May be more attachment types

  • Ainsworth came up with 3 attachment types however another researcher pointed out there may be more attachment types
  • There is a minority of children that display atypical attachments that do not fall within types A,B,C
  • Some displayed a mix of 2 attachments
• Evaluation of Ainsworth Strange Situation: Ethical Issues

  • Some may argue that the procedure is unethical as it involves deliberately causing stress to infants
  • But this stress caused is similar to everyday experiences for infants
• Explain Van Ijzendoorn's research

  • Completed a meta- analysis on 32 studies using Ainsworth's Strange Situation
  • Attachment types both between and within cultures was studied
  • Over 2,000 babies were studies
• What is a meta-analysis?


  Summary piece of research which looks at a range of similar studies, analysing for one particular factor in this case attachment type
• What is the most common type of attachment in all cultures?

  Secure Attachment
• What are the results in Ijzendoorn research?

  • Secure attachment were the most common form in all cultures
  • The higher proportion of secure children were found in the UK
  • Avoidant attachments were most commonly found in Germany
  • Type C attachments were most commonly found in Japan
• What type of culture is the US, Japan and the UK?

  Individualistic
• In the US and the UK why are most children secure?


  In their country, they encourage independence and not being reliant on others. Children are not used to strangers which could explain avoidant behaviours
• Why are most Japanese children most secure (with some avoidant)?

  • Japanese children are rarely left alone by their mother
  • They feel distress when they leave so it may be due to shock rather than insecure attachment
  • The distress they show when the stranger is there may be due to missing their mother
• Why does Germany have a higher % of avoidant children compared to other countries?

  • Germany raise independent as that is the norm in their culture
  • German people seek non-clingy infants, who do not make demands, but obey commands
• What is the Italian Study regarding Ainsworth?

  • Simonella et al had 76 1 year old babies
  • 50% were secure
  • 36% were insecure-avoidant
  • Similar to Germany
  • Mother work long hours and use services e.g nanny
• What is the Korean Study regarding Ainsworth?

  • Jin et al
  • Secure was the most common
  • More insecure attachments
  • Similar to findings on Japan where they have similar rearing styles
• What is the definition of Imposed Etic?


  Take the standards of one country and apply it to others
• What is Ethnocentrism?


  One culture is superior than another
• Evaluation of Ijzendoorn: Internal Validity

  • Sample size is large (nearly 2000 babies)
  • Increased internal validity and less anomalous results
  • More generalisable
• Evaluation of Ijzendoorn: Culture vs Country?

  • Many countries contain a variety of cultures so the studies might show us the attachment type in countries instead of actual cultures
• Evaluation of Ijzendoorn: Imposed Etic

  • It assumes the values of one country are the norm and applies them to all other countries
  • e.g the norm in germany may be different to the norm in Japan