Strange Situation & Types of Attachment

• Researchers: strange situation

  Ainsworth and Bell (1971)
• Procedure: strange situation

  • the child experiencing eight ‘episodes’ of approximately 3 minutes each.
  • The child is observed playing for 20 minutes while caregivers and strangers enter and leave the room,
  • recreating the flow of the familiar and unfamiliar presence in most children's lives.
• Aim: strange situation

  to measure different forms of infant attachment
• Define Caregiver Sensitivity Hypothesis

  suggests that a mother’s behaviour towards their infant predicts their attachment type
• Stages of the strange situation

  • Stage 1 – Mother and child enter the playroom
  • Stage 2 – The child is encouraged to explore
  • Stage 3 – Stranger enters and talks briefly to the mum, then attempts to interact with the infant
  • Stage 4 – Mothers leaves while the stranger is present
  • Stage 5 – Mother enters and the stranger leaves
  • Stage 6 – Mothers leaves
  • Stage 7 – Stranger returns and interacts with infant
  • Stage 8 – Mother returns and interacts with child, stranger leaves
• How did the researchers observe the infants

  Ainsworth & Bell observed from the other side of a one-way mirror so that the children did not know they were being observed
• Findings: strange situation

  • securely attached - 70%
  • insecure-resistant - 15%
  • insecure-avoidant - 15%
• Sample: Strange Situation study

  100 middle-class American infants and their mothers
• What did the observers note in the Strange Situation

  • the child’s willingness to explore
  • separation anxiety
  • stranger anxiety
  • reunion behavior
• When does insecure-avoidant attachment occur

  This type of attachment occurs because the mother ignores the emotional needs of the infant
• When does insecure-resistant attachment occur

  This occurs because the mother sometimes meets the needs of the infant and sometimes ignores their emotional needs
• When does secure attachment occur

  This type of attachment occurs because the mother meets the emotional needs of the infant
• Separation Anxiety: insecure-avoidant babies

  No sign of distress when the mother leaves
• Separation Anxiety: insecure-resistant babies

  Intense distress when the mother leaves
• Separation Anxiety: secure babies

  Distressed when mother leaves
• Stranger anxiety: insecure-avoidant babies

  The infant is okay with the stranger and plays normally when the stranger is present
• Stranger anxiety: insecure-resistant babies

  • they cannot be comforted by a stranger and will not interact with them
  • they treat the stranger and the mother very differently
• Stranger anxiety: Secure infants

  Avoidant of stranger when alone, but friendly when the mother is present
• Reunion behaviour: insecure-avoidant babies

  The Infant shows little interest when the mother returns
• Reunion behaviour: insecure-resistant babies

  The infant approaches the mother (pleased to see her), but resists contact, may even push her away (cannot be comforted)
• Reunion behaviour: secure babies

  Positive and happy when mother returns
• Other behaviours: insecure-avoidant babies

  • The mother and stranger are able to comfort the infant equally well
  • Infants showed no motivation to interact with either adult.
  • The stranger is treated similar to the mother (does not seek contact)
• Other behaviours: insecure-resistant babies

  The infant cries more and explores less than the other two types
• Other behaviours: secure babies

  Uses the mother as a safe base to explore their environment
• Describe the experiment of the strange situation

  • conducted a controlled observation recording the reactions of a child and mother
  • who were introduced to a strange room with toys
• Limitation: strange situation is culturally biased


  • was designed by an American according to observations of US children
  • the criteria used to classify infants are based on US values, relating to child-parent behaviour
  • It could be argued that this is Ethnocentric, so observations of non-Americans will judged according to American standards
• Limitation: Strange Situation lacks ecological validity


  • it has low ecological validity, and the results may not be applicable outside of the lab
  • The environment of the study was controlled and the eight scripted stages of the procedure would be unlikely to happen in real life
• Strength: Strange Situation

  • Replicable and high inter-observer reliability
  • As the research is highly operationalised, observers have a clear view of how a securely attached infant should behave,
  • due to the 4 specific criteria that Ainsworth used.
  • so, the research had high inter-rater reliability