types of attachment

• Ainsworth's attachment types


  • Insecure avoidant type A
  • Secure type B
  • Insecure resistant type C
• Ainsworth's findings provided evidence for three distinct attachment types that seem to correlate with a level of sensitive responsiveness shown by the mother
• The strange situation is a highly controlled observational research study with standardized procedures and clear behavioral categories
• Ainsworth's 1988 meta-analysis found secure attachment was the most common type in all countries, insecure resistant was the least common, and avoidant was more common in individualistic Western cultures and resistant in collectivist cultures
• Good predictive quality


  Secure attachment=

  Ward et al - better mental health in adulthood

  McCormick et al - better achievement and less involvement inn bullying
• Kagan - tempremant


  SS measures anxiety levels which could account for the variations
• Bick et al - reliability of SS


  94% agreement during inter-rater reliability test

  potentially due to a controlled environment or that behaviors are easy to judge (eg, large movements for proximity seeking)
• Soloman - disinhibited attachment


  proposed fourth type of attachment - a mix of resistant and avoidant

  however, is unusual and generally experiences severe neglect/abuse
• Takahashi - Japan study (culturally bound)


  Japanese infants display high levels of anxiety so attachment is classified as insecure

  • But anxiety is caused from unusual experiences of separation from mothers not an indicator of attachment strength
• Slade et al (2005) - Maternal reflective functioning


  low correlation between maternal sensitivity and the strength of attahcment

  found that maternal reflective functioning (the ability to understand what someone else is thinking and feeling) was more important.