ainsworth strange situation

• may ainsworth (1969) - strange situation
• strange situation aimed to observe key attachment behaviour as way of assessing quality of child's attachment
• in strange siyuation there were 100 children + caregivers were observed in controlled lab setting via 2 way mirror
• steps of the strange situation

  • mother and child enter room (child encouraged to explore)
  • stranger enters room (talks to mother + tries to interact with child)
  • mother leaves room (stranger may try to comfort child is showing distress)
  • mother returns and stranger leaves (mother may comfort child)
  • mother leaves room again (childs alone)
  • stranger returns (may try to comfort child)
  • mother returns (reunited with child)
• procedure of ainsworths strange situation

  • lasts 21 minutes (3 min for each step)
  • during each step - researchers observed childs responses to each step - willingness to explore,stranger anxiety, seperation anxiety, response to reunion
  • all factors were operationalised - allowed reuslts to be measured empirically
• findings of ainsworths strange situation

  • found distinctive patterns in way infants behaved
  • secure attachment (type b) - 70%
  • insecure avoidant attachment (type a) - 15%
  • insecure resistant attachment (type c) - 15%
• secure attachment - type b

  • happily explore
  • regularly comes back to caregiver
  • moderate stanger anxiety
  • accepts comfort at reunion
• insecure avoidant attachment - type a

  • explores freely
  • doesnt seek proximity
  • shows little/no response when caregiver leaves
  • seeks greater proximity than others
• insecure resistant attachment - type c

  • seeks greater proximity than others
  • explores less
  • shows huge stranger/seperation distress
  • resists comfort when reunited
• evaluation points for ainsworths strange situation

  • high reliability
  • validity questioned
  • fourth type of attachment
• high reliability as eval point for ainsworths strange situation

  • study has high inter rater reliability
  • inter rater reliability is important in observation studies as researchers need to agree on how they will classify behaviours which are observed - operationalising to make all researchers know what behaviours should be recorded
  • found aintsworths study has inter rater reliability rate of 94% - study can be trusted
  • strengthens study as findings are consistent regarding behaviour being observed - confident attachment type of infant is identified
• validity questioned as eval point for ainsworths strange situation

  • study onlly tested on babies with mothers - questioning whther study is measuring attachment type of quality of relationships with mothers
  • researchers found children behaved differently depending on parent with - suggests classification of attachment type may not be valid because its measurement of relationship rather than personal characteristic (attachment)
  • validity of study is controversial due to uncertaintyy that actual attachment of individual is not being measured - limits application
• fourth type of attachment as eval point for aisnworths strange situation

  • main and soloman analysed over 200 strange situation videotapes and proposed 4th type of attachment - insecure disorganised (type d)
  • infants dont appear to have consistent type of attachment where they seem to lack coherent strategy for dealing with stress of separation
  • ainsworths study can be seen as limited as it doesnt fully account for all different attachment types