Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

• Ainsworth's Strange Situation


  To observe key attachment behaviours to assess the quality of a baby's attachment to a caregiver
• The behaviours used to judge attachment included:

  • proximity-seeking
  • exploration and secure-base behaviour
  • stranger anxiety
  • separation anxiety
  • response to reunion
• Experiment was carried out in a room with controlled conditions (lab) and a two-way mirror and cameras.
• 3 main types of attachment Ainsworth identified:

  • Secure attachment
  • Insecure-avoidant attachment
  • Insecure-resistant attachment
• Secure Attachment - The child is confident that their mother will be there when they need her, so explores freely but returns quickly if she leaves the room. They are happy to see her on return and comforted by her presence. This type of attachment is associated with positive outcomes later in life such as better social skills and emotional wellbeing.
• Insecure-avoidant attachment - The child ignores or avoids contact with their mother, preferring to explore alone rather than seek proximity. When she returns, they may not show any signs of pleasure at seeing her. This type of attachment is associated with negative outcomes later in life such as poorer relationships and increased risk of depression.
• Insecure-resistant attachment - The child shows high levels of distress when separated from their mother, crying loudly and clinging onto her when reunited. However, this does not necessarily mean they have a strong bond; it could also indicate fear or mistrust towards the stranger who entered the room. This type of attachment is associated with negative outcomes later in life such as low self-esteem and difficulty forming close relationships.
• Secure attachment:

  • babies happily explore but regularly return to caregiver
  • moderate stranger and separation anxiety
  • require comfort from caregiver in the reunion stage
• Insecure-avoidant attachment:

  • explore freely but do not seek proximity/ show secure-base behaviour
  • show little to no separation or stranger anxiety
  • make little effort to make contact when caregiver returns
• Insecure-resistant attachment:

  • seek greater proximity than others/explore less
  • show high levels of separation and stranger anxiety
  • resist comfort when reunited with caregiver
• Strange Situation has good predictive validity as its outcome predicts a number of aspects of the baby’s later development.
• Babies assessed as securely attached tend to have better outcomes in childhood and adulthood (less bullying, better school achievements and better mental health). This suggests the Strange Situation measures something real and meaningful in a baby’s development.
• However, some believe the Strange Situation may not actually measure attachment. Kagan suggested that genetically-influenced anxiety levels could account for the variation in attachment behaviour in the Strange Situation and later development.
• The Strange Situation has good reliability. Bick tested inter-rater reliabilityvfor the Strange Situation for a team of trained observers and found agreement on attachment type in 94% of cases. So we can be confident that attachment types assessed by the Strange Situation are not based on subjective judgements.
• However the Strange Situation may not be valid in different cultures. The Strange Situation was developed in Britain and the USA. Babies have different experiences in different cultures so it is difficult to know what the Strange Situation is measuring when used outside of Western Europe and the USA.