Types of attachment

• Ainsworth strange situation

  = a controlled observation to test attachment security. Babies are assessed on their response to playing in an unfamiliar room, being left alone, left with a stranger and being reunited with a caregiver.
• Behaviours

  -proximity seeking= baby with good quality attachment will stay fairly close to a caregiver.

  -exploration and secure-base behaviour= good attachment enables a baby to feel confident to explore, using their caregiver as a secure base.

  -stranger anxiety= signs of becomes closely attached is a display of anxiety when a stranger approaches.

  -separation anxiety= another sign of becoming attached is to protest at separation from the caregiver.

  -response to reunion= babies that are securely attached greet the caregiver's return with pleasure and seek comfort.
• secure attachment (type B)

  Babies are happy to explore but regularly go back to their caregiver.

  -show moderate separation distress and stranger anxiety.

  -accept comfort from the caregiver in the reunion stage.
• insecure-avoidant attachment (type A)

  Explore freely but don't seek proximity or show secure-base behaviour.

  -show little reaction when their caregiver leaves and little stranger anxiety.

  -make little effort to make contact when the caregiver returns and may even avoid such contact.
• insecure-resistant attachment

  These babies seek greater proximity than others and so explore less.

  -show high levels of stranger and separation distress but resist comfort when reunited with their caregiver.
• Evaluation- good predictive validity

  It predicts a number of aspects of the baby's later development.

  • research has shown that babies assessed as type B tend to have better outcomes than others, both in childhood and adulthood.
  • in childhood this concludes better achievement in school and less involvement in bullying.
  • securely attached babies also tend to go on to have better mental health in adulthood.
  • those babies assessed as having insecure-resistant attachment and those not falling into types A,B,C tend to have the worst outcomes.
• Evaluation- counterpoint

  Strange situation clearly measures something important that is associated with later development. However, not all psychologists believe this something is attachment. eg: suggested that genetically- influenced anxiety levels could account for variations in attachment behaviour in the strange situation and later development.

  • so strange situation may not actually measure attachment.
• Evaluation- good reliability

  Good inter-rater reliability.

  • Bick tested inter-rater reliability for the strange situation for a team of trained observers and found agreement on attachment type in 94% of cases.
  • high level of reliability may be because the procedure takes place under controlled conditions and because behaviours involve large movements and are therefore easy to observe. eg: anxious babies cry and crawl away from strangers.
  • so we can be confident that attachment type as assessed by strange situation doesn't develop on subjective judgements.
• Evaluation- the test may be culture-bound

  may not be a valid measure of attachment in different cultural contexts.

  • strange situation developed in Britain+ USA. May be culture bound.
  • babies have different experiences in different cultures and these experiences may affect their responses to the strange situation.
  • eg: in one Japanese study, babies displayed very high levels of separation anxiety and so a large number were classified as insecure-resistant, suggests that this anxiety response was due to the unusual nature of the experience in Japan where mother-baby separation is very rare.