The Strange Situation

• What are the three types of attachment?

  Secure attachment (type B), insecure avoidant attachment (type A) and insecure resistant attachment (type C).
• Describe secure attachment in a baby.

  • They have moderate proximity seeking to the caregiver.
  • During reunion they require and accept comfort.
  • They have moderate exploration behaviour, explore regularly but regularly go back to the caregiver.
  • They have moderate stranger and separation anxiety.
• Descrive insecure avoidant attachment in a baby.

  • They have low proximity seeking behaviour to the caregiver.
  • During reunion they make little effort for contact.
  • They explore freely.
  • They have low stranger and separation anxiety.
• Decribe insecure resistant attachment.

  • They have strong proximity seeking behaviour to the caregiver.
  • They resist comfort on reunion.
  • They do not explore freely and keep great proximity to caregiver.
  • They have strong stranger and separation anxiety.
• What are the seven stages of the strange situation and what do they test for?

  caregiver and baby enter unfamiliar playroom

  1. Baby is encouraged to explore - tests exploration and secure base.
  2. Stranger comes in, talks to caregiver and approached baby - tests stranger anxiety.
  3. Caregiver leaves baby and stranger together - tests separation and stranger anxiety.
  4. Caregiver returns, stranger leaves - tests reunion behaviour and exploration base.
  5. Caregiver leaves baby alone - tests separation anxiety.
  6. Stranger returns - tests stranger anxiety
  7. Caregiver returns - tests reunion behaviour.
• What was the aim of Ainsworth's 'The Strange Situation'?

  To investigate key attachment behaviour as a means of the quality of a baby's attachment to their caregiver
• What was the method and sample in Ainsworth's 'The Strange Situation'?

  It was a controlled observation with 56 infants and their mothers (white, middle class Americans).
• What happened in Ainsworth's 'The Strange Situation'?

  An infant was observed in a room using a two way mirror in the Strange Situation. 

  Five behaviours were used to judge the attachment type; proximity seeking, reunion behaviour, exploration, stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.

  The procedure had 8 episodes each lasting 3 minutes (all of which tested the behaviours outlined above), some of these included; stranger comes and interacts with the child (measured stranger anxiety) and caregiver leaving child alone (measured separation anxiety).
• What were the findings of Ainsworth's 'The Strange Situation'?

  60-75% of babies were securely attached, 20-25% were insecure avoidant and 3% were insecure resistant.
• What was the conclusion of Ainsworth's 'The Strange Situation'?

  Ainsworth (1978) suggested the ‘caregiver sensitivity hypothesis’ as an explanation for different attachment types.

  It suggested that a child’s attachment style is dependent on the behaviour their mother shows towards them.

  • Securely attached children tend to have responsive/sensitive mothers, who respond to their child’s needs correctly. 
  • Insecurely attached children tend to have less sensitive mothers, who respond to their child’s needs incorrectly.
• What is a cultural variation and link it to attachment.

  The differences in norms and values that exist between people in different cultures. As child-rearing strategies differ across cultures, psychologists question whether attachment types are the same, or different across the world.
• What was the aim of Van Ijzendoorn's research into attachment?

  To investigate the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure resistant attachments both between and within a range of cultures.
• What is the procedure in Van Ijzendoorn's research into attachment?

  It was a meta-analysis of 32 studies of attachment involving The Strange Situation were used to investigate the proportions of infants with different attachment types.

  These 32 studies included results from 1990 children and had been conducted in 8 countries: 15 were in America.
• What were the findings of Van Ijzendoorn's research into attachment?


  • There was a wide variation between the proportions of attachment styles in different studies.
  • Individualistic cultures rates of insecure-resistant attachment were similar to Ainsworth’s original sample (under 14%) but this was not the case for collectivist culture samples from China, Japan and Israel where the rates were above 25%.
• What were the findings of Van Ijzendoorn's research into attachment?

  • In all countries secure attachment was the most common classification. However, the proportions varied from 75% in Britain and 50% in China.
  • Variations between results of studies within the same cultures were actually 1.5 times greater than those between cultures. For example, in the USA, one study found 46% securely attachment in comparison to one that found 90%.