Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

• Aim

  Ainsworth observed infants’ behaviour to assess the quality of infants’ attachment to their caregivers. She did this by observing: • Observed 106 infants aged 9-18 months under mild stress.

  • Examined independent exploration in new situations.

  • Identified three main types of attachment.

  • Found distinct patterns in infant behavior.
•  Procedure

  The Strange Situation is a controlled observation procedure designed to measure the security of attachment a child displays towards a caregiver. It takes place in a room with quite controlled conditions (i.e. a laboratory) with a two-way mirror through which psychologists can observe the infant's behaviour.
• Judging Attachment Behaviors in Infants

  • Proximity seeking: Infants with good attachment stay close to their caregiver.

  • Exploration and secure-base behaviour: Good attachment allows children to explore using their caregiver as a secure base.

  • Stranger anxiety: Symptoms of close attachment include anxiety when a stranger approaches.

  • Separation anxiety: Protests at separation from the caregiver.

  • Reunion with the caregiver after short separation under controlled conditions.
• The procedure has seven episodes, each of which last three minutes

  Beginning: Child and caregiver enter an unfamiliar playroom.
• 1. The child is encouraged to explore.

  Tests exploration and secure base.

  2. A stranger comes in and tries to interact with the child.

  Tests stranger anxiety.

  3. The caregiver leaves the child and stranger together.

  Tests separation and stranger anxiety.

  4. The caregiver returns and the stranger leaves.

  Tests reunion behaviour and exploration/ secure base.

  5. The caregiver leaves the child alone.

  Tests separation anxiety.

  6. The stranger returns.

  Tests stranger anxiety.

  7. The caregiver returns and is reunited with the child.

  Tests reunion behaviour.
• Findings:

  Ainsworth found that there were distinct patterns in the way that infants behaved. She identified three main types of attachment:

  1. Secure    (Type B) 66%
  2. Insecure-avoidant (Type A) 22%
  3. Insecure-resistant (Type C) 12% 
• Secure attachment 

  • Child happy to explore but seeks proximity with caregiver (secure base)
  • Shows moderate separation anxiety and stranger anxiety
  • Requires and accepts comfort from caregiver on reunion
• Insecure-avoidant 

  • Child explores freely but does not seek proximity with caregiver (no secure base)
  • Shows little/no separation and stranger anxiety
  • Does not require comfort at the reunion stage
• • One criticism of Ainsworth’s analysis comes from later research into attachment
  • Main and Solomon (1986) analysed over 200 Strange Situation videotapes and suggested there was a fourth type of attachment - insecure-disorganised (Type D)
  • These infants don’t conform to one of the Ainsworth’s original attachment types. They show a mixture of secure attachment followed by avoidant behaviour
  • This suggests that Ainsworth’s original conclusions were too simplistic and do not account for all attachment behaviours
• • One strength of the Strange Situation is the reliability of the observations
  • Ainsworth et al. (1978) found almost perfect inter-observer reliability of 0.94, suggesting high agreement among the different observers in terms of exploratory behaviour
  • High inter-observer reliability suggests the observations can be accepted as being reliable and Ainsworth’s observations had almost perfect reliability
  • This suggests that the Strange Situation is a reliable method for examining attachment
• • One criticism of the Strange Situation is the low level of internal validity
  • Main and Weston (1981) found that children behaved differently in the Strange Situation, depending on which parent they are with
  • Therefore, the Strange Situation may be measuring an infant’s relationship with a particular parent 
  • This suggests that the Strange Situation may lack internal validity as the observation may be measuring individual relationships (e.g. only with the mother) and not all relationships
• • A limitation of the Strange Situation (SS) is that it may be a test based on only one culture
  • For example, Takahashi (1990) found that Japanese mothers are rarely separated from infants in everyday life, meaning the infants show high levels of separation anxiety in the SS
  • This suggests that the test may not have the same meaning in countries outside of the West. Therefore, the SS may incorrectly find that all Japanese children are insecurely attached because they are being judged by a Western measurement of attachment.