Ainsworth's Strange Situation

• What is the strange situation?

  A systematic way to test the nature of attachment between infant and caregiver
• What are the 7 stages of the Strange situation?

  1. Infant and caregiver play
  2. Stranger enters
  3. Caregiver leaves
  4. Caregiver returns and stranger leaves
  5. Caregiver leaves
  6. Stranger returns
  7. Caregiver returns
• Which 4 types of behaviours was the Strange Situation testing for?

  1. Separation anxiety
  2. Stranger anxiety
  3. Secure-base behaviour
  4. Reunion behaviour
• What are the three types of attachment Ainsworth found?

  Secure, insecure-resistant, insecure-avoidant
• What is a secure attachment?

  • shows secure-base behaviour
  • moderate levels of separation and stranger anxiety
  • Easily comforted when mother returns
• What is an insecure-avoidant attachment?

  • Does not use mother as a secure base and comfortable to explore
  • low levels of separation and stranger anxiety
  • shows little interest when mother returns
• What is an insecure-resistant attachment?

  • Not confident to explore and clings to mother
  • Extreme levels of separation and stranger anxiety
  • Reunion behaviour- seeks mother and rejects her eg: may push her away
• Describe the findings of the Strange Situation

  UK:

  Secure= 60-75%

  Insecure-avoidant= 20-25%

  Insecure resistant= 3%
• Good reliability study support

  Bick et al (2012):

  Looked at inter-rater reliability In a team of trained strange situation observers and found agreement on attachment type for 94% of tested babies.
• Real world application study support

  Cooper et al (2005)- The circle of security project:

  Teachers caregivers to better understand their infants' signals of distress to increase their understanding of what it feels like to experience anxiety. The project showed a decrease in the number of caregivers classified as disordered (60% to 15%) and an increase in infants classified as securely attached (32% to 40%)
• More than 3 types of attachments study support

  Van Ijzendoorn et al (1999):

  Further supported this with a meta-analysis of nearly 80 studies in the US and found that 15% of children fell into this insecure-disorganised category.
• Strengths of the strange situation

  1. The results have been replicated in other studies
  2. The method is highly standardised meaning there is a high degree of control over extraneous variables
  3. The method is replicable
  4. The results obtained are reliable across time within the same individuals