what is the strange situation

• the strange situation is a procedure for assessing the quality of attachment between the infant and the mother
• it was developed by Mary Ainsworth et al (1978) and involves a series of 7 episodes where the child is left alone and adults come in and out of the room
• the main aim of the study was to be able to observe key attachment behaviours as a means of assessing the quality of a baby's attachment to a caregiver
• the participants were 100 US mothers and their infants