The strange situation evaluation

The strange situation evaluation

1. VALIDITY

   • Could measure quality of relationship not insecure and secure etc
     • Weston 1981 found behaviour of children changed with the parent they were with
     • some see this as irrellivent because it is only the one primary attachment that is important in child development
   • Main 1991 tested a group of infants and again when they were nine and found the mother was the person who more greatly influenced them
   • Other studies have supported the four attachment types
     • confirmed to be distinctly different
   • Correlation found between early attachment types and later behaviour

2. ETHICS

   • 'to cause distress'
   • reported that the child cried desperately
     • ethically inappropriate

3. BEHAVIOUR LATER

   • Secure attachment
     • Positive outcomes. Less emotional dependence. Higher achievement
       • more sensitive mothers
   • Avoidant attachment
     • later aggressivness, general negative effects
       • rejecting mothers
   • Resistant attachment
     • greater anxiety
       • unresponsive and less affectionate mothers
     • withdrawn behaviour
   • Disoragnised attachment
     • linked to hostility and aggressiveness