Ainsworth's 'Strange Situation'

Ainsworth's 'Strange Situation'

1. Ainsworth and Wittig (1969) devised a controlled observation technique that they called the 'Strange Situation' to assess the quality of attachment between mothers and infants

   • 8 step procedure
     • 1. A mother and infant are taken by an observer to an unfamiliar room in which there are some playthings. The observer leaves
     • 2. The mother and infant are left alone to explore together
     • 3. A stranger enters and is silent at first, the talks to the mother and then approaches the infant with a toy
     • 4. The mother quietly leaves the room leaving stranger interacting with the infant
     • 5. the mother returns and re-engages with her infant
     • 6. the infant is left alone
     • 7. The stranger returns and interacts with the infant
     • 8. The mother returns and picks up her infant. The stranger quietly leaves.

2. quality of attachment can be assessed by observing the behaviour in the infants

   • inclination to explore
   • behaviour towards the stranger
   • reaction to separation from the mother
   • behaviour towards the mother on her return

3. types of attachment identified

   • Type A- Avoidant-insecure (22%)
     • these infants seemed indifferent to the mother's coming and going. They also avoided the stranger, but were even more avoidant of their mothers when they returned and tried to engage the infants attention. These mothers sometimes ignored their infants
   • Type B- Securely attached (66%)
     • these infants were prepared to explore, but were subdued in the mother's absence and greeted her happily when she returned. They seemed wary of the stranger but not entirely avoidant. Their mothers were said to be 'sensitive'
   • Type C- Insecure-resistant (ambivalent) (12%)
     • these infants were very distressed when the mother left and rejecting of her when she returned. They also behaved ambivalently towards the stranger, i.e. both seeking and rejecting intimacy and social interaction. Their mothers were also seen sometimes to behave ambivalently towards their infants.
   • Type D
     • Main (1991) identified a fourth type of attachment known as Type D (insecure disorganised/ detached). Type D infants are generally fearful and have an ambivalent relationship with the caregiver. It is linked to dysfunction in the family e.g. drug use, divorce, rejection

4. Evaluation of 'Strange Situation' research

   • Sensitive mothering
     • Ainsworth and Bell's (1970) study was observational, so they were unable to show the sensitive mothering caused secure attachment. However, in later studies, e.g. Van Ijzendoorn and Schuengel (1999), concluded that sensitivity is casual, lending validity to the original observations
   • Ecological validity
     • The pattern of brief separations and reunions gives good control in the infants' Strange Situation experience, but could be criticised for low ecological validity, making it less generalizable to other situation. Real-life experiences between caregiver and infant rarely mirror the exact conditions of the Strange Situation
   • Reliability
     • Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) found that the proportions of attachment types found in Ainsworth's research are similar in eight countries in Europe , in Israel and in Japan, demonstrating that the Strange Situation gives reliable results
   • Temperament
     • Kagan (1990) suggested that infants differ in temperament on a dimension known as inhibition, which affects how they relate to others. Inhibited children would withdraw from the mildly stressful Strange Situation irrespective of attachment to the mother, whereas uninhibited children would be more relaxed and friendly
       • In addition, Belsky and Rovine (1987) claimed that an aspect of temperament known as 'behavioural instability' in infants is associated with less-secure attachments. However, it is important to remember that forming attachments is a complex, two-ways process, so both the mother's and the infant's temperament, rather than maternal sensitivity alone, could affect the quality of their attachment relationship, possibly with long-lasting implications
   • Other attachments
     • Infants generally have a number of relationships in which they form attachments; therefore, it has been suggested by Main and Weston (1981) that an infant can have different types of attachment to didifferent people and that the Strange Situation only reflects attachment to the mother. Van Ijzendoorn et al. (1992) agree that, although the Strange Situation has been shown to be both valid and reliable as an indication of attachment type, it does not mean that the mother is the only determinant of the attachment quality of influence over infant development. In support of this, they found that a composite measure of different attachments was the best indicator of later development