Ainsworth's Strange Situation

Ainsworth's Strange Situation

1. The strange Situation

   • Ainsworth et al. (1971,78)
   • procedure consisted of 8 episodes to highlight four key behaviours: use of parent secure base, stranger anxiety, seperation anxiety & reunion behaviours
   • observed using video recorder or one-way mirror with behaviour being recorded every 15 seconds
   • used this to identify three main patterns of behaviour

2. Types of attachment

   • Securely attached (Type B)
     • use caregivers as secure base
     • unlikely to cry if caregiver leaves
     • show some distress left with a stranger
     • easily soothed by caregiver
   • Insecure-avoidant (Type A)
     • happy to explore with or without caregiver
     • little response to separation
     • little or no social interaction & intimacy with others
   • Insecure-resistant (Type C)
     • seek & resist social interaction with others
     • high levels of stranger & separation anxiety
     • when reunited with caregivers show conflicting behaviours and resist being picked up

3. Evaluation

   • Later research
     • Main & Solomon (1986) analysed over 200 strange situation video tapes and put forward a fourth attachment type - insecure-disorganised
     • infants don't conform to Ainsworth's original attachment types, as show very strong attachment behaviour which is followed by avoidant behaviour
     • Suggests Ainsworth's conclusions were too simplistic & do not account for all attachment behaviours
   • Reliability of observations
     • Ainsworth et al (1978) found almost perfect inter-observer reliability of .94, suggesting high agreement among observers in terms of exploratory behaviour
     • high inter-observer reliability suggests observations can be accepted as reliable & Ainsworth's observations had almost perfect reliability
     • This suggests the strange situation is a reliable method for examining attachment
   • Application to improving children's lives
     • The circle of security project - teaches caregivers to understand infants signals of distress, found + in no. infants securely attached (32% to 40%)
     • therefore teaching caregivers to understand their infants can improve & change attachment type
     • This supports research on attachment types, as application of research has been used to improve lives
   • low internal validity
     • Main & Weston (1981) children behave differently in the strange situation depending on which parent they are with
     • so strange situation may be measuring an infants relationship with a particular parent & not a personal characteristic
     • suggests strange situation may lack internal validity as the observations may be measuring individual relationships
   • Maternal sensitivity
     • Raval et al. (2001) low correlations between measures of maternal sensitivity and strength of attachment, furthermore Slade et al (2005) found a greater role of maternal reflective functioning
     • reflective functioning is the ability to understand what someone else is thinking
     • suggests that reflective functioning may be a certain mechanism in establishing attachment types & not maternal sensitivity