The Strange Situation

The Strange Situation

1. Evaluation

   • Other types of attachment
     • Main & Solomon, 1986
       • Analysed over 200 Strange Situation videotapes and proposed the insecure-disorganised type D
         • =lack of consistent patterns of social behaviour
           • Supported by Van Ijendoorn et al., 1999 with their meta-analysis of nearly 80 studies in the US
             • 62% secure, 15% insecure-avoidance, 9% insecure-resistant and 15% insecure-disorganised
   • Observations had high reliability
     • meaningful measurements because of inter-observer reliability
       • Ainsworth, 1978
         • Found 0.94 agreement between raters (almost perfect)
   • Real-world applications
     • Developed intervention strategies for disordered patterns of attachment
       • Circle of Security Project, Cooper et al., 2005
         • teaches caregivers to better understand their infants' signals of distress
           • improvement of children's lives

2. Mary Ainsworth et al., 1971, 1978

   • Procedure
     • novel environment
       • 9x9 foot space marked into 16 squares
     • 8 episodes to test:
       • Separation from the caregiver
       • reunion with the caregiver
       • response to the stranger
       • the novel environment testing secure base concept
     • group of observers viewing video recorder/one-way mirror
       • record infants activities every 15 seconds
         • intensity scored on scale of 1-7
   • Findings
     • Secure attachment (66%
     • Insecure-avoidant attachment (22%)
     • Insecure-resistant attachment (12%)