3.2 Types of Attachment

Question 1

What is the strange situation?

Answer 1

A controlled observation designed to test attachment security

Question 1

What are the 3 types of attachment?

Answer 1

1. Secure attachment
2. Insecure-avoidant attachment
3. Insecure-resistant attachment

Question 2

What is secure attachment?

Answer 2

The most desirable attachment type, associated with psychologically healthy outcomes

Question 3

Describe the features of a secure attachment

Answer 3

• Moderate stranger and separation anxiety
• Ease of comfort at reunion

Question 4

What is insecure-avoidant attachment?

Answer 4

An attachment type characterized by low anxiety but weak attachment

Question 5

Describe the features of an insecure-avoidant attachment

Answer 5

• Low stranger and separation anxiety
• Little or avoidant response to reunion

Question 6

What is insecure-resistant attachment?

Answer 6

An attachment type characterized by strong attachments and high anxiety

Question 7

Describe the features of an insecure-resistant attachment

Answer 7

• High levels of stranger and separation anxiety
• Resistance to comfort at reunion

Question 8

What are the 5 behaviours used to judge attachment?

Answer 8

• Proximity-seeking
• Exploration and secure-base behaviour
• Stranger anxiety
• Separation anxiety
• Response to reunion

Question 9

Describe Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’

Answer 9

• Aimed to observe key attachment behaviours to assess quality of attachment to caregiver
• 100 middle class American infants observed through two-way mirror
• Behaviours assessed using attachment criteria

Question 10

What were the findings of Ainsworth’s strange situation

Answer 10

- Secure attachment (B): 60-75%
- Insecure-avoidant (A): 20-25%
- Insecure-resistant (C): 3%

Question 11

Describe the 7 episodes of the strange situation procedure

Answer 11

1. The baby is encouraged to explore
2. A stranger enters and approaches the baby
3. The caregiver leaves the baby and stranger together
4. The caregiver returns and the stranger leaves
5. The caregiver leaves the baby alone
6. The stranger returns
7. The caregiver returns and is reunited with the baby

Question 12

AO3 for types of attachment

Answer 12

1. Good predictive validity: outcome predicts aspects of baby’s later development, research shown type B babies tend to have better outcomes than others, childhood involves better school achievement and less bullying involvement, in adulthood tend to have better mental health, babies assessed with insecure-resistant and neither A, B or C have worst outcomes, strange situation real and meaningful

2. Good reliability: good inter-rater reliability, Bick et al (2012) tested strange situation inter-rater reliability and found agreement in attachment in 94% of the cases, high level of reliability due to controlled conditions and behaviours measured involve large movements so easy to observe e.g anxious babies cry and crawl away from strangers, can be confident there is no dependency on subjective judgements

3. Test may be culture-bound: not valid in different cultural contexts, SS developed in Britain and US, all babies have different experiences which may affect response to SS, in Japanese study by Takahashi (1986) babies displayed high separation anxiety, suggested this response not due to high rates of attachment insecurity but due to unusual nature of situation where mother-baby separation rare, difficult to know what SS is measuring when outside of Europe and US