ainsworth

Question 1

who was ainsworth testing?

Answer 1

children of around 12 months – 18 months.

Question 2

what was her idea?

Answer 2

the child plays with his mother and then a stranger is involved in the interaction in various ways.

Question 3

what was ainsworth focusing on?

Answer 3

how the child reacts to the stranger and to the mother.

Question 4

what was set up to measure this?

Answer 4

controlled observation was designed to test this (a one way mirror was used) so that psychologists could observe the infant’s behaviour.

Question 5

what behaviours were they looking for to judge attachment?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

what are the 7 stages of ainsworth’s strange situation?

Answer 6

Beginning: Child and caregiver enter unfamiliar playroom (30 secs)
1. Mother allows baby to explore – stimulates play if necessary (3 mins)
2. Stranger:
- enters room, stranger is silent (1 min)
- converses with mother (1 min)
- approaches baby (1 min)
Mother leaves
3. Stranger’s behaviour geared to baby (3 mins – or less if baby becomes distressed)
4. Stranger leaves, mother returns and greets and/or comforts baby – settles baby in play – leaves, saying “bye-bye”(3 mins – more if needs to settle)
5. Baby is alone (3 mins – less if distressed)
6. Stranger enters – gears behaviour to that of baby (3 mins – less if distressed)
7. Mother enters, greets and picks up baby – stranger leaves (3 mins)

Question 7

what are the 3 attachment types identified?

Answer 7

avoidant - A
secure - B
resistant - C

Question 8

what % of infants were avoidant?

Answer 8

22

Question 9

what % of infants were avoidant?

Answer 9

22

Question 10

what % of infants were secure?

Answer 10

66

Question 11

what behaviours are attachment types characterised by?

Answer 11

separation anxiety
stranger anxiety
reunion behaviour
other

Question 12

behaviour - insecure avoidant attachment

Answer 12

separation anxiety - Infant shows no sign of distress when mother leaves
stranger anxiety - Infant is okay with the stranger and plays normally when stranger is present
reunion behaviour - Infant shows little interest when mother returns.
other - Mother and stranger are able to comfort infant equally well

Question 13

behaviour - secure attachment

Answer 13

separation anxiety - Distressed when mother leaves
stranger anxiety - Avoidant of stranger when alone but friendly when mother present.
reunion behaviour - Positive and happy when mother returns.
other - Will use the mother as a safe base to explore their environment.

Question 14

behaviour - insecure resistant attachment

Answer 14

separation anxiety - Infant shows signs of intense distress
stranger anxiety - Infant avoids the stranger - shows fear of stranger
reunion behaviour - Child approaches mother but resists contact, may even push her away
other - Infant cries more and explores less than the other 2 types

Question 15

2 weaknesses of ASS

Answer 15

• lacks ecological validity
• overlooks fourth attachment type

Question 16

2 strengths of ASS

Answer 16

• real world applications
• observations had high reliability

Question 17

weakness - lacks ecological validity

Answer 17

P – Lacks ecological validity
E – For example Ainsworth conducted her observation in a controlled environment
E – This could mean that the children may have acted differently to how they would act in a more familiar environment
L – Therefore, we don’t know if behaviours displayed by children would be the same, making this method of assessing attachment less valid.

Question 18

weakness - overlooks fourth attachment type

Answer 18

P – Overlooks a fourth type of attachment
E – For example Main and Solomon analysed over 200 Strange Situation videotapes and proposed the insecure-disorganised type, characterised by a lack of consistent patterns of social behaviour
E – This means that that Ainsworth’s original conclusions were oversimplified and don’t account for all attachment behaviours.
L – Therefore the research gathered is not totally valid.

Question 19

strength - has real world applications

Answer 19

P- Has real world applications
E – For example, intervention strategies have been developed to tackle situation where disordered patterns of attachment develop between infant and caregiver
E – Such as the Circle of Security project teaches caregivers to better understand their infants’ signals of distress, which improved attachment (secure 32%-40%)
L – Therefore this supports research as it can be used to improve people’s lives.

Question 20

strength - observations had high reliability

Answer 20

P – Observations had high reliability
E – For example, Ainsworth carried out further evaluation and found an almost perfect (0.94) agreement between observers when rating the exploratory behaviour
E – This means that the experiment has high-observer reliability
L – Therefore it is replicable, and observers have a clear view of how securely attached infants should behave