ainsworth Flashcards
who was ainsworth testing?
children of around 12 months – 18 months.
what was her idea?
the child plays with his mother and then a stranger is involved in the interaction in various ways.
what was ainsworth focusing on?
how the child reacts to the stranger and to the mother.
what was set up to measure this?
controlled observation was designed to test this (a one way mirror was used) so that psychologists could observe the infant’s behaviour.
what behaviours were they looking for to judge attachment?
Proximity seeking
Exploration and secure-base behaviour
Stranger anxiety
Separation anxiety
Response to reunion
what are the 7 stages of ainsworth’s strange situation?
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)
what are the 3 attachment types identified?
avoidant - A
secure - B
resistant - C
what % of infants were avoidant?
22
what % of infants were avoidant?
22
what % of infants were secure?
66
what behaviours are attachment types characterised by?
separation anxiety
stranger anxiety
reunion behaviour
other
behaviour - insecure avoidant attachment
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
behaviour - secure attachment
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.
behaviour - insecure resistant attachment
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
2 weaknesses of ASS
- lacks ecological validity
- overlooks fourth attachment type
2 strengths of ASS
- real world applications
- observations had high reliability
weakness - lacks ecological validity
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.
weakness - overlooks fourth attachment type
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.
strength - has real world applications
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.
strength - observations had high reliability
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
