Ainsworth et al

Question 1

Aim?

Answer 1

Investigation of the quality of attachment between a caregiver and child

Question 2

Procedures?

Answer 2

• 106 middle class infants
• 9x9 foot space marked into squares to record infant’s behaviour
• 8 episodes
• key feature of these: caregiver and stranger alternately stay with infant or leave
• enables observation of infant’s response to: separation anxiety, reunion behaviour, stranger anxiety, novel environment (encourage exploration)
• data collected with video recorder or other

Question 3

Findings: secure attachment: Type B

Answer 3

• cooperative interactions with their caregiver
• show some distress when left with a stranger
• seek and comfortable with social interaction and intimacy
• use caregiver as secure base

Question 4

Findings: insecure avoidant: Type A

Answer 4

• avoid social interaction and intimacy
• show little response to separation
• do not seek proximity of caregiver on reunion
• little/no tendency to cling or resist being put down when picked up

Question 5

Findings: insecure resistant: Type C

Answer 5

• both seeks and resists intimacy and social interaction
• on reunion, display conflicting desires for and against contact
• may angrily resist being picked up while trying other means of maintaining proximity

Question 6

Evaluation 1: strength

Answer 6

• observations had high reliability
• measurements of observational studies = meaningful if there is agreement among observers (inter-observer reliability)
• Ainsworth et al found almost perfect agreement when rating exploratory behaviour (.94 agreement)
• study was reliable

Question 7

Evaluation 2: weakness

Answer 7

• low internal validity
• arguably study measures the quality of one particular relationship
• Main and Weston (1981); children behaved differently depending on which parent they were with
• suggests classification of attachment type may not be valid - what is being measured is one relationship rather than a personal characteristic lodged in the individual

Question 8

Evaluation 3: weakness

Answer 8

• other types of attachment
• Main and Solomon (1986) analysed 200+ Strange Situation videotapes
• proposed the insecure-disorganised type D
• characterised by lack of consistent patterns of social behaviour
• not a consistent type of attachment
• lack a coherent strategy for dealing with stress of separation
• suggests Ainsworth’s original conclusions = oversimplified + do not account for all attachment behaviours