Ainsworth’s Stange Situation

Question 1

What was Ainsworth’s stance situation

Answer 1

Is a controlled observation which they devised an experiment to investigate child attachment. It involves increasingly stressful experiences for the child and their reactions determine their attachment type

Question 2

What is the procedure of the strange situation

Answer 2

Participants aged 9-18 months from 100 middle class USA families they were placed in a room which was a novel environment so it was a 9.9 square foot space marked off into 16 squares to help recording the infants movements.
Data is typically collected by a group of observers using a video recorder or a one way mirror and use time sampling to record what the infant is doing every 15 seconds using the 5 behavioural categories

Question 3

What are the 5 behavioural categories

Answer 3

-Proximity seeking
-Reunion behaviour
-Exploration and secure base behaviour - infants willingness to explore novel environment
-separation anxiety
-stranger anxiety

Question 4

How many episodes are there for the strange situation??

Answer 4

8

Question 5

What is the first episode

Answer 5

Researcher introduces caregiver and child to room they enter and the duration is 1 min

Question 6

What is episode 2

Answer 6

Infant and caregiver left alone in room with toys and child is free to explore
- the use of caregiver as a secure base is assessed and lasts 3 mins

Question 7

What is episode 3

Answer 7

Stranger enters and talks to caregiver and attempts to play with child
Stranger anxiety is assessed and lasts 3 mins

Question 8

What is episode 4

Answer 8

Caregiver leaves child with stranger
Separation anxiety is assessed and lasts 3 mins

Question 9

What is episode 5

Answer 9

Caregiver renters and greets infants and stranger leaves
Reunion behaviour assessed for 3 mins

Question 10

What is episode 6

Answer 10

Caregiver leaves the child alone and separation anxiety is assessed for 3 mins

Question 11

What is episode 7

Answer 11

Stranger re enters and attempts to interact with child and stranger anxiety is assessed for 3 mins

Question 12

What is episode 8

Answer 12

Stranger leaves and caregiver re enters and reunion behaviour is assessed for 3 mins

Question 13

What are the 3 attachment types found

Answer 13

Insecure avoidant
Securely attached
Insecure resistant

Question 14

What are the findings of insecure avoidant

Answer 14

15% found in uk studies
P- Infant diff to caregiver and play is little affected by their presence or absence
R- infant u responsive when caregiver returns
E- infants freely explore
S- infant is unconcerned by mothers absence and avoidant of both care giver and stranger equally
S- Infant avoids stranger

Question 15

What are the findings for securely attached attachment type

Answer 15

70% found in uk studies
P- infant shows toys to caregiver during play
R- infant quickly clam when caregiver returns
E- infant play happily when caregiver is present
S- infant distressed when caregiver leaves
S- infant is avoidant for stranger but friendly when caregiver present

Question 16

What are the findings to the attachment type insecure resistant

Answer 16

15% found in uk studies
P- infant upset to explore even with caregiver present
R- when caregiver returns infant shows both clinginess and resistant behaviour
E- limited exploration with caregiver and stranger
S- infants very distressed when caregiver leaves
S- infant actively resists strangers attempts to comfort them

Question 17

What did Main and Solomon add later

Answer 17

A 4th attachment type called insecure disorganised where the infants have non consistent patterns of social behaviour, lack of coherent strategy for dealing with separation and show a combination of strong attachment behaviour and avoidance or fear

Question 18

What are the strengths of the strange situation

Answer 18

• highly reliable - standardised procedures
• has predictive validity - Hzazan and Shaver love questionnaire experiment

Question 19

What are the weaknesses of the strange situation

Answer 19

• lacks ecological validity
• low in generalisability
• ethics is questioned - distress on infants