Ainsworth's strange situation Flashcards
what is the strange situation
procedure to assess how
securely attached a child was to its caregiver, and if it is insecurely attached, to assess which
type of insecure attachment it has. This was a controlled observation conducted through a twoway mirror.
explain the stages of the strange situation
1) Infant encouraged to explore (testing secure base)
2) Stranger enters, tries to interact with infant (testing stranger anxiety)
3) Caregiver leaves the infant and stranger together (testing separation and stranger anxiety)
4) Caregiver returns and the stranger leaves (testing reunion behaviour)
5) Caregiver leaves the room (testing separation anxiety)
6) Stranger returns (testing stranger anxiety)
7) Caregiver returns to the room (testing reunion behaviour)
what is secure attachment
type B- happy to explore and use the caregiver as a secure base, although they often went back to them during exploration. There was moderate stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.
what is insecure avoidant
type A- They happily explored, but did not return to the caregiver whilst doing so. Separation and stranger anxiety was low
what is insecure resistant
type c- They explored less, and showed high stranger and separation anxiety. Upon reunion, they sought comfort but then rejected it
one strength of the strange situation
inter-rater reliability (where two or more observers record the same things and compare the degree of agreement) was high, suggesting that the controlled nature of the study and the behavioural categories were appropriate and reliable
one limitation of the strange situation
The procedure of the study was culture-biased, as it was affected by Western methods of child-rearing. Infants from other cultures may be raised differently (e.g. being more or less separated from the caregiver, having more or less interaction with strangers) so they may act differently in these situations. This weakens the generalisability of the results.
