Ainsworth's Strange Situation

Question 1

Who developed the ‘strange situation’ and when?

Answer 1

• Mary Ainsworth
• 1969

Question 2

List the steps of the strange situation.

Answer 2

1. Mother and child enter the room - child is encouraged to explore.
2. Stranger enters the room - talks to mother/attempts to interact with child.
3. Mother leaves the room - child is alone with stranger; may try to comfort child if needed.
4. Mother returns, stranger leaves - mother may comfort child if needed.
5. Mother leaves, child is alone.
6. Stranger returns - attempts to comfort child if needed.
7. Mother returns and is reunited with child - may provide comfort if needed.

Question 3

What 4 things was the child observed on?

Answer 3

1. Willingness to explore.
2. Stranger Anxiety
3. Separation Anxiety
4. Response to Reunion

Question 4

Summarise what is meant by ‘willingness to explore’.

Answer 4

• Moving away from mother.
• Playing with toys.
• Looking at objects around the room.

Question 5

Summarise what is meant by ‘stranger anxiety’.

Answer 5

• Staying close to mother.
• Moving away from stranger.
• Being cautious about what the stranger offers them.

Question 6

Summarise what is meant by ‘separation anxiety’.

Answer 6

• Seeking out mother e.g moving towards door/mother’s chair.
• Crying.

Question 7

Summarise what is meant by ‘response to reunion’.

Answer 7

• Seeking proximity to mother.
• Reaching out for contact comfort.

Question 8

List the 3 main types of attachment that Ainsworth found.

Answer 8

1. Secure - Type B
2. Insecure-Resistant - Type A
3. Insecure Avoidant - Type C

Question 9

What % of infants have the secure attachment type?

Answer 9

66%

Question 10

What % of infants have the insecure-resistant type?

Answer 10

12%

Question 11

What % of infants have the insecure-avoidant type?

Answer 11

22%

Question 12

Securely attached infants:

Outline their willingness to explore.

Answer 12

High - moves around the room, plays with toys, uses mum as a safe base to return to.

Question 13

Securely attached infants:

Outline their stranger anxiety.

Answer 13

Moderate - wary of stranger but curious, stays close to mum but is not too distressed.

Question 14

Securely attached infants:

Outline their separation anxiety.

Answer 14

Moderate - crying, crawling after mum.

Question 15

Securely attached infants:

Outline their response to reunion.

Answer 15

Enthusiastic - seeks mum out, calms down quickly, happy to be reunited.

Question 16

Insecure-resistant infants:

Outline their willingness to explore.

Answer 16

Low - clingy to mum, does not want to play with toys.

Question 17

Insecure-resistant infants:

Outline their stranger anxiety.

Answer 17

High - avoids stranger, clings to mum, may cry.

Question 18

Insecure-resistant infants:

Outline their separation anxiety.

Answer 18

High - very distressed upon separation, lots of crying.

Question 19

Insecure-resistant infants:

Outling their response to reunion.

Answer 19

Seek and reject - seeks the mother out but cannot calm down, may turn away/throw toys.

Question 20

Insecure-avoidant infants:

Outline their willingness to explore.

Answer 20

High - plays with toys, moves within the room, lack of safe base behaviour.

Question 21

Insecure-avoidant infants:

Outline their stranger anxiety.

Answer 21

Low - willing to interact with the stranger.

Question 22

Insecure-avoidant infants:

Outline their separation anxiety.

Answer 22

Low - may not notice, continues with what their doing.

Question 23

Insecure-avoidant infants:

Outline their response to reunion.

Answer 23

Ambivalent - does not react, not distressed by mother leaving.

Question 24

List the 2 strengths of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation.

Answer 24

• High Reliability
• Real World Application

Question 25

What is meant by the term ‘inter-rater reliability’?

Answer 25

The degree to which different raters give consistent estimates of the same behaviour.

Question 26

Outline what is meant by the evaluation point ‘high reliability’.

Answer 26

• Inter-rater reliability is important in observed studies as observers need to agree on how to classify the behaviours they are observing.
• Ainsworth’s study has high inter-rater reliability; 94%.
• It is possible to be confident that the attachment type of infants are identified, correct and does not just depend on who is observing them.

Question 27

Outline what is meant by the evaluation point ‘real world application’.

Answer 27

• Understanding attachment type can allow for interventions to be put in place.
• Circle of Security Project; teaches caregivers to better understand their infants’ signals of distress/increase their understanding of how they feel.
• Project showed a decrease in the number of caregivers classified as disorganised (60%-15%) and an increase of infants classed as securely attached (32%-40%)
• Supports research on attachment types as can be used to improve children’s lives.

Question 28

List the 3 limitations of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation.

Answer 28

• Fourth Type of Attachment
• Validity
• Maternal Reflective Functioning

Question 29

Outline what is meant by the evaluation point ‘fourth type of attachment’.

Answer 29

• Research analysed over 200 strange situation videotapes and proposed a 4th type of attachment: Insecure-disorganised (Type D).
• These infants don’t appear to have a consistent type of attachment e.g infants lack coherent strategy for dealing with the stress of separation.
• Ainsworth’s study can be seen as limtied as it does not fully account for all the different attachment types.

Question 30

Outline what is meant by the evaluation point ‘validity’.

Answer 30

• Ainsworth only tested babies and their mothers.
• Can be questioned in terms of whether the study is measuring attachment type or an infant’s quality of relationship with their mother.
• Research found that children behaved differently depending on the parent they were with; suggests classification of attachment type might not be valid because we are measuring a relationship rather than a personal characteristic of the individual.
• HOWEVER; Bowlby’s theory of monotropy suggests that whilst an infant responding differently with someone other than their PCG tells us something about that relationships, attachment type if largely to that one special relationship.
• Research tested children and assessed them at age 9 using the Adult Attachment Interview and found that attachment type seemed to be cheifly influenced by the mother, supporting BOTH Bowlby and the SS.

Question 31

What is meant by the term ‘reflective functioning’?

Answer 31

The ability to understand what someone else is thinking or feeling.

Question 32

Outline what is meant by the evaluation point ‘maternal reflective functioning’.

Answer 32

• Ainsworth suggested attachment was linked to maternal sensitivity.
• HOWEVER, other studies have found low correlation between measures of maternal sensitivity and the strength of attachment.
• Research found a greater role for maternal reflective functioning.
• Reserach suggests that maternal reflective functioning rather than sensitivity may be the central mechanism in establishing attachment type.