Ainsworth's Strange Situation Flashcards
Who is Mary Ainsworth?
Mary Ainsworth (1970) was most famous for her work using the ‘Strange Situation’. This is an observational technique that places an in different situations in order to research the quality of attachment to their caregiver.
What did Mary Ainsworth do?
Ainsworth wanted to study nature of attachments- are all attachments the same or are there different types.
Created the “Strange Situation” to observe attachments- Studied children 9- 18 months old.
The “strange situation” studied children under stressful conditions & observed their behaviour.
Observed stranger anxiety & separation anxiety as well as looking at a child’s willingness to explore and unfamiliar setting.
What were the eight episodes and what behaviour was being observed?
- Parent and Infant play - Exploration behaviour, use of safe base (mother)
- Parent sits whilst infant plays - Exploration behaviour, use of safe base (mother)
- Stranger enters room & talks to parent - Stranger Anxiety
- Parent leaves, infant plays & stranger offers comfort if needed - Stranger & Separation Anxiety
- Parent returns, greets infant, offer comfort if needed & stranger leaves - Reunion Behaviour, exploration behaviour
- Parent leaves,infant left alone - Separation Anxiety
- Stranger enters, offers comfort - Stranger Anxiety
- Parent returns, greets infant & offers comfort - Reunion behaviour
What are the findings - similarities?
After stage 2 (when the parent began leaving the room) children tended to explore the room less.
Proximity seeking behaviour increased when the parent began leaving/re-entering the room.
Children cried more after stage 2.
What are the findings - differences?
Ainsworth discovered three types of attachment:
Secure Attachment (TYPE B)- 66% of children.
Insecure-Avoidant Attachment (TYPE A)- 22% of children.
Insecure-Resistant Attachment (TYPE C)- 12% of children.
What is secure attachment?
66%
Display exploration behaviour but will use parent as a safe base to explore from.
Usually show separation anxiety.
Usually show stranger anxiety.
Accept comfort from mother on reunion.
What is insecure-avoidant attachment?
22%
Show exploration behaviour but don’t use parent as safe base.
Little or no reaction when parent leaves (no separation anxiety)
Little stranger anxiety.
Little need or want for comfort when the parent returns.
What is insecure-resistant attachment?
12%
Seek more proximity to caregiver, so explore less.
Display severe separation & stranger anxiety.
Resist comfort when reunited with caregiver.
What are the strengths of Mary Ainsworth’s research?
Good predictive validity for future. Ainsworth’s attachment types have been used to predict later development, i.e. Securely attached develop better = more success at school, better romantic relationships. Insecure-resistant attached develop less well - more likely to be bullied, suffer with mental health problems. So shows attachment types have high levels of validity and can help improve child’s experiences in future (i.e. identify ‘vulnerable’ children to offer ‘help’)
Study has good inter-rater reliability - the agreement between researchers is 80%+ similar in terms of what behaviours were observed due to clear previously-agreed behavioural categories being used. So this means that we can establish that results are consistent and therefore reliable (i.e. trustworthy) in regards to attachment formation and attachment types. similar results are found if same child observed several times.
What are the limitations of Mary Ainsworth’s research?
Unethical (puts children under stress = not protecting from harm).
Lacks ecological validity (artificial environment - not done in infants own home, so
can’t generalise.
Potential for observer bias (only seeing what want/expect to see, so may lower validity of results)
-Attachment type’ depends on who is with child – infants in SS can show different attachment types depending on who is there with them (e.g. secure to mother and insecure-avoidant to father) so not a valid measure of attachment type.
Limited sample
