Ainsworth's strange situation

Question 1

What is Ainsworth’s strange situation?

Answer 1

• Observing infant’s response to a series of 3 minute episodes in a controlled observation room to assess their attachment type
• Examples of episodes: Mother and infant in a room (assess exploration behaviour and using mother as safe base), Stranger entering (measure stranger anxiety), Mother leaving (measure separation anxiety), and mother returning (measure reunion behaviour)
• Infants who happily explore and used their mother as a safe base, show moderate separation and stranger anxiety and joy upon reunion would be classified as securely attached
• Infants who show low willingness to explore, extreme stranger and separation anxiety, and resist their mother’s attempt to comfort them upon reunion would be classified as having insecure-resistant attachment
• Infants who happily explore while ignoring mother’s presence, do not show signs of stranger and separation anxiety, and ignore mother upon reunion would be classified as having an insecure-avoidant behaviour

Question 2

What are the three types of attachment?

Answer 2

• Secure
• Insecure-resistant
• Insecure-avoidant

Question 3

What is the exploration behaviour like in each type of attachment?

Answer 3

• Secure: Infant happily explores but returns to mother regularly (safe base)
• Insecure-resistant: Infant expresses low willingness to explore new environment
• Insecure-avoidant: Infant explores and plays happily with toys, ignores mother’s presence

Question 4

What is the level of stranger anxiety of each attachment?

Answer 4

• Secure: Moderate levels of stranger anxiety, infant moves closer to mother using them as safe base
• Insecure-resistant: Extreme stranger anxiety
• Insecure-avoidant: Infant unconcerned about a stranger, shows little preference for mother over stranger, tends to avoid both

Question 5

What is the levels of separation anxiety of each attachment?

Answer 5

• Secure: Moderate separation anxiety
• Insecure-resistant: Extreme separation anxiety
• Insecure-avoidant: Indifferent when the mother leaves

Question 6

What is the reunion behaviour like in each attachment?

Answer 6

• Secure: Obvious joy when reunited with mother, seeks comfort from her and is easily comforted
• Insecure-resistant: May seek comfort from mother but resists attempts to be comforted
• Insecure-avoidant: Ignores mother when reunited and does not seek comfort from her

Question 7

Outline one strength of Ainsworth’s strange situation

Answer 7

• One strength of Ainsworth’s situation is that it is easy to replicate
• Conducted in highly controlled observation room
• Standardised procedures such as same series of 3 minute episodes could be employed to measure infants exploration, reunion behaviour, seperation and stranger anxiety
• Strength because it meant the strange situation could be carried out in different countries as part of a meta-analysis (where researchers combine the findings from multiple studies to draw an overall conclusion) in order to shed light on cultural variations in attachment
• Therefore adds to the appropriateness of Ainsworth strange situation as away of assessing attachment type

Question 8

Outline the final strength of Ainsworth’s strange situation

Answer 8

• One strength of Ainsworth’s strange situation is that its use of operationalised behavioural categories increased reliability of research
• E.g. Has been found ot have high inter observer reliability rate of 94% due to clear obsevations of exploration, reunion, separation and stranger anxiety
• Strength because researchers can be confident that the attachment type of an infant as classified as part of strange situation research is not subjective
• Therefore adds both reliability and validity of Ainsworth’s strange situation

Question 9

Outline one limitation of Ainsworth’s strange situation

Answer 9

• One limitation is that it was developed in USA (different child-rearing practices so may not be appropriate to replicate in other cultures to measure cultural variations in attachment type)
• E.g. Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg found varying percentages of attachment types among different cultures (West Germany has higher percentage of insecure-avoidant, Japan has higher percentage of insecure-resistant)
• Limitation because could result in German parents labelled as insensitive and rejecting, and Japanese parents labelled as being inconsistent with childcare
• In reality, however, findings can be explained by children in Germany encouraged to be more independent and children in Japan rarely separated from mothers to are likely to display extreme separation and stranger anxiety
• Therefore questions appropriateness of strange situation as a universal measure of attachment types

Question 10

Outline final limitation of Ainsworth’s situation

Answer 10

• One limitation is that it lacks ecological validity (Infants act different to normal)
• Because observed in artificial and unfamiliar environment
• Limitation because research not measuring attachment type but rather response to being in the strange situation environment
• Infants that are more shy may have a secure attachment but incorrectly labelled as having insecure-resistant attachment if they show signs of extreme stranger anxiety
• Therefore questions appropriateness of the Ainsworth’s strange situation as a way of assessing attachment type