Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Flashcards
1
Q
What are the three types of attachment?
A
- Secure
- Insecure Avoidant
- Insecure Resistant
2
Q
What is a strange situation?
A
- A controlled observation designed to test attachment security in which infants are assessed on their response to playing in an unfamiliar room, being left alone, left with a stranger and being reunited with a caregiver.
3
Q
What is a Secure attachment?
A
- Most desired form of attachment and associated with moderate stranger and separation anxiety and is easily comforted at reunion.
4
Q
What is Insecure-avoidant attachment?
A
- Having a ‘low’ anxiety and a ‘ weak’ attachment and little reaction at reunion.
5
Q
What is Insecure-resistant attachment?
A
- Having a strong attachment and high anxiety and showing resistance tp comfort at reunion.
6
Q
What is proximity seeking behavior?
A
- Infants try to maintain physical contact to their attachment figure.
7
Q
What is Stranger anxiety?
A
- Degree of distress shown by an infant with unfamiliar people.
8
Q
What is Separation anxiety?
A
- Degree of distress shown by an infant when separated from attachment figure.
9
Q
What is Exploration behavior?
A
- How the child explores the environment when the caregiver is present.
10
Q
What is Secure-based behavior?
A
- The child returning to the caregiver for comfort or reassurance during stressful or unfamiliar situations.
11
Q
What is Reunion behavior?
A
- The way a child responds when they are reunited with their primary caregiver after being briefly separated.
12
Q
What did Ainsworth do?
A
- Controlled observation
- 100 middle-class American infants and mothers were used in the study.
- Used 5 categories - Stranger anxiety, Separation anxiety, Exploration behavior, Secure-based behavior, Reunion behavior
- Child and caregiver enter unfamiliar playroom, child is encouraged to explore, a stranger comes in and tries to interact with child, caregiver leaves the child and stranger together, caregiver returns and the stranger leaves the child alone, the stranger returns, caregiver returns and is reunited with child.
13
Q
What was her aim?
A
- To observe key attachments behaviors as a means to assess the quality of a child’s attachment.
14
Q
What were her findings?
A
- Generally all infants explored the room more when only mother was present as opposed to when the stranger was there.
- She identified 3 main types of attachment - 15% were Insecure-avoidant, 70% secure, 15% insecure-resistance
15
Q
What was her conclusion?
A
- A child’s attachment style is largely shape by the caregiver’s responsiveness to the infant’s needs.
