Ainsworth’s Strange Situation (1970)

Question 1

What is the A01 for the SST?

Answer 1

-100 middle class Americans
- 8 step procedure
-4 behaviour measured (pleasure when reunited, willingness to explore, separation anxiety and stranger anxiety
-3 categories type B (secure) which was 66%, type A (insecure avoidant) 22%, type C (inscture resistant) 12%

Question 2

What is the A03 for the SST?

Answer 2

-nature v nurture debate (nature is Kagan’s temporament hypothesis) v (nurture is Ainsworth’s caregiver sensitivity hypothesis)
-validity-> low population validity, good predictive validity, good construct validity
-too simplistic
-unethical

Question 3

What were results like from China in the meta analysis?

Answer 3

Insecure avoidant- 25%
Insecure resistant- 25%
Secure- 50%

Question 4

What is one ethical problem with observational studies?

Answer 4

-it causes the infant to be distressed which is not considered ethical
-this goes against the BPS (British psychological society) and their Code of ethics 2009 as psychologists have the responsibility to protect the infant from psychological harm
-this distress is when the infant gets separated from their mother, however it could also be argued that is is ethical as the infant would experience this discomfort later on in life anyway (eg at nursery)

Question 5

What is one practical problem with observational studies?

Answer 5

-hard to interpret babes as different observers may interpret their behavior in different ways
-like whether they are extremely distressed or not at all
-this adds to the point of ainsworth’s types of attachment being too simplistic as it doesn’t be specific