Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’ and types of attachment

Question 1

What was the ‘strange situation’ designed for?

Answer 1

Was created to test the type of attachment infants had with their PAFs

Question 2

What occurred in Ainsworth’s structured lab observation, the ‘strange situation’ study?

Answer 2

Infants and mothers were put through increasingly stressful situations so that the researcher could observe the behaviour and emotional responses of the infant.

Question 3

What are the four key behaviours Ainsworth observed over the 8 stages?

Answer 3

1. Willingness to explore (+Secure Base)
2. Stranger anxiety
3. Separation anxiety
4. Reunion behaviour

Question 4

What are the two question that comprise the 1st key behaviour, willingness to explore?

Answer 4

Ones the infant explore the room?
Do they use their PAF as a secure base?

Question 5

What is the question that comprises the 2nd key behaviour, stranger anxiety?

Answer 5

How does the infant react when a stranger enters the room?

Question 6

What is the question that comprises the 3rd key behaviour, separation anxiety?

Answer 6

How does the infant react when their PAF leaves them alone in the room?

Question 7

What is the question that comprises the 4th key behaviour, reunion behaviour?

Answer 7

Hoe does the infant react when the PAF returns?

Question 8

What did Ainsworth use the 4 key behaviours to indicate?

Answer 8

She identified the three types of attachment type that could be identified from the way the infants behaved during the four stages of the ‘strange situation’?

Question 9

What are the three types of attachment Ainsworth found?

Answer 9

Secure attachment
Insecure-avoidant attachment
Insecure-resistant attachment

Question 10

What was the most common, then the middle common and least common type of attachment Ainsworth found and what are the types + percentages?

Answer 10

Secure (type B) - 66% of infants
Insecure avoidant (type A) - 22% of infants
Insecure resistant (type C) -12% of infants

Question 11

What did the secure attachment infants display in each of the four behaviours (WTE, SA, SEPA, RB) ?

Answer 11

-infants use PAFs as secure baes when exploring, frequently returning to them for reassurance + comfort.
-infant wary when strangers enter + return to PAF.
-infants would show an elevated level of distress when PAF left the room
-When PAF returns, infant runs to them and asks to be comforted — calmly down quickly.

Question 12

What did the insecure-avoidant attachment infants display in each of the four behaviours (WTE, SA, SEPA, RB)?

Answer 12

-infants explore room but don’t use their PAF as a secure base; quite often ignored them even when PAF calls them.
-infants ignores stranger when they enter
-infants don’t show distress/ separation anxiety when the PAF leaves.
-when PAF returns, the infant ignores them and often carry on with what they were doing.

Question 13

What did the insecure-resistant attachment infants display in each of the four behaviours (WTE, SA, SEPA, RB)?

Answer 13

-infant doesn’t explore the room, instead stay close to the PAF
-infant shows elevated levels of anxiety when a stranger enters.
-infant shoes extreme distress when PAF leaves; sometimes the observation had to be ended due to their distress.
-when PAF returns, infant doesn’t calm down for a long time, and may reject the PAF whilst still seeking comfort.

Question 14

What did Main + Soloman do that supports Ainsworth and what did they identify?

Answer 14

They watched all of her recordings and agreed with her 3 attachment types but also added a 4th type : Insecure disorganised.

Question 15

What does the 4th attachment type ‘ Insecure Disorganised’ includes, suggested by Main + Soloman?

Answer 15

The infants don’t show a consistent pattern of attachment and have a mixture of the main three types of attachment at contrasting times.

Question 16

Being the worst type of attachment, what does ‘Disinhibited attachment’ involve?

Answer 16

a childhood mental health disorder that causes children to be overly friendly with strangers and have little fear of them.

Question 17

What result did Bick et al. (2012) attain from their inter-reliability test of the ‘Strange Situation’ study?

Answer 17

94% between observers- this supports Ainsworth’s findings.

Question 18

What did Main and Western find that suggests the strange situation may lack validity and what did they suggest instead?

Answer 18

They said that it only measures the attachment types between the infant and their mother.
They suggested that the child’s behaviour changed depending on which parent was present.

Question 19

What does the criticism of Main + Soloman regarding the measurement of attachment, suggest about the strange situation?

Answer 19

Suggests that it was only measuring one relationship at a time, and not the infant’s general attachment type.

Question 20

What did Hazan + Shaver (1987) find the childhood attachment type predicts, and what does this suggest about Ainsworth’s studies?

Answer 20

Found that the attachment type predicted the attachment style found in adult relationships.
Suggests Ainsworth’s studies have predictive validity — valid over time + can predict future occasions.

Question 21

What did sroufe et al. Find attachment’s in 1year olds the same as?

Answer 21

In adults at age 20. Secure infants grow up to be confident, sociable adults.

Question 22

What type of validity does Ainsworth’s study lack and why is this a problem?

Answer 22

Ecological validity
This lacks realism

Question 23

What did Kagan (1982) raise as being a different approach to attachment types?

Answer 23

He raised the possibility that the attachment types weren’t due to interaction between infant + PAF, but instead was due to genetic differences in anxiety levels and responses.

Question 24

What did Kagan (1982) believe attachment types were better explained through?

Answer 24

Better explained through a combination of genes and parent/child interactions.

Question 25

What is the ethical issue regarding Ainsworth’s studies?

Answer 25

The issue of causing harm to the infants, where some observations had to be stopped due to the extremity of the distress they were experiencing.

Question 26

What did Takahashi (1986) find regarding an issue with cultural generalisability to Japanese infants?

Answer 26

He raised a cultural generalisability issue and found that Japanese infants were identified as having remarkably prominent levels of insecure-resistant attachments

Question 27

What did Takahashi (1986) suggest that, instead of children just having damaged attachments in Japan, was the issue in the development of these attachments?

Answer 27

He suggested that damaged attachments were caused by the strange situation itself.

Question 28

How are there significant cultural differences with the ‘strange situation’ being used in Japan?

Answer 28

It was designed in the West for UK/US children, instead of the cultures in Japan.

Question 29

What is rare in Japan, regarding attachment types and why did the infants respond with elevated levels of distress in the strange situation?

Answer 29

It is rare for infants to be separated from their PAF, as are mostly in contact with them always.
They responded with stress as this was the first time ever in being separated from their PAF.