Ainsworth’s Strange Situation - types of attachment-secure, insecure- resistant and insecure -avoidant Flashcards
Mary Ainsowrth - what did she do research on
Mary Ainsworth was particularly interested in individual differences – the different types of attachment that infants formed with their caregivers.
Ainsworth’s work had great influence on Bowlby. It was Ainsworth who provided Bowlby with the concept of the attachment figure as a secure base from which an infant can explore the world, and pointed to the importance of maternal sensitivity in the development of mother-infant attachment patterns.
What is type of attachment and how is it tested
Type of attachment is simply the type of attachment relationship there is between the infant and caregiver.
It is tested using THE STRANGE SITUATION:
Who devised strange situation and explain the study
Ainsworth and Bell (1970) devised the strange situation to be able to test the nature of attachment systematically. The aim was to see how infants (aged between 9 – 18 months) behave under conditions of mild stress and also novelty. Stress is created in the strange situation by the presence of a stranger and by separation from a caregiver. This tests stranger anxiety and separation anxiety respectively. The strange situation also aims to encourage exploration by placing infants in a novel situation and thus tests the secure base concept.
Procedure:
The research room is a novel environment, a 9x9 foot square marked off into 16 squares to help in recording the infant’s movements. The procedure consists of 7 episodes each designed to highlight certain behaviours as shown in the table below: Because of the nature of the study, the method used to test types of attachments can be seen as a controlled observation in a lab setting
Episodes (about 3 minutes duration each) Behaviour assessed
- Parents sits while infant plays Use of parent as secure base
- Stranger enters and talks to parent Stranger anxiety
- Parent leaves, infant plays, stranger offers comfort if needed Separation anxiety
- Parent returns, offers comfort to infant if needed, stranger leaves Reunion behaviour
- Parent leaves – infant is alone Separation anxiety
- Stranger enters and offers comfort Stranger anxiety
- Parent returns, greets infant and offers comfort Reunion behaviour
In the strange situation data is collected by a group of observers who record what the infant is doing every 15 seconds. The observer notes down which of the following behaviours is displayed and also scores the behaviour for intensity on a scale of 1 to 7 for:
1. Proximity and contact-seeking behaviours;
2. Contact-maintaining behaviours;
3. Proximity and interaction-avoiding behaviours;
4. Contact and interaction-resisting behaviours
5. Search behaviours
Ainsworth findings
Ainsworth et al. (1978) combined the data from several studies, to make a total of 106 middle-class infants and their mothers - observed in the strange situation – see table below:
Table to show main findings of Strange Situation
Secure (Type B) Insecure Avoidant (Type A) Insecure Resistant (Type C) Willingness to explore High High Low Stranger anxiety High Low High Separation anxiety Some easy to soothe Indifferent Distressed Behaviour at reunion with caregiver Enthusiastic Avoids contact Seeks and rejects Percentage of infants in this category 66% 22% 12%
They found similarities and differences in the ways in the ways the infants behaved.
In terms of similarities:
• Exploratory behaviours declined in all infants from episode 2 onwards, whereas the amount of crying increased.
• Proximity- seeking and contact-maintaining behaviours intensified during separation and when the stranger appeared.
• Contact-resisting and proximity-avoiding behaviours occurred rarely towards the caregiver prior to separation.
In terms of differences:
• They found three main types of children which they called A, B and C to avoid being biased.
The characteristics of the three types are described below in the table:
Secure (Type B) Insecure Avoidant (Type A) Insecure Resistant (Type C)
This style refers to those babies who have:
harmonious and cooperative interactions with their caregiver. They are less likely to cry inconsolably if the caregiver leaves the room. When feeling anxious they seek close bodily contact with their caregiver and are easily soothed, though they may be reluctant to leave their caregiver’s side prematurely. They seek and are comfortable with social interaction and intimacy. This infant uses the caregiver as a secure base from which to explore and thus able to function independently. This style refers to those babies who tend to avoid social interaction and intimacy with others. In the ‘strange situation’, such children show little response to separation and do not seek the proximity of their caregiver on reunion. If the infant is picked up s/he shows little or no tendency to cling or resist being put down. Such children are happy to explore with or without the presence of their caregiver. They are also characterised by high levels of anxiousness as well as avoidant behaviour, and may become quite angry because their attachments needs are not met. This style is also known as anxious-avoidant. This style is characterised as those infants who both seek and reject intimacy and social interaction. Such children respond to separation from their caregiver with immediate and intense distress. On reunion, such children display conflicting desires for and against contact, they may angrily resist being picked up while also trying other means to maintain proximity.
Weakness of the strange situation
One weakness of the Strange situation as measuring types of attachments is it fails to measure other types of attachment
Subsequent research has found that Ainsworth et al’s analysis overlooked a fourth type of attachment. Main and Solomon (1986) analysed over 200 Strange Situation videotapes and proposed the insecure-disorganised (Type D) attachment type. This attachment type is characterised by a lack of consistent patterns of social behaviour. In other words, some infants don’t have a consistent type of attachment. Such infants lack a coherent strategy for dealing with stress of separation. For example, they show very strong attachment behaviour which is suddenly followed by avoidance or looking fearful towards their caregiver. Van Ijzendoorn et al. (1999) further supported this with a meta analysis of nearly 80 studies in the US and found 62% secure; 15% Type A; 9% Type C and 14% Type D.!
Another weakness of the strange situation is the ethical issues:
One of the concerns of the strange situation experiment was the fact that it caused possible psychological harm to the infants as they were briefly separated from the caregiver in some of the episodes. Although the intention of the strange situation is to cause only mild distress, some have questioned whether it is acceptable to do this to infants.
Ainsworth et al. (1978) claimed that the procedure was intended not to be any more disturbing than ordinary life experiences. However, in episode six, 20% of the infants reportedly cried ‘desperately’. In fact when the strange situation was repeated in some other countries, it had to be stopped for example in Japan, the strange situation experiment had to be stopped at episode 6 because many of the infants were crying uncontrollably. This therefore questions whether the strange situation is the best method to test types of attachments.
Another weakness of the strange situation is concerns with validity:
This concerns the extent to which we are measuring what we intended to measure. Validity can be internal – the extent to which the study measures types of attachment and external – the extent to which the study can be applied to the real world and across different people. The strange situation aims to measure the attachment type of a child e.g. A, B or C.
However Main and Weston (1981) found that children behaved differently in the ‘strange situation’ depending on which parent they were with. This suggests that the classification of an attachment type may not be valid because what we are measuring is one relationship rather than a child’s general ‘attachment type’.
Others have criticised the study for having low ecological validity- for not reflecting real life behaviour. This is because it was carried out in a controlled environment. Therefore:
- the child may not be behaving naturally
- the caregiver may not be behaving naturally as she knows she is being observed. This may in turn affect the child’s behaviour.
Furthermore, this study was carried out on American, white middle-class mothers and infants so it lacks population validity and may not be generalisable to other cultures and people.
Thus the Strange Situation may be culturally biased because it is created by Ainsworth who herself was American and living in a very Westernised society – it may therefore not apply to non-Western Cultures or Collectivist cultures where child-rearing may be very different.
Maternal reflective functioning
Ainsworth suggestion that secure attachment was linked to maternal sensitivity has been criticised by later researchers. Some studies have actually found rather low correlations between measures of maternal sensitivity and the strength of attachment (e.g. Raval et al., 2001). Slade et al. (2005) found a greater role for maternal reflective functioning - the ability to understand what someone else is thinking and feeling. They suggest that maternal reflective thinking rather than sensitivity may be the central mechanism in establishing attachment type.
Strengths of the strange situation
One weakness of the Strange situation as measuring types of attachments is it fails to measure other types of attachment
Subsequent research has found that Ainsworth et al’s analysis overlooked a fourth type of attachment. Main and Solomon (1986) analysed over 200 Strange Situation videotapes and proposed the insecure-disorganised (Type D) attachment type. This attachment type is characterised by a lack of consistent patterns of social behaviour. In other words, some infants don’t have a consistent type of attachment. Such infants lack a coherent strategy for dealing with stress of separation. For example, they show very strong attachment behaviour which is suddenly followed by avoidance or looking fearful towards their caregiver. Van Ijzendoorn et al. (1999) further supported this with a meta analysis of nearly 80 studies in the US and found 62% secure; 15% Type A; 9% Type C and 14% Type D.!
Another weakness of the strange situation is the ethical issues:
One of the concerns of the strange situation experiment was the fact that it caused possible psychological harm to the infants as they were briefly separated from the caregiver in some of the episodes. Although the intention of the strange situation is to cause only mild distress, some have questioned whether it is acceptable to do this to infants.
Ainsworth et al. (1978) claimed that the procedure was intended not to be any more disturbing than ordinary life experiences. However, in episode six, 20% of the infants reportedly cried ‘desperately’. In fact when the strange situation was repeated in some other countries, it had to be stopped for example in Japan, the strange situation experiment had to be stopped at episode 6 because many of the infants were crying uncontrollably. This therefore questions whether the strange situation is the best method to test types of attachments.
Another weakness of the strange situation is concerns with validity:
This concerns the extent to which we are measuring what we intended to measure. Validity can be internal – the extent to which the study measures types of attachment and external – the extent to which the study can be applied to the real world and across different people. The strange situation aims to measure the attachment type of a child e.g. A, B or C.
However Main and Weston (1981) found that children behaved differently in the ‘strange situation’ depending on which parent they were with. This suggests that the classification of an attachment type may not be valid because what we are measuring is one relationship rather than a child’s general ‘attachment type’.
Others have criticised the study for having low ecological validity- for not reflecting real life behaviour. This is because it was carried out in a controlled environment. Therefore:
- the child may not be behaving naturally
- the caregiver may not be behaving naturally as she knows she is being observed. This may in turn affect the child’s behaviour.
Furthermore, this study was carried out on American, white middle-class mothers and infants so it lacks population validity and may not be generalisable to other cultures and people.
Thus the Strange Situation may be culturally biased because it is created by Ainsworth who herself was American and living in a very Westernised society – it may therefore not apply to non-Western Cultures or Collectivist cultures where child-rearing may be very different.
