Ainsworth's Strange Situation - Types Of Attachment

Question 1

Who conducted the strange situation and when?

Answer 1

Ainsworth

1971 and 1978

Question 2

What was the aim of the strange situation?

Answer 2

To be able to systematically test the nature of attachment.

The aim was to see how infants behave under conditions of mild stress and also novelty.

Question 3

What was the procedure for the strange situation?

Answer 3

It’s conducted in a new environment, a 9x9 for space often marked off into 16 squares to help in recording the infants movements.

It consists of 8 episodes, each designed to highlight certain behaviours.

The key feature of these episodes is that the caregiver and stranger alternately stay with the infant or leave. This enables the observation of the infants responses.

Data is typically collected by a group of observers using a video recorder or one-way mirror.
They may record what the infant is doing every 15 seconds using behavioural categories.
Each item is also scored for intensity on a scale of 1 to 7.

Question 4

What were they observing the infants response to?

Answer 4

Separation from the caregiver (Separation anxiety)
Reunion with the caregiver (reunion behaviour)
Response to a stranger (stranger anxiety)
The new environment, which aims to encourage exploration and thus tests the secure base concept.

Question 5

What are the behavioural categories?

Answer 5

Proximity and contact-seeking behaviours
Contact-maintaining behaviours
Proximity and interaction-avoiding behaviours
Contact and interaction-resisting behaviours
Search behaviours

Question 6

What were the episodes?

Answer 6

Parent and infant play
Parent sits while infant plays
Stranger enters and talks to parent
Parent leaves, infant plays, stranger offers comfort if needed
Parent returns, greets infant, offers comfort if needed, stranger leaves
Parent leaves, infant alone
Stranger enters and offers comfort
Parent returns, greets infant, offer comfort

Question 7

What was done after the procedure?

Answer 7

She combined the data from several studies, to make a total of 106 middle class infants observed in the strange situation. 
They noted similarities and differences in the ways that infants behaved.

Question 8

What was a similarity in the stranger situation?

Answer 8

It was noted that exploratory behaviours declined in all infants from episode 2 onwards, whereas the amount of crying increased.

Question 9

What was the differences/findings in the strange situation?

Answer 9

She found three main patterns of behaviour in the infants observed.
There seemed to be consistent clusters of behaviours which added up to three qualitatively different types of attachment -

B - secure attachment
A - insecure-avoidant
C - insecure-resistant

Question 10

What is secure attachment?

Answer 10

Refers to those who have a strong and content interaction with their caregiver.

They’re not likely to cry if the caregiver leaves the room and show some distress when left with the stranger.
When feeling anxious they seek close bodily contact with their caregiver and are easily soothed, but they may be reluctant to leave their caregivers side prematurely.
They seek and are comfortable with social interaction and intimacy.
They use the caregiver as a secure base from which to explore and thus is able to function independently.

Question 11

What is insecure-avoidant?

Answer 11

Children who tend to avoid social interaction and intimacy with others.

They showed little response to separation and do not seek the proximity of their caregiver on reunion.
If picked up they show little or no tendency to cling or resist being put down.
Happy to explore with or without the presence of their caregiver.
High levels of anxiousness

Question 12

What is insecure-resistant?

Answer 12

Seek and resist intimacy and social interaction.

Respond to separation from their caregiver with immediate and intense distress, and behave similarly towards strangers.
On reunion, such children display conflicting desires for and against contact, they may angrily resist being picked up while trying other means to maintain proximity.

Question 13

What were the % of infants in each attachment type?

Answer 13

Secure = 66%
Insecure-avoidant = 22%
Insecure-resistant = 12%

Question 14

What are the evaluative points for the strange situation?

Answer 14

Other types of attachment 
Observations had high reliability 
Real-world application 
Low internal validity 
Maternal reflective functioning

Question 15

What is meant by other types of attachment?

Answer 15

Research has found that her analysis overlooked a fourth type of attachment.

Main and Solomon (1986) analysed over 200 strange situation videotapes and proposed the insecure-disorganised type D, which 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 the stress of separation.
For example, they show very strong attachment behaviour which is suddenly followed by avoidance or looking fearful towards their caregiver.

Question 16

What support was their to aid Main and Solomon?

Answer 16

Van Ijzendoorn (1999) further supported this with a meta-analysis of nearly 80 studies in the US.

They found 62% secure, 15% insecure-avoidant, 9% insecure-resistant and 15% insecure-disorganised.

Question 17

What is meant by observations had high reliability?

Answer 17

In observational studies like this one, the reliability of observations is important.
The measurements are confirmed as meaningful if there is agreement amongst observers - called inter-observer reliability, which is determined by comparing the ratings made by a panel of experienced judges.

Ainsworth (1978) found almost perfect agreement when rating exploratory behaviour - they found a 9.4 agreement between raters.
This means the observations can be accepted as being reliable.

Question 18

What is meant by real-world application?

Answer 18

In situations where disordered patterns of attachment develop between infant and caregiver, intervention strategies can be developed.

For example, the circle of security project (cooper, 2005).
This supports the research on attachment types because such research can be used to improve children’s lives, which is a strength.

Question 19

What is the circle of security project?

Answer 19

Cooper 2005 -
Teaches caregivers to better understand their infants signals of distress and to increase their understanding of what it feels like to be anxious.

The project showed a decrease in the number of caregivers classified as disordered (from 60% to 15%)
And an increase in infants classed as securely attached (from 32% to 40%).

Question 20

What is meant by low internal validity?

Answer 20

The strange situation aims to measure the attachment type of a child. However, does it really measure this or does it measure the quality of one particular relationship?

Main and Weston (1981) found that children behaved differently 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 personal characteristic lodged in the individual.

However, Bowlby’s view of monotropy means the attachment type is mainly related to the one special relationship - supported by Main.

Question 21

How did Main support Bowlby’s view?

Answer 21

1999 - tested a group of children and re-assessed them at age 9 using the AAI (adult attachment interview).

He found that attachment type seemed to be chiefly influenced by the mother, supporting Bowlby’s concept of monotropy and the internal validity of the strange situation.

Question 22

What is meant by maternal reflective functioning?

Answer 22

Ainsworth suggested that secure attachment was linked to maternal sensitivity, however, some studies (e.g - Raval, 2001) have actually found rather low correlations between measures of maternal sensitivity and the strength of attachment.

Slade (2005) found a greater role for maternal reflective functioning.
He suggested that maternal reflective thinking rather than sensitivity may be the central mechanism in establishing attachment type.

Question 23

What is reflective functioning?

Answer 23

The ability to understand what someone else is thinking or feeling.