Ainsworth strange situation

Question 1

AO1: Procedure

Answer 1

Observed infants reactions to

• separation with the caregiver
• reunion with the caregiver
• response to a stranger
• the novel environment

Question 2

A01: Findings

Answer 2

Secure attachment: 66% High willingness to explore, moderate stranger anxiety, easy to soothe, enthusiastic reunion.

Insecure avoidant: 22% High willingness to explore, Low stranger anxiety, Avoids contact with caregiver at reunion

Insecure resistant: 12% Low willingness to explore, High stranger anxiety, High separation anxiety, seeks and rejects.

Question 3

A03: Other type of attachment

Answer 3

Main and Soloman: analysed 200 strange situation tapes and found another category.
Insecure disorganised - lack of consistent patterns.
Shows Ainsworth was overly simplistic and did not account for all behaviours

Question 4

A03: High reliability

Answer 4

Agreement among all observers - high inter-rater reliability.
0.94 agreement - nearly perfect

Question 5

A03: Low internal validity

Answer 5

Main and Western found they behaved differently depending on which parent they were with.
It wasn’t measuring personality type but relationships.