Ainsworths Strange Situation

Question 1

What was the aim for ainsworths strange situation

Answer 1

To assess how infants ages 9-18 months behave under conditions of mild stress and novelty, to test stranger and separation anxiety and secure base behaviour

Question 2

Name 3 behaviours used to judge attachment

Answer 2

Stranger anxiety
Separation anxiety
Contact maintaining

Question 3

Describe insecure avoidant children

Answer 3

Pay little attention to the parent and actively ignore them on return. Appear to be distressed when completely alone not by separation and could be comforted by stranger

Question 4

Describe securely attached children

Answer 4

Played happily while the parent was present and whether or not the stranger was there . Clearly distressed when the parent left and was comforted and sought immediate contact upon their return

Question 5

Describe insecure resistant children

Answer 5

Cry when the parent was present and didn’t play well. Upset when parent left and sought immediate contact on their return but also resisted contact .resisted interactions with the stranger

Question 6

What percentage of children were type a/ insecure avoidant

Answer 6

15%

Question 7

What percentage of children were type b/ securely attached

Answer 7

70%

Question 8

What percentage of children were type c/ insecure resistant

Answer 8

15%

Question 9

Evaluation : good reliability

Answer 9

Good interrater reliability bcs takes place under controlled conditions and the behavioural categories are easy to observe
Bicker et al 2015: 55 observers agreed on attachment types on 94% of infants

Question 10

Evaluation: support for validity

Answer 10

Babies assessed as secure typically have better outcome since many areas, ranging from school to r/s. Insecure resistant is associated with the worst outcomes

Question 11

Evaluation: culture bound

Answer 11

Culture bound as it doesn’t have the same meaning in counties outside of west Europe and USA, cultural differences in childhood experiences means that children repond differently to the strange situation
Takahashi 1990: noted that the test does not really work in japan because Japanese mothers are rarely separated from their babies so show very high levels of separation anxiety

Question 12

Evaluation: lacks ecological validity

Answer 12

Lab experiment with high levels of control to limit extraneous variables therefore lack ecological validity as what happens inside the experiment cannot generalise to settings outside
Other variation showed that separation anxiety was higher in the lab than at home