AS ATTACHMENT; AINSWORTH'S STRANGE SITUATION

Question 1

Describe the behaviours that Ainsworth measured with her experiment

Answer 1

Ainsworth worked closely with Bowlby and put together the Strange Situation, which was designed to measure 5 behs…

1) Proximity seeking: how close they stay to the caregiver (good attachment = fairly close to CG)
2) Exploration and secure base behaviour: infant will go and explore but then return to secure base of the caregiver; measuring how far the infant explores before returning
3) Separation anxiety: does child show symptoms of anxiety when the caregiver leaves?
4) Stranger anxiety: does child show symptoms of anxiety around strangers?
5) Reunion response: how does child behave when caregiver returns after leaving?

Question 2

Describe the 8 stages of the Strange Situation

Answer 2

Each stage lasts for 3 mins (apart from stage 1 which lasts for 30 secs):

1) Infant and caregiver enter the unfamiliar setting
2) CG behaves passively and child explores room (measuring exploration and secure base beh)
3) Stranger enters and tries to interact w/ infant (stranger anxiety and proximity seeking)
4) CG leaves and stranger is left alone w/ infant (separation anxiety and stranger anxiety)
5) CG returns, stranger leaves (reunion response)
6) CG leaves again (separation anxiety)
7) Stranger returns (separation anxiety and stranger anxiety)
8) CG returns and stranger leaves (reunion response)

Question 3

Describe the findings and conclusions of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Answer 3

Ainsworth put together 3 attachment types:

Type A: insecure avoidant; explore freely but don’t show secure base beh or seek close proximity to CG. Show little distress when CG leaves and don’t make much effort to contact them upon CG’s return. Show little stranger anxiety and don’t require comfort at reunion stages (A for “couldn’t give a rats ASS”). CG is likely to be distant/insensitive so infant doesn’t seek them when in distress. About 20-25% of UK infants are Type A

Type B: secure; happily explore but return often to the CG (good secure base beh and proximity seeking). Show moderate separaton and stranger anxiety and so do require some soothing upon return of CG, but they are easily soothed. About 60-75% of UK infants are Type B. Tend to have CGs who are sensitive to their needs so infants do seek CG in times of distress

Type C: insecure resistant; seek closer proximity when exploring (clingy) and show huge stranger/separation anxiety, but are difficcult to soothe upon return of CG as they resist the comforting (C for……. a rude word beginning with C which we can’t type here on Brainscape). About 3% of UK infants are Type C, and they tend to have insensitive CGs.

Question 4

Evalute Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Answer 4

(-) Unethical; creating distress in infants (however it’s argued that this distress is no greater than everyday activities e.g. going to nursery/daycare)
(-) Only based on Western culture; Takahashi (1990) says that it doesn’t work in Japan as mothers spend far less time away from infants so they show much higher levels of separation anxiety. Japanese mothers also tended to rush to infants and scoop them up in reunion stages, which made it difficult to observe the infants’ responses
(-) Artificial as CG and infant act to a script, so may not display totally natural beh
(+) Bick et al (2012) found 94% agreement on attachment types from different observers watching infants in the Strange Situation; good inter-observer reliability, so we can be confident that attachment type classification doesn’t depend on who’s observing them