Attachment

Question 1

What did the Strange Situation test?

Answer 1

Different types of attachments in infants and their stranger-anxiety and seperation-anxiety.

Question 2

What stages made up the Strange Situation?

Answer 2

1) Mother and infant are put in a room together, the mother can play with her child.
2) mother sits back allowing the child to play by itself
3) stranger comes into the room and can interact with the mother
4) stranger attempts to interact its infant
5) mother leave the room
6) mother comes back in, reuniting with the infant.
7) stranger leaves

Question 3

Who created the strange situation?

Answer 3

Mary Ainsworth

Question 4

How did the secure attachment infant act?

Answer 4

Medium amount of stranger and separation anxiety.

Question 5

How did the insecure-resistant infant act?

Answer 5

High amounts of stranger and separation anxiety. Often acted angry/upset with the mother whilst seeking comfort, and stressed with the stranger’s presence.

Question 6

How did the insecure-avoidant infant act?

Answer 6

Very low amounts of separation and separation anxiety. Often acted indifferent and unaffected by the mother’s absence or the stranger’s presence. The mother did not attempt to interact either.

Question 7

What are the three attachment types?

Answer 7

Secure, insecure-resistant and insecure-avoidant.

Question 8

What are some weaknesses of the Strange Situation?

Answer 8

• Lack of cultural generalisation: upbringing differs across cultures meaning the ‘normal’ amount of stress an infant will experience differs too. (Jin’s Korean study&Japan = higher insecure-resistant, and Germany = higher insecure-avoidant)
• Ethical problems: possibly exposing infants to a lot of stress can result in unnecessary anxiety for both the mother and child.

Question 9

What has Harlow’s aims for his study?

Answer 9

To test whether contact comfort or resources were more important for baby monkeys.