Attachment: Ainsworth's strange situation Flashcards
What is type A,B,C in terms of attachment?
Type A - Insecure avoidant
Type B - Secure attachment
Type C - Insecure resistant
What is secure attachment (type B)
A strong, coherent attachment between an infant and their caregiver which develops as a result of sensitive responding by the caregiver to the infant’s needs. Are comfortable with both intimacy and social interaction related to health cognitive and emotional development.
What is insecure avoidant attachment (type A)
A type of attachment which describes children who tend to avoid social interaction and intimacy with others.
What is insecure resistant attachment?
A type of attachment which describes children who tend to resist social interaction and intimacy and social interaction.
What was the aim of Ainswoth’s strange situation?
To investigate how infants aged between 9-18 months behave under conditions of mild stress + novelty. A controlled observation designed to test attachment security.
What was the procedure of Ainsworth’s strange situation?
Research room in a novel environment a 9 x 9 ft room often split into 16 squares to help record infants movements. Consists of 8 episodes each of approx. 3 min duration to highlight certain behaviours: separation from caregiver (separation anxiety), reunion with the caregiver (reunion behaviour), response to stranger (stranger anxiety), + response to the novel environment (tests instants ability to use caregiver as a ‘safe base’ for exploration)
The 8 conditions + what they’re testing for are:
1) Parent + infant play
2) Parent sits while infant plays (safe base)
3) Stranger enters + talks to parent (stranger anxiety)
4) Parent leaves, infants play, stranger offers comfort if needed (separation anxiety)
5) Parent returns, greets infant, offers comfort if needed; stranger leaves (reunion behaviour)
6) Parent leaves, infant alone (separation anxiety)
7) Stranger enters + offers comfort (stranger anxiety)
8) Parent returns, greets infant + offers comfort (reunion behaviour)
Ainsworth + Bell observed from the other side of a one-way mirror so that children didn’t know they were being observed.
What were the findings of Ainsworth’s strange situation?
3 types of attachment were established:
Type A (insecure avoidant) 22% of infants
Infants were concerned with mothers’ absence when she leaves the room, shows little interest when reunited with their mother, strongly avoidant of both mother and stranger showing no motivation to interact with either adult + have a high willingness to explore.
Type B (secure attachment) 66% of infants
Infants are upset when left alone by mother, are happy when mother returns + seeks contact, avoids stranger when left alone but friendly when mother is present + infants use the mother as a safe base to explore their environment.
Type C (insecure resistant) 12% of infants
Infants are clingy to their mother + aren’t willing to explore, extremely distressed when left alone by their mother, can’t be comforted by a stranger + will not interact with them —> stranger + mother treated very differently+ when mother returns the infant is pleased to see her + goes to her for comfort but can’t be consoled and shows signs of anger towards her.
What are the 4 AO3 points for Ainsworth’s strange situation?
+High reliability
+RWA
-Biased sample
-Other types of attachment
(+AO3) Why does Ainsworth’s strange situation have high reliability?
Inter – observer relativistic score of 0.94 which is near perfect as identifying behaviour + attachment type was very consistent among observers therefore, findings should be similar if repeated with the same procedure.
(+AO3) What is the RWA for Ainsworth’s strange situation?
Measuring the quality of an infant’s primary attachment allows intervention strategies when either insecure resistant or avoidant. Allows caregivers to understand signals better, to be more sensitive + understand stranger anxiety. Research shows reduction in disordered attachments using this method. Therefore, a strength of the SS is that it improved lives.
(-AO3) How did Ainsworth’s research use a biased sample?
Only white, western, middle-class infants were used in the sample. Therefore, findings may not apply to other cultures especially collectivist. Multiple attachments appear to be insecure – resistant as they suppress emotion. However, infants with this attachment type doesn’t develop abnormally + explains Ijzendoorn + Kroonenberg’s findings. Therefore, method is culturally biased.
(-AO3) What are the other types of attachment?
Insecure – disorganised (type D) Main and Solomon meta – analysis of 200 video tapes of the strange situation and suggested that Ainsworth overlooked a fourth type of attachment. It was noted that some infants showed inconsistent patterns of behaviour e.g. strong attachment followed by avoidance) suggesting that Ainsworth’s situation was oversimplified.
