Attachment: Ainsworths Strange Situation and Cultural Variations

Question 1

What 4 things did Ainsworth want to investigate?

Answer 1

-how children use their mum as a safe base for exploration
-stranger anxiety
-separation anxiety
-reunion behaviour

Question 2

What was Ainsworths procedure?
-what kind of observation was used
-what kind of sampling was used

Answer 2

it was a controlled observation of how infants behaved under mild stress
the research room was a novel environment and the researchers were behind a 2 way mirror
observers recorded aspects of the infants behaviour every 15 seconds

Question 3

The children were placed under mild stress in this experiment , what 2 factors created this stress?

Answer 3

the presence of a stranger
separation from their care-giver

Question 4

What were the findings of the experiment?

Answer 4

there were 3 main attachment types
66%-secure
22%-insecure avoidant
12%-insecure avoidant

Question 5

For securely attached infants , what was observed regarding their willingness to explore , stranger anxiety . separation anxiety and reunion behaviour?

Answer 5

happy to explore but used care-giver as a safe base
anxious and used care-giver as a safe base
moderate distress
obvious joy

Question 6

For insecure avoidant attached infants , what was observed regarding their willingness to explore , stranger anxiety . separation anxiety and reunion behaviour?

Answer 6

happy to explore but didn’t use care-giver as a safe base
not anxious
indifference
little reaction

Question 7

For insecure resistant attached infants , what was observed regarding their willingness to explore , stranger anxiety . separation anxiety and reunion behaviour?

Answer 7

low willingness
extreme
extreme distress
hard to sooth and reject contact

Question 8

Secure Attachment
-how strong is the attachment?
-what is it a result of?
-what is it related to?

Answer 8

-strong attachment to care giver
-result of sensitive responsiveness to infants needs
-related to healthy cognitive and emotional development

Question 9

What is insecure avoidant attachment associated with?
What is insecure resistant attachment associated with?

Answer 9

with mothers who don’t respond to their infants needs

with inconsistent parenting , mother sometimes responds but sometimes ignores infants needs

Question 10

What are the 2 strengths of the strange situation as a way of testing attachment type?

Answer 10

+it follows a standardised procedure
means it can be replicated and has been done successfully in many cultures which allows comparison of attachment across the world
-this ensures high external validity

+attachment type is a good predictor of later development
research has found that securely att infants have better outcomes in many areas of life than insecurely att infants do
-this suggests attachment type is a real thing so adds validity to the concept

Question 11

What is a however point for the procedure used in the Strange Situation?

Answer 11

-it is an artificial way of assessing attachment
-it is done in a lab where the care-giver and stranger follow a script so it may not be reflective of how the care-giver and infant would normally interact , meaning it lacks ecological validity

Question 12

What are 2 further limitations of the Strange Situation?
(1 has a however point)

Answer 12

-there are ethical issues
infants were deliberately made stressed meaning they may have been psychologically harmed , however this is justifiable as the stress is no greater than being left with a babysitter

-its a culturally bound test
its designed for use in British and American cultures , those in different cultures such as Japan behave differently (mums terminated the study due to high distress of infant) suggesting its not an appropriate method for assessing attachment type in all cultures

Question 13

Which 2 people carried out a meta-analysis and when?

Answer 13

Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg in 1998

Question 14

Describe the 4 main points about this meta analysis

Answer 14

-all the studies used the SS to assess attachemnt type
-all studies included at least 35 mother-infant pairs
-infants all aged under 2
they observed a total of 1990+ pairs

Question 15

Key findings-
-which attachment type was most common
-where was it highest and lowest
-where was IA highest and lowest
-where was IR highest and lowest
+one more point

Answer 15

secure attachment was most common across all
cultures
it was highest in the UK and lowest in India

IA-highest in West Germany and lowest in Japan
IR-highest in Japan and Israel and lowest in UK and Sweden

-there was 1.5x greater variation in attachment type within cultures than between cultures

Question 16

What is one strength of this meta analysis?

Answer 16

+the analysis included studies which had large samples
this increases the validity and reduces the effect of anomolous results , making results more reliable and generalisable

Question 17

What is another strength of this meta analysis?

Answer 17

+the SS is the only attachment test used in different countries
this allows for comparison across cultures which further increases the validity and reliability of the findings

Question 18

What is a limitation of this meta analysis?

Answer 18

-the findings found there was more variation within than between cultures
some countries had samples that weren’t representative of their population
-this challenges the ability to make generalisations

Question 19

What is a further limitation of this meta analysis?
What does this study suffer?

Answer 19

-the method is biased towards British and American cultures
this means it may not apply to collectivist cultures which challenges the validity

-it suffers IMPOSED ETIC

Question 20

What does imposed etic mean?

Answer 20

applying a technique from 1 culture to another