Mary Ainsworth Strange Situation

Question 1

Where did the strange situation take place

Answer 1

A 9 by 9 foot room divided into 16 squares to map infant movements

Question 2

What did the caregiver or stranger do in the strange situation

Answer 2

Alternatively stay with the infant or leave

Question 3

What behaviours did Ainsworth observe using this experiment

Answer 3

Seperation anxiety, stranger anxiety and provided a novel environment for the infant to explore, which tests the secure base concept.

Question 4

How was the data for the strange situation collected

Answer 4

A group of observers used a one way mirror and recorded what the infant was doing every 15 seconds under three categories:
-proximity or contanct seeking behaviour
-contact maintaining behaviours
-proximity and interaction avoiding behaviour
-contact avoiding behaviours (?)
-search behaviours
Each item was scored from 1 to 7

Question 5

How many infants did Ainsworth observe in total

Answer 5

Ainsworth combined data from several studies to make a total of 106 middle class infants observed

Question 6

What were the three patterns of behaviour identified by Ainsworth

Answer 6

-Secure Attachment (type B)
-Insecure Avoidant (type A)
-Insecure Resistant (type C)

Question 7

What behaviour was type A in the strange situation

Answer 7

Insecure Avoidant

Question 8

What behaviour was type B in the strange situation

Answer 8

Secure Attachment

Question 9

What behaviour was type C in the strange situation

Answer 9

Insecure Resistant

Question 10

What behaviours did securely attached infants display in the strange situation

Answer 10

-They had cooperative interactions with their caregiver
-they were unlikely to cry when their caregiver leaves
-show some distress when left with a stranger
-when anxious they seek close contact with caregiver
-they are easily soothed
-they are comfortable with social interaction and intemacy
-they use their caregiver as a secure base to function independently

Question 11

What behaviours did insecure avoidant infants display in the strange situation

Answer 11

-avoid social interaction and intemacy
-display litte response to seperation
-do not seek proximity on reunion
-do not cling to caregiver
-are happy to explore without caregiver
-have high levels of anxiousness

Question 12

What behaviours did insecure resistant infants display in the strange situation

Answer 12

-both seek and resist intemacy and social interaction
-respond to seperation from the caregiver with immediate and intense distress
-responded to strangers with immediate and intense distress
-On reunion display conflicting desires both for and against contact e.g angrily resist being picked up while trying other means to maintain proximity

Question 13

What were the observations like in the strange situation

Answer 13

Highly reliable, with inter rater reliability being high, confiming meaningful measurements. Had an .94 out of 1.00 agreement rating between raters when rating exploratory behaviour. Confirms validity

Question 14

How has the strange situation been used in real life

Answer 14

Been used to develop intervention strategies to tackle disorganised patterns of attachment. The Circle of Security Project teached cargivers to better understand infants signals of distress, which showed a decrease in the number of caregivers classified as disordered from 60% to 15%, and an increase in securely attached infants from 32% to 40%

Question 15

Which project helps develop secure attachments

Answer 15

The Circle of Security Project teaches caregivers to better understand infant distress signals. Caregivers classified as disordered fell from 60% to 15%, and securely attached infants rose from 32% to 40%

Question 16

How does the strange situation have cultural bias and an imposed etic

Answer 16

It was designed around middle class American families, and when used in cultures where childrearing practises differ there is often an overepresentation of insecuely attached children. For example a study by Takahashi in Japan found 32% of children labelled as insecure resistant, as Japanese children are never left on their own so they respond extremely to caregiver seperation. This creates an imposed etic and it cannot be generalised across cultures
(Could use Grossmann and Grossmann German infants)

Question 17

What did Ainsworth suggest attachment type was linked to and why did it draw criticism

Answer 17

Ainsworth suggested that attachment type was linked to maternal sensitivity, but Raval et al found low correlation between measures of maternal sensitivity and strength of attachment. Slade et al instead suggested maternal reflecive functioning as an explination, which is the ability of the caregiver to understand what the caregiver’s thinking/feeling.

Question 18

Who suggested maternal reflexive functioning as a reason for attachment type and what is it

Answer 18

Slade et al suggested maternal reflecive functioning, which is the ability of the caregiver to understand what the infant is thinking or feeling

Question 19

Who found a low correlation between maternal sensitivity and strength of attachment

Answer 19

Raval et al