PAPER 1 - ATTACHMENT - strange situation

Question 1

FINDINGS
what are the 3 types of attachment?

Answer 1

• secure attachment
• insecure-resistant
• insecure-avoidant

Question 2

FINDINGS
what is secure attachment?

Answer 2

• infants who had cooperative interactions with caregiver
• mild separation protests when caregiver leaves room
• shows some stress when stranger enters room
• reluctant to leave caregivers side initially

Question 3

FINDINGS
what is insecure-avoidant attachment?

Answer 3

• infants often avoid interaction and intimacy with others
• infants show little response to separation
• do not seek proximity of caregiver upon reunion

Question 4

FINDINGS
what is insecure-resistant attachment?

Answer 4

• infant shows immediate and intense distress when separated from caregiver
• seeks and resists intimacy and social interactions
• upon reunion, infants display conflicting desires for and against contact

Question 5

FINDINGS
what type is secure attachment and how many US infants were securely attached?

Answer 5

• type B
• 66%

Question 6

FINDINGS
what type is insecure-avoidant attachment and how many US infants had an insecure-avoidant attachment style?

Answer 6

• type A
• 22%

Question 7

FINDINGS
what type is insecure-resistant attachment and how many US infants had an insecure-resistant attachment attached?

Answer 7

• type C
• 12%

Question 8

AIM
what was the aim of the ‘strange situation’?

Answer 8

identify attachment type of infants of 9-18 months in new situations

Question 9

AIM
what type of experiment was ‘the strange situation’?

Answer 9

controlled lab observation

Question 10

PROCEDURE
how many episodes were there and how long did they last?

Answer 10

• 8 episodes
• 3 minutes long

Question 11

PROCEDURE
what were the 4 key observations of infant responses?

Answer 11

• separation anxiety
• stranger anxiety/protest
• reunion behaviour
• exploratory behaviour

Question 12

PROCEDURE
how was the data collected by the observers?

Answer 12

using a video-recorder and a one-way mirror

Question 13

PROCEDURE what were the 8 episodes?

Answer 13

1. parents and infant play
2. parent sits while infant plays (parent as secure base)
3. stranger enters and talks to parent (stranger anxiety)
4. parent leaves, infant plays, stranger offers comfort (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 and offers comfort (separation anxiety)
8. parent returns, greets infant, offers comfort (reunion behaviour)

Question 14

EVALUATION
what is the 4th attachment type?

Answer 14

insecure-disorganised attachment (type D)

Question 15

EVALUATION
what is insecure-disorganised attachment?

Answer 15

infants who did now have a consistent type of attachment and lacked clear coping strategy for separation

Question 16

CONCLUSION
what were the conclusions of this study?

Answer 16

• most USA seemed securely attached
• mothers behaviour has a role in determining the type of attachment

Question 17

EVALUATION
how is reliability of observations a strength?

Answer 17

• reliability = consistency of findings
• needs to be inter-rater reliability (measurements are confirmed)
• Ainsworth found a .94 rating explanatory power (nearly perfect agreement)

Question 18

EVALUATION
how is real world application an evaluation point?

Answer 18

strength
- interventions can be developed to tackle situations where disordered attachment patterns occur between the infant and carer
- Cooper et al (2005) - Circle of Security project which teaches caregivers how to understand signals and distress of infants

Question 19

EVALUATION
how are the Cooper et al (2005) Circle of Security Project findings a strength?

Answer 19

• disordered attachments went from 60% to 15%
• secure attachments went from 32% to 40%

Question 20

EVALUATION
why does the Circle of Security project support?

Answer 20

research on attachment types can improve children’s lives

Question 21

EVALUATION
how is low ecological validity a criticism?

Answer 21

does it actually measure the attachment type of a child, or if it’s just the quality of one particular relationship

Question 22

EVALUATION
how did Main and Weston (1981) show the low ecological validity of Ainsworth’s study?

Answer 22

they found that children behaved differently depending on which parent they were with - attachment types may differ

Question 23

EVAULATION
how did Bowlby support Ainsworth?

Answer 23

Bowlby suggested that attachment type was largely related to the one main attachment (measuring what it intends to measure)

Question 24

EVALUATION
how is maternal reflective functioning an evaluation point?

Answer 24

Ainsworth suggested that secure attachment was linked to maternal sensitivity
- criticised as researchers found low correlations between maternal sensitivity and strength of attachment
- maternal reflective thinking rather than sensitivity may be central mechanism for finding attachment type