Psychology (Mary Ainsworth - Attachment) Flashcards
Mary Ainsworth SSP (AIM)
To investigate the attachment in infants to mothers. To investigate the effect of stranger anxiety and infant protest (when caregiver is not around and/or unreliable)
Mary Ainsworth SSP (PROCEDURE)
1) mother and child alone, infant can explore 2) stranger enters the room, sits with the mother and the child (briefly interacts with mum and child) 3) mother leaves the room and stranger is alone with infant 4) mother returns and stranger leaves 5) mother leaves 6) infant completely alone 7) stranger enters and interacts with infant 8) stranger leaves and mother returns
Laboratory experiment done in 1970
Video cameras to have more detail of the babies behaviour
time sampling / observation
Mary Ainsworth SSP (FINDINGS)
Ainsworth identified 3 main attachment types: Secure, insecure avoidant and insecure ambivalent. 15% were displaying avoidant insecure type A, 70% secure type B and the other 15% insecure ambivalent type C.
What is the “Insecure Ambivalent” Attachment type?
When you have mixed feelings about your primary caregiver (for example when a baby is clingy but upon close interaction, rejects the primary caregiver)
What is the “Secure” Attachment type?
The baby is confident that the caregiver will meet their needs and use the main attachment figure as a secure basis to explore the outside world.
What is the “Insecure Avoidant” Attachment type?
When the baby deems the caregiver to be unreliable to meet their needs and avoids them.
Mary Ainsworth SSP (CONCLUSIONS)
That the attachment type of a child is determined by the behaviour the mother shows.
Mary Ainsworth SSP (STRENGTHS)
Reliable as it follows a standardized procedure which makes it reproducible
It is useful to mothers because it shows that the different attachment types result from the behaviour of the mother towards the baby. Which means that they can gather information on how to form a secure attachment with their baby further assisting in their parenting.
It is reliable because Wartner et al found out that 78% of the children were securely attached, which supports the study cross-culturally and as it is consistent when replicated.
It is scientific because it uses observations
Mary Ainsworth SSP (WEAKNESSES)
Not ecologically valid because it is done in an artificial setting (artificial, systematic eight episode)
It is not generalizable because the sample consists of Americans who have a different culture e.g van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg found out in their meta-analysis that attachment varies depending on the culture. This also makes it less replicable because when other psychologists would conduct the same study, they wouldn’t get the same results in a completely different culture to America such as collectivist China.
Reductionist because it only looks at the mother being the primary caregiver, not any other guardians such as the father or the grandparents.
It has ethical limitations as it breaches the guideline of “protection of participants” because the baby is put under immense stress as the mother is leaving and entering the room many times.
It is subjective because it uses observations, where the researchers have to subjectively interpret the behaviour of the baby in order to make a judgement.
Explain one way in which it could be improved.
Could be improved by either conducting it with different types of caregivers or independently with different cultures.
