Strange Situation

Question 1

Who created the Strange Situation?

Answer 1

Ainsworth

Question 2

What was the aim of the Strange Situation?

Answer 2

-to be able to observe key attachment behaviours to assess the quality of a baby’s attachment to their caregiver.

Question 3

What was the procedure of the Strange Situation?

Answer 3

-a controlled observation methodology in a room with a two-way mirror
-assessed the quality of attachment on the basis of the child’s response to specific episodes.
-made up of 7 episodes that lasted 2 minutes, each measuring a different attachment behaviour
-there were 4 behavioural categories that the researchers looked out for:

Question 4

How many behavioural categories did observers look out for in the Strange Situation?

Answer 4

4

Question 5

What are the behavioural categories looked out for in the Strange Situation?

Answer 5

Separation Anxiety
Reunion Behaviour
Stranger Anxiety
Secure Base Behaviour

Question 6

How many ‘episodes’ is the Strange Situation made up of?

Answer 6

7

Question 7

How long is each ‘episode’ of the Strange Situation

Answer 7

2 minutes

Question 8

What is secure base behaviour?

Answer 8

-baby explores the room, but will still return to caregiver every now and then as a ‘base’

Question 9

What is reunion behaviour?

Answer 9

-Greeting/ happiness at the care-giver’s return

Question 10

What is separation anxiety?

Answer 10

-protest/upset at separation from the caregiver

Question 11

What is stranger anxiety?

Answer 11

-upset when a stranger approaches

Question 12

What behaviour does each episode of the strange situation test?

Answer 12

1- secure base
2- stranger anxiety
3- stranger anxiety and separation anxiety
4- reunion behaviour
5- separation anxiety
6- stranger anxiety
7- reunion behaviour

Question 13

What were Ainsworth’s original findings of the Strange Situation?

Answer 13

-3 types of attachment
- 20-25% of British babies are classified as Type A
- 60-75% of British Babies classified as Type B
- 3% of British babies classified as Type C

Question 14

What is Type A attachment also known as?

Answer 14

Insecure Avoidant

Question 15

What is Type B attachment also known as?

Answer 15

Secure

Question 16

What is Type C attachment also known as?

Answer 16

Insecure Resistant

Question 17

What are the characteristics of Type A attachment?

Answer 17

-explores freely without bothering where mom is
-is not at all upset when mom goes
-not bothered when mum comes back
-not bothered by appearance of a stranger

Question 18

What are the characteristics of Type B attachment?

Answer 18

-explores happily while keeping an eye on mum
-is moderately upset when mum goes
-is readily comforted by mum when she comes back
-a little wary of the stranger

Question 19

What are the characteristics of Type C attachment?

Answer 19

-does not explore very much; keeps very near mum
-is extremely upset when mum goes
-is cross with mum on return and not easily comforted
-does not like the stranger at all

Question 20

What are the strengths of the Strange Situation?

Answer 20

-its outcome predicts a number of aspects of the baby’s later development
-there is good inter-rater reliability (the agreement between different observers)

Question 21

Explain the strength of the Strange Situation that: there is good inter-rater reliability?

Answer 21

-Bick tested inter-rater reliability for the Strange Situation for a team of trained observers and found agreement on attachment type in 94% of cases.
-This high level of reliability may be because the procedure takes place under controlled conditions and because the behaviours involve larger movements therefore are easy to observe.
-For example, anxiety involves babies crying and crawling away from strangers.
-This means that we can be confident that attachment type as assessed by the Strange Situation does not depend on subjective judgements.

Question 22

Explain the strength of the Strange Situation that: its outcome predicts aspects of the baby’s later development

Answer 22

-A large body of research has shown that babies and toddlers assessed as Type B tend to have better outcomes than others, both in later childhood and in adulthood.
-In childhood this includes better achievement in school and less involvement in bullying
-Securely attached babies also tend to go on to have better mental health in adulthood (Ward et al)
-Those babies not falling into types B tend to have the worst outcomes.
-This suggests that the Strange Situation measures something real and meaningful in a baby’s development.

Question 23

What are the limitations of the Strange Situation?

Answer 23

-lacks validity
-may not be a valid measure in different cultural contexts

Question 24

Explain the limitation of the Strange Situation that: it lacks validity

Answer 24

-The child may have a different type of attachment to the father or grandmother than they do to their mother.
-The same child may show different attachment behaviours on different occasions.
-Children’s attachments may change because of changes in the child’s circumstances, so, for example, a securely attached child may show signs of insecure attachment if the mother is ill.
-This means that it lacks validity because it does not measure general attachment type as advertised, it only measures attachment style specific to the mother in specific circumstances that can be subject to change

Question 25

Explain the limitation of the Strange Situation that: it may not be a valid measure of attachment in different cultural contexts.

Answer 25

-The Strange Situation was developed in Britain and the US, therefore may be culture-bound
-Babies have different experiences in different cultures and these experiences may affect their responses to the Strange Situation.
-E.g, in a Japanese study by Takahashi, babies displayed very high levels of separation anxiety and so a disproportionate number were classified as insecure-resistant.
-Takahashi suggests that this anxiety response was not due to high rates of attachment insecurity but to the unusual nature of the experience in Japan where mother-baby separation is very rare.
-This means that it is very difficult to know what the Strange Situation is measuring when used outside Europe and the US.