types of attachment

Question 1

strange situation - basis

Answer 1

• developed by ainsworth and bell
• aim was to be able to observe key attachment behaviours as a means of assessing a baby’s attachment to a caregiver

Question 2

strange situation - procedure

Answer 2

• controlled observation to observe the security of attachment to caregiver
• takes place in a room with a two-way mirror and camera, through which psychologists can observe babies’ behaviours

behaviours used to judge -
- proximity seeking, will stay fairly close to caregiver
- exploration and secure-base behaviour, baby will feel confident to explore, using caregiver as secure base, point of contact
- stranger anxiety, display of anxiety when stranger appears
- separation anxiety, protest at separation from caregiver
- response to reunion, greet caregiver’s return with pleasure and will seek comfort

Question 3

strange situation - 7 episodes (3 minutes each)

Answer 3

1. baby is encouraged to explore (exploration and secure base)
2. stranger comes in, talks to caregiver and approaches baby (stranger anxiety)
3. caregiver leaves baby and stranger together (separation and stranger anxiety)
4. caregiver returns and stranger leaves (reunion behaviour and exploration)
5. caregiver leaves baby alone (separation anxiety)
6. stranger returns (stranger anxiety)
7. caregiver returned and is reunited with baby (reunion behaviour)

Question 4

strange situation - findings

Answer 4

B - secure attachment - babies explore happily but will regularly go back to caregiver, will show moderate separation distress and moderate stranger anxiety, will require and accept comfort from caregiver in reunion stage, about 60-75% of british babies are classified as secure

A - insecure-avoidant attachment - babies will explore freely but don’t seek proximity or show secure-base behaviour, will show little or no reaction when caregiver leaves and little stranger anxiety, little effort to make contact when caregiver returns, about 20-25% of british babies are classified as insecure-avoidant

C - insecure-resistant attachment - seek greater proximity than others and so explore less, high levels of strangers and separation anxiety but resist comfort when reunited with caregiver, around 3% of british babies are classified as insecure-resistant

Question 5

evaluation - good predictive validity

Answer 5

• outcome predicts many aspects of a baby’s later development
• research shows that babies assessed as secure tend to have better outcomes, in later childhood and in adulthood
• better achievement at school, less involvement with bullying, better mental health in adulthood
• measures something real and meaningful in development

Question 6

evaluation - maybe culture-bound

Answer 6

• may not be a valid measure of attachment in different cultural contexts
• developed in britain and usa
• babies have different experiences in different cultures which may affect their responses to the strange situation
• in a japanese study, babies showed very high levels of separation anxiety so a disproportionate number were classified as insecure-resistant
• difficult to generalise to other cultures

Question 7

evaluation - good validity

Answer 7

• high in validity because it can be easily replicated
• standardised procedures
• can use same coding sheet, same behaviour categories, same type of room, same 7 episodes, same length of time, same toys
• controlled, recorded it as well so can go back over it

Question 8

evaluation - not complete theory (main and solomon)

Answer 8

• disorganised attachment type was later identified, combination of other type (disorganised and unpredictable)
• theory is not 100% representative of all attachment types
• this attachment type D is thought to be the result of poor care or severe abuse and neglect
• lowers validity

Question 9

evaluation - individual differences

Answer 9

• genes, innate temperament, naturally more anxious
• any babies that are neurodivergent, autism etc.
• situation may not reflect just attachment to caregiver
• difficult to separate impact of individual temperament from the attachment type

Question 10

evaluation - inter-rater reliability

Answer 10

• can use standardised procedures to replicate study
• found high levels of inter-observer reliability agreement, 94% of the time they agreed with which attachment type was given
• very high in reliability
• correlation coefficent +0.94 (very high)