Types of Attachment Flashcards
Strange Situation
Aim
- Developed by Ainsworth and Bell (1970).
- Observe key attachment behaviours to assess attachment between a baby and caregiver.
Strange Situation
Laboratory
Procedure
- Controlled Observation procedure.
- Takes place in a room where conditions are controlled.
- There is a two-way mirror and cameras through which psychologists can observe the baby’s behaviour.
Strange Situation
Behaviours
Procedure
- Proximity-seeking: baby stays fairly to a caregiver.
- Exploration and secure-base: baby will feel confident to explore, using their caregiver as a point of contact to feel safe.
- Stranger anxiety: displays anxiety when a stranger is around.
- Separation anxiety: protesting separation from caregiver.
- Response to reunion: baby greets the caregiver’s return with pleasure and seek comfort.
Strange Situation
Episodes
Procedure
- The procedure has 7 episodes, lasting 3 minutes each.
- The baby is encouraged to explore.
- A stranger comes in, talks to the caregiver and approaches the baby.
- The caregiver leaves the baby and stranger together.
- The caregiver returns and the strange leaves.
- The caregiver leavs the baby alone.
- The stranger returns.
- The caregiver returns and is reuinited with the baby.
Strange Situation
Types of Attachment
Findings
- There were distinct patterns in the way the babies behaved.
- They identified three main types.
Strange Situation
Secure Attachment (Type B)
Findings
- Explore happily but regularly go back to their caregiver (exploration and secure-base).
- Show moderate separation distress and stranger anxiety.
- Require and accept comfort from the caregiver at reunion.
- Around 60-75% of British babies are classified as secure.
Strange Situation
Insecure-avoidant Attachment (Type A)
Findings
- Explore freely but do not seek proximity or show secure-base behaviour.
- Show little or no separation and stranger anxiety.
- Make little effort to make contact with the caregiver and may even avoid contact.
- About 20-25% of British babies are classified as insecure-avoidant.
Strange Situation
Insecure-resistant Attachment (Type C)
Findings
- Seek greater proximity than others and so explore less.
- Show high stranger anxiety and separation distress.
- Resist comfort on reunion.
- Around 3% of British babies are classified as insecure-resistant.
Strange Situation: Evaluation
Good Predictive Reliability
Strength
- Predicts a number of aspects of a baby’s development.
- Secure children tended to have greater outcomes in adulthood.
- They achieve better in school, have better mental health and are less likely to be involved in bullying.
- Babies assessed as having insecure-resistant and those not falling into Type A, B or C.
Suggests the Strange Situation measured something real and meaningful in development.
Strange Situation: Evaluation
Counterpoint
Good predictive validity
- Strange Situation clearly measured something important to development.
- This is not necessarily attachment.
- Kagan (1982) suggested that genetically-influence anxiety levels could account for variations in attachment behaviour.
This means the Strange Situation may not actually measure attachment.
Strange Situation: Evaluation
Good Reliability
Strength
- Strange Situation has good inter-rater reliability.
- Bick (2012) assessed inter-rater reliability for the Strange Situation for a team of trained observers.
- Found agreement on attachment type in 94% of cases.
- This high level of reliability may be due to the controlled laboratory conditions and because observed behaviours are obvious.
- E.g. anxious babies crawl away from strangers.
This means we can be confident the attachment type assessed by the Strange Situation is not based on subjective judgement.
Strange Situation: Evaluation
Culture-bound Tests
Limitation
- May not be a valid measure of attachment in other cultures.
- It was developed in Britain and the US.
- Babies have different experiences in different cultures that may affect their responses.
- Takahashi (1990) suggests this anxiety response is not due to insecurity but to the unusual nature of mother-baby separation in Japan.
This means it is difficult to know what the Strange Situation is measuring when used outside Europe and the US.
