types of attachment Flashcards
outline ainsworth (1970) strange situation experiment
A: aimed to measure the quality of a baby’s attachment to a caregiver
P: conducted a controlled observation with 100 american infant aged 9-18 months in a lab with two-way mirror which psychologists can observe a baby’s behaviour.
the behavioural categories were (proximty-seeking, exploration and secure-base behaviour, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety, response to reunion)
had 7 episodes (baby encouraged to explore, stranger enters talks to caregiver approaches baby, caregiver leaves, caregiver returns stranger leaves, caregiver leaves infant alone, stranger returns, caregiver returns)
F: found distinct patterns and identified three main types of attachment
secure 70%, insecure-avoidant 15%, insecure-resistant 15%
C: attachment type was determined by primary caregiver’s behaviour
what is secure attachment
explores but uses mother as a safe base
medium separation anxiety
medium stranger anxiety
joy on reunion
what is insecure-avoidant attachment
does not use mother as safe base
low separation anxiety
low stranger anxiety
no joy on reunion
what is insecure resistant attachment
high separation anxiety
‘hot and cold’ stranger anxiety
resists mother on reunion
strength of ainsworth strange situation
P: has predictive validity
E: attachment type as defined by the strange situation is strongly predictive of later development
babies assessed as secure typically go on to have better outcomes in schools (McCormick et al 2016), insecure-resistant attachment is associated with worst outcomes including bullying in later childhood (Kokkinos 2007) and adult mental problems (Ward et al 2006)
A: shows there is evidence for the validity of the concept because it can predict subsequent outcomes
C: therefore, strange situation has real life application which can be used to improve children’s lives
E: matters because it contributes to psychology’s aim of helping people
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P: good inter-rater reliability
E: different observers watching the same children generally agree on what attachment type to classify them with, strange situation takes place under controlled conditions, behavioural categories are easy to observe
A: bick et al 2012 looked at inter-rater reliability ia team of trained strange situation observations and found agreement on attachment type for 94% of tested babies
C: therefore, we can be confident that the attachment type of an infant identified in the strange situation does not depend on subjective judgements
E:
weakness of ainsworth strange situation
P: test may be cultural bound
E: it does not have the same meaning in countries outside western europe and the USA, could be because of cultural differences in childhood experiences are likely to mean thaat children respond differently to the strange situaton / caregivers from different cultures behave differently in the strange situation
A: takahashi 1990 noted that this does not work in japan because japanese babies rarely separates from their mothers, so they have high separation anxiety, in reunion stage, japanese mothers rushed to the baby and scooped them up so the child’s response was hard to observe
C: therefore, the strange situation assumes that behaviour has the same meaning in all cultures, when in fact cultural perception and understanding of behaviour differ greatly
E: this matters because we cannot adapt this attachment studies to other countries as it lacks population validity
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P: there is other types of attachment
E: ainsworth conceived of three attachent types - insecure-avoidant, secure and insecure-resistant.
Main and Solomon (1986) pointed out that a minority of children display atypical attachments that do not it in with all three categories
A: this atypical attachment is known as disorganised attachment, display an odd mix of resistant and avoidant behaviours
C: therefore, limitation as such research suggest that the study was unsuccessful at classifying all infants and therefore the process is incomplete
E:
