Types of attachment Flashcards
What are the 3 types of attachment?
-Ainsworth
-secure attachment
-Insecure attachment
-insecure resistant
Which study measures types of attachment?
Ainsworths strange situation
What did Ainsworth say?
The way an infant behaves towards an attachment figure reflects the type of attachment bond
Describe the procedure of Ainsworths study
Observation in controlled environment (unfamiliar room)
Children aged 9-18 months in US put in strange sit; Mother and baby played for 3 min, stranger enters for 3 min, mother leaves for 3 min, mother returned for 3 min.
Children observed to see how they react
What 5 behavioral categories did Ainsworth record the child’s response to?
- Proximity seeking to caregiver
- Using parent as secure base
- accepting comfort from stranger
- seperation anxiety
- response to being reunited
-each category rated on scale 0-7
-analysis of observations leads to infants type of attachment
Define secure attachment
-Explore happily, but go back to mothers regularly.
-Moderate stranger and seperation anxiety
-Accept comfort from the caregiver
Define insecure avoidant
-Explore freely but don’t seek a secure base
-No reaction when the mother leaves
-No effort to contact mother when she returns
Define insecure resistant
-Explore less and seek greater proximity than others
-High levels of stranger and separation anxiety
-Refuse comfort from mother
What were the findings of Ainsworth’s study?
66% had secure attachment
22% were insecure avoidant
12% were insecure resistant
Which attachment type is linked to the worst outcomes
Insecure resistant- they’re more likely to get divorced and more likely to become jealous and clingy later in life
Give 2 strengths of Ainsworth’s strange situation study
-High validity
-Good reliability
Explain how the strange situation had high validity
-good at measuring types of attachment
-good at predicting outcomes therefore were able to predict future outcomes of children based on attachment type which suggests it is an accurate measure of attachment.
-EG securely attached children more likely to have secure romantic relationships
Give a counter to the strange situation having high validity
Is the study actually measuring attachment type or temperament?
-some children may just be shy and therefore appear resistant but they actually have a secure attachment
-some may appear avoidant but are actually securely attached
Explain how the strange situation had good reliability
-shows inter-observer reliability (observers agree on which attachment type child is)
…because the study has clear behavioral categories which are easy to observe.
-The study is done under a controlled environment meaning extraneous variables are reduced and the study can be replicated under the same conditions
Give another limitation of the strange situation study
Maybe culture-bound
-The SS may not have the same meaning when used to measure attachment in other cultures outside the USA.
-Children in other cultures may respond differently so they may appear insecure when they’re actually secure
Give an example of how the strange situation may be culture-bound
Children in Japan rarely separate from their mothers in the first year so may appear insecure and resistant when they actually may be just anxious or confused as they’ve never been in this situation before
Describe Vans study
Conducted meta-analysis of 32 studies in 8 countries that all used the strange situation to measure attachment type
Describe the findings of the Vans study
-Secure attachment most common in all countries
-China has the lowest amount of secure attachments (50%) and Britain has the highest (75%)
-Isreal and Japan had the highest amounts of insecure resistant
-Germany has the highest amounts of insecure-avoidant (33%)
-More variation within each country than between countries
Why might German children have higher levels of insecure-avoidant?
Because they’re generally raised to be independent so may appear to be avoidant but may actually be securely attached
Why might Japan have higher levels of insecure resistance?
Children in Japan rarely separated from mothers in 1st year so may appear clingy and resistant but may be securely attached
Why might UK have higher levels of secure attachment?
Children in the UK are raised in a similar way to USA- they used to being regularly separated from caregiver so SS not too distressing for them
Give a strength of vans study
He used large samples (32 studies, 8 countries, and 2000 babies) therefore the sample is representative, increasing the usefulness of the research
Give a limitation of Vans study
Samples may not be representative of the whole culture (in Japan mainly rural communities were used)
What did Simonella find?
Lower levels of secure attachment in italy than other studies with the SS
What did Jin find?
Higher levels of insecure resistant in Korea compared to other countries
