Types of attachment Flashcards
what was the aim of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
aimed to be able to observe key attachment behaviours as a means of assessing the quality of a child’s attachment to a caregiver
what was the procedure of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
- controlled observation
- in a room with controlled conditions (i.e laboratory)
- with a two way mirror where psychologists can observe the infants behaviour
- seven episodes that last 3 minutes
what behaviours did they use to judge attachment in Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
- proximity seeking
- exploration and secure base behaviour
- stranger anxiety
- separation anxiety
- response to reunion
what is proximity seeking in Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
an infant with a good attachment will stay fairly close to the caregiver
what is exploration and secure-base behaviour in Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
good attachment enables a child to feel confident to explore, using the caregiver as a security base
what are the seven episodes in Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
1- child encouraged to explore 2- stranger comes in and tries to interact with child 3- caregiver leaves 4- caregiver returns and stranger leaves 5- caregiver leaves child alone 6- stranger returns 7- caregiver returns
what were the findings of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
-found there were distinct patterns in the way that infants behaved and identified three main types of attachment
what are the three main types of attachment that Ainsworth found
- secure attachment
- insecure-resistant
- insecure-avoidant
what are the behaviours in secure attachment found by Ainsworth
- secure happily and regularly go back to caregiver
- moderate separation anxiety and stranger anxiety
- require and accept comfort from caregiver in reunion stage
how many toddlers are securely attached
60-75%
what are the behaviours in insecure-avoidant found by Ainsworth
- explore freely but do not seek proximity or show secure base behaviour
- little or no reaction the caregiver leaves
- make little effort to make contact when caregiver returns
- little or no stranger anxiety
- do not require comfort at reunion stage
how many toddlers are insecure-avoidant
20-25%
what are the behaviours in insecure-resistant found by Ainsworth
- seek greater proximity than others so explore less
- huge stranger and separation anxiety
- resist comfort when reunited with carer
how many toddlers are insecure-resistant
3% of British toddlers
what is the strange situation
a controlled observation designed to test attachment security where infants are assessed on their response to playing in an unfamiliar room, being left alone, left with a stranger and reunited with a caregiver
what are evaluation points for Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
- support for validity
- good inter-rater reliability
- test may be culture bound
what are the evaluation points for Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
- support for validity
- good inter-rater reliability
- test may be culture bound
what is an evaluation point for Ainsworth’s Strange Situation(validity)
- it is predictive of later development and can explain subsequent outcomes
- babies assessed as secure typically go on to have better outcomes in many areas such as success in school and relationships
- e.g. Kokkinos found insecure- resistant attachment is associated with the worse outcomes including bullying in later childhood
what is an evaluation point for Ainsworth’s Strange Situation(good inter-reliability)
- different observers watching the same children in strange situation generally agree on what type of attachment they are
- maybe because of the controlled observations and behavioural categories were easy to observe
- e.g. Bick et al looked at inter-rater reliability in a team of trained strange situation observers and found agreement on 94% of tested babies
what is an evaluation point for Ainsworth’s Strange Situation(culture bound)
- it does not have the same meaning in countries outside western Europe and USA
- firstly, cultural differences in childhood experiences mean the child responds differently
- secondly, caregivers from different cultures behave differently
- e.g. Takashi found the test doesn’t work in Japan because Japanese mothers are rarely separated from their babies so there are high levels of separation anxiety and at the reunion stage mothers scooped up the babies so it was hard to see behaviour from the infant
what was the main similarity Ainsworth found
exploratory behaviour declined in all infants from episode 2, after the stranger entered and the crying increased at this point
