Types of Attachment: Ainsworth's Strange Situation Flashcards
What is meant by secure and insecure attachment
-Secure and insecure are definitions for the type of attachment formed between mother and infant
-The assumption is that constant sensitive responding by the mother to the babies needs will result in a secure attachment and the lack of responsiveness will result in an insecure attachment
How is attachment measured?
-Ainsworth’s Strange situation (1971) was set up in order to describe and asses attachment types between mothers and infants
What was the aims of Ainsworth’s study?
-To see how infants aged 9-18 months behaved under conditions of mild stress
-The experiment was designed to become more stressful as it went on
-There were 3 situations the infant was left in
1) strange/unfamiliar environment
2) operated from caregiver
3) presence of a stranger
What were the procedures for the strange situations?
-Infants watched through video cameras in a purpose built lab playroom with mothers
-2 soft chairs, play area and suitable toys for infant
-Experiment was to measure the attachment relationship when the following happened:
1) reaction when separated from mother
2) reaction when reunited with mother
3) reaction to presence of a stranger
4) willingness to explore room (with mam/stranger/alone)
-Experiments lasted about 21 minutes
-Caregiver was usually mother
-Around 100 middle class American infants and mothers took part
What were the 8 episodes?
Episode 1. Caregiver, infant, observer
Time Present = 30 seconds
Activity = stranger shows parents and infant room then leaves
Episode 2. Caregiver, infant
Time Present = 3 minutes
Activity = Caregiver sits and watches infant explore and play
Episode 3. Stranger, caregiver, infant
Time Present = 3 minutes
Activity = Stranger re-enters and stays silent then talks to the mother then approaches the infant, after 3 minutes mother leaves room
Episode 4. Stranger, infant
Time Present = 3 minutes
Activity = 1st separation from caregiver and stranger interacts with infant
Episodes 5. Caregiver, infant
Time Present = 3 minutes
Activity = 1st reunion with parent and stranger leaves, parent settles child and gets them to play again then says “bye-bye”
Episode 6. Infant alone
Time Present = 3 minutes
Activity = 2nd separation and infant is just left alone
Episode 7. Infant, stranger
Time Present = 3 minutes
Activity = Stranger comes back and tries to play again with infant
Episode 8. Caregiver, infant
Time Present = 3 minutes
Activity = 2nd reunion , caregiver re-enters greets infant and picks infant up and leaves quietly
What were the findings?
Ainsworth classified infants into 3 broad groups:
Type B (securely attached) 70%
-Babies used their mothers as safe base and happy to explore and showed distress when she left
-Welcomed back with open arms and wary of the stranger and treat them very differently
Type A (insecure Avoidant) 15%
-Babies did not ASK CLIFFDOG (orientate) towards mother
-Weren’t concerned by mother leaving room and didn’t want her when she returned
-Didn’t want the strangers attempt at comfort
-Noticed that the mothers didn’t ignore their infants
Type C (Insecure resistant) 15%
-Showed intense distress when mother was absent and not easily comforted
-When mother returned infant was very upset and angry and did not want comforted
-Showed mixed feelings towards stranger
-Mothers also showed mixed feelings towards infants
What were the conclusions?
-Showed significant individual differences between infants
-Shows Americans are securely attached
-Clear distinction that the way mothers interact with infant determine the infants attachment type to their mother
-More responsive mothers had secure attachments and those mothers who ignored infant had either type C or A attachments
What are some criticisms of Ainsworth’s study?
-Kagan, said Ainsworth placed too much stress on the mother and ignored the babies temperament
-A study included 138 American babies and found 3 basic temperament types
*Easy babies = ate, slept regularly and accepted new situations
*Slow to warm up = took a while to get used to new experiences but did not reject them
*Difficult babies = ate, slept irregularly and actively rejected new experiences
-Can be argued this determines attachment types
What are 2 strengths?
Strange situation technique is very useful and influential
-The study has become a very basic way of investigating this topic
-Used widely across the world in order to obtain results for other cultures. This is a strength as it shows it is easily replicable and provides benchmark data
-Controlled objective conditions
The studies replicability and controlled features have led to it being used widely across the world as a means of testing attachment supporting her
High in reliability
-The reliability of observations is important as measurements are confirmed as reliable bcos of the agreement amongst observers all watching the same episode
-Inter-rater reliability supports the use of the test and that ir does measure what it claims to measure accurately
-Ainsworth found almost perfect 94% agreement when using trained observers
Observations can be accepted as reliable and accurate and thus, making the study highly reliable and supporting her
What are 2 weaknesses?
Problems with Ethnocentrism
-Doubt as to whether the strange situation is ethnocentric in nature and ‘culture bound’
-Is it focused on 1 culture USA and won’t have same meaning in West Europe
-Cultural differences may effect children’s reactions to the strange situation
-Caregivers are different across cultures
-Takashi noted the test does not work in Japan as Japanese mothers are very rarely separated from their mothers and when the baby cried the mother wanted to pick them up straight away
For this reason we need to be careful when using the strange situation as the whole episode were based around USA norms and may not be a valid measure of attachment
Demand Characteristics
-Due to artificial natures the parents may have changed their behaviour knowing they were being observed
-May have been more nurturing and caring and showing behaviours they believed the observers wanted to see
This has a knock on effect for the child’s behaviour reducing the validity of the findings
