Types of Attachment and the 'Strange Situation'*

Question 1

List the three attachment types.

Answer 1

1) . Secure attatchment
2) . Insecure-Avoidant
3) . Insecure-Resistant

Question 2

Define a secure attachment.

Answer 2

• Moderate separation and stranger anxiety

- Joy on reunion

Question 3

Outline an insecure-avoidant attachment.

Answer 3

• Low stranger and separation anxiety

- The infant shows no joy on reunion

Question 4

Outline an insecure resistant attachment.

Answer 4

• High stranger and separation anxiety
• Seeking closeness and distance on reunion (e.g. they put their arms out to be picked up then immediately struggle to get down).
• Arises due to the mother’s ambivalence

Question 5

Briefly outline the procedure of Ainsworth’s strange situation study.

Answer 5

• Lab study
• Ages 3-18 months
• Each episode lasted 3 minutes
• During the course of the episode the mother and stranger would take turns coming in and out of the room and interacting with the child.
• Video recorded through a one-way mirror.

Question 6

Outline the set up of the Strange Situation.

Answer 6

Ainsworth wanted to study attachment type by observing infant responses to mildly stressful situations.

Controlled observation in a lab playroom (multiple researchers observing through one-way mirror - covert observation and high inter-observer reliability).

The strange situations consisted of 8 episodes which lasted 3 minutes each:

1) Stranger enters a room between mother and child.
2) Mother leaves the room.
3) Mother returns to the room.

Question 7

Give an advantage of the strange situation experiment.

Answer 7

Advantage:

• High inter-rater reliability - Bick et al. - 94% agreeance on behaviour elicited in the ‘strange situation’.
• Findings supported by Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg - found similar proportions of the attachment types (67, 21, 12%) - high concurrent validity - high reliability.
• High predictive validity - Myron-Wilson and Smith - insecure-resistant attachment is associated with negative outcomes - e.g. bullying in childhood.

Question 8

What were Ainsworth’s findings?

Answer 8

70% - Secure
20% - Insecure avoidant
10% - Insecure resistant

Question 9

Give a disadvantage to Ainsworth’s strange situation.

Answer 9

Disadvantages:
- Ethnocentric sample - US middle class infants and mothers - low population validity. 

• Takahashi - strange situation isn’t applicable in Japanese cultures as mothers are rarely separated from infants - culturally relative.
• Temperament hypothesis - Belski et al - Attachment is based on an infant’s innate temperament - the parents must be courageous to achieve a secure attachment in a ‘difficult’ child.
• Main and Soloman - proposed an insecure-disorganised attachment - supported by Van Ijzendoorn - 15% were insecure disorganised - Ainsworth’s theory is reductionist and unreliable.

Question 10

What is the fourth type of attachment, as suggested by Main and Soloman?

Answer 10

Insecure-disorganised.