Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’ & Types of Attachment (AQA A Level Psychology): Revision Note

Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’

• Mary Ainsworth et al. (1971) devised the Strange Situation to observe the quality of attachment in infants to their caregiver

• Procedure:

  • A research room was used that was marked into a grid of 16 squares so the infant's movements could be recorded

  • 106 middle-class infants were observed

  • Eight episodes, of three minutes, were designed to assess the behaviour of the infant

  • A group of observers collected data using a one-way mirror and video camera

  • The infant's behaviour was observed in relation to

    • separation from the caregiver: separation anxiety

    • reunion with the caregiver: reunion behaviour

    • response to a stranger: stranger anxiety

    • a novel experiment of exploration from a secure base

  • The infant's behaviour was then split into five behavioural categories and scored for intensity using a 1-7 scale

    • Proximity and contact-seeking behaviour, e.g. reaching for the caregiver, moving toward them, climbing up onto the caregiver

    • Contact-maintaining behaviour, e.g. holding and clinging to the caregiver

    • Proximity and contact-avoiding behaviour, e.g. avoiding or ignoring the caregiver

    • Contact and interaction-resisting behaviour, e.g. wriggling to be put down, rejecting attempts of play or comfort

    • Searching behaviours, e.g. following the caregiver, keeping focus on the door the caregiver left through, trying to open the door

Types of attachment: secure, insecure-avoidant & insecure-resistant

• Findings of the Strange Situation were organised by Ainsworth into three main attachment styles

  • Secure attachment (type B)

    • Infants show proximity-seeking and secure-base behaviour toward their caregiver

    • Moderate separation and stranger anxiety behaviour are seen

    • Reunion behaviour is positive as infant seeks comfort from the caregiver

  • Insecure-avoidant (type A):

    • Infants do not show proximity-seeking or secure-base behaviour

    • Little or no separation anxiety in response to caregivers leaving and little or no stranger anxiety is observed

    • Infants do not make an effort to seek a caregiver upon reunion; avoidance of caregiver is observed

  • Insecure-resistant (type C):

    • Infants show increased levels of proximity-seeking behaviour

    • High levels of stranger anxiety and separation anxiety

    • Infants seek and resist comfort when reunited with their caregivers

Evaluation

Strengths

• The findings of Ainsworth's observations show good predictive validity for children's later development

  • Infants and toddlers assessed as securely attached (type B) tend to have better outcomes later in life (such as education and relationships) than children assessed as insecure-avoidant (type A) or insecure-resistant (type C)

  • Securely attached infants tend to have better mental health than those of type A and type C

  • This suggests that the types of attachment developed by Ainsworth are real and this shows high validity in this study

• The Strange Situation shows good inter-rater reliability

  • Agreement was found in the observations of attachment types in 94% of cases

  • This high level of agreement may be because the research was carried out in controlled conditions

  • Good inter-rater reliability gives confidence that the attachment types assessed by the Strange Situation are not subjective

Limitations

• The research was carried out on middle-class infants in Western Europe and the USA

  • The Strange Situation is therefore culture-bound: it was developed in the UK and the USA and may only apply to these cultures

  • A Japanese study found that a high number of babies displayed insecure-resistant attachment, suggesting that the experiment cannot be applied to other cultures

  • Thus, the original study lacks generalisability and is prone to culture bias

• The observation set up by Ainsworth lacks ecological validity

  • Infants were placed in a strange and artificial environment

  • The episodes that took place are unlikely to happen in a real-life scenario

  • This means that the infant's attachment behaviours may not be activated due to the artificial environment

  • The consequence of this is that some infants may be wrongly classified, reducing the validity of the findings