AINSWORTH’S STRANGE SITUATION: TYPES OF ATTACHMENT
DESCRIPTION (AO1)
Ainsworth devised the strange situation to be able to systematically test the nature of attachment.
AIM:
To see how infants (aged btn 9 and 18 months) behave under conditions of mild stress.
PROCEDURE:
Child and mother were placed in a novel environment of mild stress.
There were 8 episodes, each designed to highlight certain behaviours:
1. Parent and infant play
2. Parent sits whilst infant plays
3. Stranger enters and talks to parent
4. Parent leaves, infant plays, stranger offers comfort if needed.
5. Parent returns, greets infant, offers comfort if needed, stranger leaves.
6. Parent leaves, infant alone
7. Stranger enters and offers comfort
8. Parent returns, greets infant, offers comfort.
Ainsworth was assessing 4 main behaviours during the experiment:
Exploration behaviour and Use of parent as a safe base
Stranger anxiety
Separation anxiety
Reunion behaviour
FINDINGS:
Ainsworth found distinct patterns in the way infants behaved. She identified 3 main types of attachment:
15% INSECURE-AVOIDANT ATTACHMENT (TYPE A)
Child explores freely but doesn’t seek proximity (no secure base)
Shows little/no separation and stranger anxiety.
Doesn’t require comfort at reunion stage.
70% SECURE ATTACHMENT (TYPE B)
Child happy to explore but seeks proximity with caregiver (secure base)
Shows moderate separation anxiety and stranger anxiety.
Requires and accepts comfort from caregiver on reunion.
15% INSECURE-RESISTANT ATTACHMENT (TYPE C)
Child explores less and seeks greater proximity (wants to be close to parent).
Shows considerable stranger and separation anxiety.
Resists comfort when reunited with caregiver.
, EVALUATION OF AINSWORTH’S STRANGE SITUATION (AO3)
STRENGTHS
APPLICABLE AND GOOD INTER-RATER RELIABILITY
Different observers watching the same children generally agree on attachment type. Bick et al.
found 94% agreement on one team.
This may be because the strange situation takes place under controlled conditions and because the
behavioural categories are easy to observe.
So we can be confident that the attachment type of an infant identified in the strange situation
doesn’t just depend on who is observing them – increase reliability of results.
Methodology is easy to replicate, which can lead to a substantial amount of research examining
variations in attachment, within and between cultures.
LIMITATIONS
PROCEDURE WAS CULTURALLY BIASED (ETHNOCENTRIC) – LOW POPULATION VALIDITY
The SS was designed by an American according to observations of US children.
Consequently, the criteria used to classify infants are based on US values, relating to child-parent
behaviour.
It could be argued that this is Eurocentric, so observations of non-Americans will be judged
according to American standards.
A major methodological criticism of Ainsworth’s research is that the sample was restricted to 100
middle class Americans & their infants, so it is unlikely that findings would be representative of the
wider population.
LOW ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
Some critics argue that the SS study lacks validity due to the unfamiliar nature of the playroom,
which wasn’t the child’s home.
A lab setting which is unnatural to the child can alter their behaviour and therefore reduce the
validity of the observations and results.
TEMPERAMENT MAY BE A CONFOUNDING VARIABLE
Ainsworth assumed that the main influence on separation and strange anxiety was the quality of
the attachment.
But Kagan suggests that temperament (the child’s genetically influenced personality) is a more
important influence on behaviour in the SS.
This challenges the validity of the SS because its intention is to measure the quality of attachment,
not the temperament of the child – confounding variable.
ANIMAL STUDIES OF ATTACHMENT - LORENZ
, DESCRIPTION (AO1)
KEY STUDY 1: LORENZ (1952) IMPRINTING
PROCEDURE:
Lorenz randomly divided 12 goose eggs, half hatched with the mother goose in their
natural environment and the other half hatched in an incubator where the first
moving object they saw was Lorenz.
Mixed all goslings together to see who they would follow.
FINDINGS:
Incubator group followed Lorenz, control group followed the mother.
Incubator group formed a rapid attachment to Lorenz.
CONCLUSIONS:
Lorenz called the formation of rapid attachment ‘imprinting’, which is the tendency
to form an attachment to the first large moving object seen after birth.
He found that the strongest tendency to imprint takes place between 13-16 hours
after hatching (critical period). If imprinting didn’t occur within that time, chicks
didn’t attach themselves to the mother figure.
Sexual Imprinting also occurs whereby the birds acquire a template of the desirable
characteristics required in a mate.
EVALUATION OF ANIMAL STUDIES OF ATTACHMENT - LORENZ (AO3)
DESCRIPTION (AO1)
Ainsworth devised the strange situation to be able to systematically test the nature of attachment.
AIM:
To see how infants (aged btn 9 and 18 months) behave under conditions of mild stress.
PROCEDURE:
Child and mother were placed in a novel environment of mild stress.
There were 8 episodes, each designed to highlight certain behaviours:
1. Parent and infant play
2. Parent sits whilst infant plays
3. Stranger enters and talks to parent
4. Parent leaves, infant plays, stranger offers comfort if needed.
5. Parent returns, greets infant, offers comfort if needed, stranger leaves.
6. Parent leaves, infant alone
7. Stranger enters and offers comfort
8. Parent returns, greets infant, offers comfort.
Ainsworth was assessing 4 main behaviours during the experiment:
Exploration behaviour and Use of parent as a safe base
Stranger anxiety
Separation anxiety
Reunion behaviour
FINDINGS:
Ainsworth found distinct patterns in the way infants behaved. She identified 3 main types of attachment:
15% INSECURE-AVOIDANT ATTACHMENT (TYPE A)
Child explores freely but doesn’t seek proximity (no secure base)
Shows little/no separation and stranger anxiety.
Doesn’t require comfort at reunion stage.
70% SECURE ATTACHMENT (TYPE B)
Child happy to explore but seeks proximity with caregiver (secure base)
Shows moderate separation anxiety and stranger anxiety.
Requires and accepts comfort from caregiver on reunion.
15% INSECURE-RESISTANT ATTACHMENT (TYPE C)
Child explores less and seeks greater proximity (wants to be close to parent).
Shows considerable stranger and separation anxiety.
Resists comfort when reunited with caregiver.
, EVALUATION OF AINSWORTH’S STRANGE SITUATION (AO3)
STRENGTHS
APPLICABLE AND GOOD INTER-RATER RELIABILITY
Different observers watching the same children generally agree on attachment type. Bick et al.
found 94% agreement on one team.
This may be because the strange situation takes place under controlled conditions and because the
behavioural categories are easy to observe.
So we can be confident that the attachment type of an infant identified in the strange situation
doesn’t just depend on who is observing them – increase reliability of results.
Methodology is easy to replicate, which can lead to a substantial amount of research examining
variations in attachment, within and between cultures.
LIMITATIONS
PROCEDURE WAS CULTURALLY BIASED (ETHNOCENTRIC) – LOW POPULATION VALIDITY
The SS was designed by an American according to observations of US children.
Consequently, the criteria used to classify infants are based on US values, relating to child-parent
behaviour.
It could be argued that this is Eurocentric, so observations of non-Americans will be judged
according to American standards.
A major methodological criticism of Ainsworth’s research is that the sample was restricted to 100
middle class Americans & their infants, so it is unlikely that findings would be representative of the
wider population.
LOW ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
Some critics argue that the SS study lacks validity due to the unfamiliar nature of the playroom,
which wasn’t the child’s home.
A lab setting which is unnatural to the child can alter their behaviour and therefore reduce the
validity of the observations and results.
TEMPERAMENT MAY BE A CONFOUNDING VARIABLE
Ainsworth assumed that the main influence on separation and strange anxiety was the quality of
the attachment.
But Kagan suggests that temperament (the child’s genetically influenced personality) is a more
important influence on behaviour in the SS.
This challenges the validity of the SS because its intention is to measure the quality of attachment,
not the temperament of the child – confounding variable.
ANIMAL STUDIES OF ATTACHMENT - LORENZ
, DESCRIPTION (AO1)
KEY STUDY 1: LORENZ (1952) IMPRINTING
PROCEDURE:
Lorenz randomly divided 12 goose eggs, half hatched with the mother goose in their
natural environment and the other half hatched in an incubator where the first
moving object they saw was Lorenz.
Mixed all goslings together to see who they would follow.
FINDINGS:
Incubator group followed Lorenz, control group followed the mother.
Incubator group formed a rapid attachment to Lorenz.
CONCLUSIONS:
Lorenz called the formation of rapid attachment ‘imprinting’, which is the tendency
to form an attachment to the first large moving object seen after birth.
He found that the strongest tendency to imprint takes place between 13-16 hours
after hatching (critical period). If imprinting didn’t occur within that time, chicks
didn’t attach themselves to the mother figure.
Sexual Imprinting also occurs whereby the birds acquire a template of the desirable
characteristics required in a mate.
EVALUATION OF ANIMAL STUDIES OF ATTACHMENT - LORENZ (AO3)
