AINSWORTH STRANGE SITUATION

AO1:
Procedure: Observation measurements: Findings:
 A controlled observation which aims to measure
the security of attachment that a child displays Proximity seeking TYPE B – Secure attachment (70%)
towards the caregiver  Whether or not a child seeks to stay fairly  These children have cooperative interactions
close to the caregiver with their caregivers
 Took place on 100 middle class American  Tend to explore happily but also regularly go
mothers and their children Exploration and secure base behaviour back to the caregiver as they are able to treat
 How well a child feels confident to explore, them as a secure base
 Took place in a controlled space with a one way using their caregiver as a secure base i.e.  They show mild distress on separation
mirror, which psychologists observed the infants point of contact that makes them feel safe  Require and accept comfort from the caregiver
over 8 episodes (each lasting 3 minutes) on reunion
Stranger anxiety
 How the infant displays signs of anxiety TYPE A – Insecure avoidant (20%)
when a stranger approaches  These children explore freely and avoids
intimacy and interactions with others
Separation anxiety  Do not proximity seek or show secure base-
 How the infant reacts when separated from behaviour
the caregiver  Show little or no reaction when the caregiver
leaves and makes little effort on reunion
Reunion behaviour  Free to interact with strangers and show little
 An infants reaction when the caregiver stranger anxiety
returns after a short period of separation
TYPE C – Insecure resistant (10%)
 These children seek and resist both intimacy
and social interactions
 Seek greater proximity than others and explore
less
 Show extreme stranger anxiety and separation
anxiety and resists the carer on reunion
 Also known as ambivalent attachment due to
the insecure nature of the child

AO2/AO3:
 Observations have high ー Methodology is culturally ー There are other types of existing ー Different attachments with
reliability biased attachments too different caregivers
P A strength of the strange P Researchers have claimed that P A weakness of strange situation is P A weakness of the strange
situation is that the observations the strange situation is a culture- that later research demonstrated situation is that infants may have
have high reliability bound test, as it does not apply that Ainsworth has not accounted different attachments with
E For example, observations such well to non-western countries for a key fourth type of different caregivers
as strange situation can be E For example, Takahashi noted attachment E For example, the strange
subjective and therefore having that the test does not work in E Main and Solomon analysed over situation aimed to measure the
high inter-rater reliability is Japan because Japanese mothers 200 strange situation tapes and attachment type of a child,
crucial research are rarely separated from their proposed a type D attachment: however researchers claim that it
E This is a strength as Ainsworth children. In this country a mother insecure-disorganised. This was is too focused on the one
found almost perfect agreement leaving her child with a stranger is characterised by a lack of relationship between the carer
when rating exploratory not a realistic day to day scenario consistent social behaviour and and the infant being assessed.
behaviour of the infants during E This is an issue as different attachment. These infants lacked Main and Weston found that
the observation – with a .94 childhood experiences mean a coherent strategy of dealing children behaved differently
agreement between the raters children from different cultures with stress of separation – they based on which parent they were
L This demonstrates that the react differently to the strange showed very strong attachment with
observation also had high situation, or care givers from which was suddenly followed by E Therefore, by just measuring a
reliability and there was almost these cultures behave differently avoidance or looking scared of child’s general attachment
unanimous agreement among the in such scenarios. The strange the caregiver tendencies, Ainsworth might have
observers about the behaviour of situation reflects the norms of E Since Ainsworth’s research did been just assessing the quality of
the infants American culture and does not not account for this attachment the relationship between that
consider differences in child her research on attachments one carer and the child
rearing practices in other cultures could be seen as lacking sufficient L Thus, reducing internal validity of
making it ethnocentric detail the experiment
L Therefore as the test cannot be L This reduces the validity of the
used to judge attachment cross- findings
culturally, this reduces its
effectiveness as a tool for
measuring attachment

NOTE: Only select the relevant AO1s (e.g. 2/3 points) and four evaluation points (AO2/AO3)