Ainsworth’s strange situation:Types of attachment -A-Level Psychology

Insecure-avoidant-A type of attachment which describes children who tend to avoid social interaction and intimacy with others

Insecure-resistant- a type of attachment which describes infants who both seek and reject intimacy and social interaction

Secure attachment- This is a strong  attachment of an infant to his or her caregiver.It is a result of  the sensitive response given by the caregiver to the infant’s needs.These infants are comfortable social interaction.It is related to healthy subsequent cognitive and emotional development.

Strange situation- a controlled observation designed to test attachment security

Key study:The Strange Situation

-Ainsworth et al (1971,1978) wanted to test the nature of attachment

Aim-To see how infants aged between 9 and 18 months behaved under conditions of mild stress and also novelty

Procedure:

-The research room was a 9×9 foot space marked into 16 squares to help record the infant’s movements.

-Their were 8 episodes,each of which highlighted certain behaviours.

-They key feature of these episodes was that the caregiver and stranger alternately stay with the infant or leave.

-Observations of the infant’s response to the following was made:

   -separation anxiety

   -reunion behaviour

   -stranger anxiety

   -the novel environment(which aimed to encourage exploration and test the secure base concept)

-Data was collected by observers using a video recorder or a one way mirror.They recorded what the child was doing every 15 seconds using behavior categories and scoring the intensity on a scale of 1-7.

Findings:

-Ainsworth combines several of her studies,in total 106-middle class infants were observed.Similarities and differences between the infants’ behaviour were noted.

-One similarity found was that exploratory behaviours declined in all infants from episode 2 onwards,whereas the amount of crying increased.

-From the differences,Ainsworth established 3 main patterns of behaviour the infants displayed

Insecure avoidant(type A)-refer to children who tend to avoid social interaction and intimacy with others.In the study,these types of children show little response to separation and don’t seek close proximity with their caregiver on reunion.Such children are happy to explore on their own.They are characterised by high levels of anxiousness.

Secure attachment(type B)-refers to those who have harmonious and cooperative interactions with their care giver.They are not likely to cry when the caregiver leaves the room.They show some distress when left with a stranger.If they are feeling anxious,they seek close bodily contact with their caregiver and can be calmed down quickly.They seek and are comfortable with social interaction and intimacy.The securely attached infant uses the caregiver as a secure base from which to explore and function independently.
Insecure resistant(type C)-refers to infants who both seek and reject intimacy and social interaction.When separated from their caregiver they show immediate and intense distress,this response is similar towards strangers.On reunion,they display conflicting desires for and against contact.

Evaluation:

Other types of attachment-Further research has found that Ainsworth et al’s analysis overlooked a 4th type of attachment called insecure-disorganised(type D),which is characterised by a lack of consistent patterns of social behaviour.Such infants lack a coherent strategy for dealing with the stress of separation.

Observations had high reliability-the findings were discussed with observers until they came to an agreement( inter-observer reliability).Ainsworth et al found .94 agreement between raters when  rating exploratory behaviour.

Real world application-Ainsworth’s findings led to intervention strategies to be developed e.g The  circle of security project which taught caregivers  to  better understand their infants signals of distress. This increased the amount of children classified as securely attached.This supports research on attachment types because such research can be used to improve children’s lives which is a strength.

Low internal validity-some children behaved differently depending on which parent they were with. This suggests that the classification of an attachment type may not be valid because what  was measured is one relationship rather than a personal characteristic lodged in the individual.