SPECIFICATION: Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’. Types of attachment: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant.

Mary Ainsworth

Key Study: The Strange Situation 1971 / 1978

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Mary Ainsworth and John Bowlby knew each other and were even friends. Her attachment research considerably influenced Bowlby’s attachment theory as they shared their notes and research findings from different studies.

While Bowlby was more concerned about the universality of attachment, Ainsworth wanted to understand individual differences better and try categorising these.

The Strange Situation Study 1971 – 1978

Ainsworth’s strange situation was devised to assess how securely attached infants between the ages of 9 and 18 months were to their caregivers. There were seven episodes each lasting approximately 3 minutes some of which placed the infants in conditions of mild stress in unfamiliar settings to observe their reaction. The seven episodes were:

1. The caregiver enters a room places the child on the floor and sits on a chair. The caregiver does not interact with the child unless the infant seeks attention.

2. The stranger enters the room, talks to the caregiver and then approaches the child with a toy.

3. The caregiver exits the room. If the infant plays, the stranger observes without interruption. If the child is passive, the stranger attempts to interest them in the toy. If they show distress, the stranger attempts to comfort them.

4. The caregiver returns while the stranger then leaves.

5. Once the infant begins to play again, the caregiver may leave the room, leaving the child alone briefly.

6. The stranger enters the room again and repeats the behaviours mentioned in step 3 (observing, engaging and comforting as needed).

7. The stranger leaves, and the caregiver returns.

The “strange situation” places the child in a mildly stressful situation to observe four different types of behaviour, which are separation anxiety, stranger anxiety, willingness to explore and reunion behaviour with the caregiver. From this study, Ainsworth identified three types of attachments.

Secure attachment: infants show some anxiety when the caregiver leaves but are easily soothed and happy when reunited with their caregiver. Such children can play independently but return to the caregiver for reassurance, using them as a safe base to explore their environment. They are seen to be comfortable with social interaction and intimacy (closeness).

Insecure-avoidant children show indifference to their caregiver leaving the room and do not show anxiety. They may show frustration and anger at their attachment needs not being met. When the caregiver returns, they may actively avoid contact with them. Such children may explore the room even without the caregiver present and play independently.

The Insecure-resistant attachment style (also known as ambivalent) see’s infants become distressed as the caregiver leaves and rush to them when they return however their behaviour is characterized by seeking and rejecting social interaction and intimacy at the same time. They may not be consoled so easily and explore the environment less than other children.

EVALUATION OF THE STRANGE SITUATION RESEARCH STUDY

One major criticism of the strange situation study is that it only measured the relationship type with one of the primary attachment figures, usually their mothers. In some cases the child was more attached to the father and the study has wrongly assumed children may be simply closer to the mother. Therefore the study may lack internal validity as it may not be measuring attachment styles with the primary caregiver in some cases skewing the results.

Also, criticisms and ethical issues arise in putting children through such stressful situations as they were intentionally emotionally harmed. 20% of children cried desperately at one point highlighting how it is ethically inappropriate to deliberately inflict such emotional harm which goes against psychological ethical guidelines.

The strange situation was based primarily on western culture and may suffer from cultural bias with the study lacking population validity when generalising across different cultures. Therefore the findings and conclusions may only apply to the western society.

The study was also seen to lack ecological validity as it was conducted within a laboratory setting. The results from this controlled setting may not generalise to real-world settings as attachment behaviour may differ.

The benefit of this study was that it allowed researchers to replicate the study to test the reliability of findings, which is a strength of this laboratory study. It also allowed researchers to control for extraneous variables that may impact results, giving greater control too.

A longitudinal study by Main et al. assessed children’s attachment types in Ainsworth’s strange situation before the age of 18 months with both parents and retested them at six years old. Results found considerable consistency in attachment, with 100% of those classed secure as infants re-classified the same again and 75% of avoidant babies re-classified again at age 6. This shows how attachment types are consistent for the most part but also highlights the role of nurture and the environment with those infants who were reclassified differently, suggesting the environment can also play a mitigating factor.

There is also evidence of another attachment type, which Ainsworth’s research has ignored. Main and Solomon (1986) found that a fourth attachment type, known as insecure-disorganised, may exist. Observing over 200 strange situation recordings they found this attachment type was characterized by a lack of any consistent patterns of social behaviour with infants not displaying any consistent attachment type. Some struggled with any coherent strategy for dealing with the stress of separation, which was characterized by separation anxiety when their caregiver leaves but also then an avoidant/ fearful attitude towards them on their return. This suggests Ainsworth’s research did not offer a complete explanation of attachment nor explain how or why these differences in attachment form.

Understanding attachment behaviour has real-world application that can help improve children and their caregivers' relationships, leading to more successful secure relationships in adulthood. Intervention strategies such as the Circle of security projects (Cooper et al. 2005) teach caregivers to be responsive to the distress signals infants give off and their understanding of the anxiety children feel. This study was found that those classed as disordered decreased from 60% to 15% and those classed as securely attached increased from 32% to 40%. Therefore, attachment research can be used to improve the lives of children and parenting skills.

Mary Ainsworth’s research into attachment still forms the basis of our understanding today and continues to influence society and its makeup across several sectors.

POSSIBLE EXAMINATION QUESTIONS FOR THE STRANGE SITUATION

• Outline and explain one form of attachment (2 marks)

• Outline the Strange Situation procedure (4 marks)

• Explain one limitation of using the Strange Situation to investigate attachment (3 marks)

• Outline and evaluate the Strange Situation (12 marks AS, 16 marks A-leveA question into Ainsworth’s strange situation is almost certainly going to ask something along the lines of “discuss/outline research into” or “research findings”. Read the question carefully - If it asks for “research into Ainsworths strange situation” (or something very similar) then you can use this complete essay. However if it asks for research findings then obviously do not outline the procedure as it will not score marks. They will usually shape the question so that the marks will be lower accordingly if you are not asked for the whole essay and a part of it (findings only, for example). However, creating and learning a full essay will cover all your bases and prepare you for any variation.