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The Strange Situation FINDINGS Mary Ainsworth [1978]

The AIM of this research was to see how infants [9-18 months] behaved under mild stress and anxiety. Stress was created by using the presence of a stranger and separation from the care giver. This allowed researchers to test for STRANGER ANXIETY and SEPARATION ANXIETY. The novel situation was created not only by the strange environment within which the infant was placed, but also by the encouragement of exploration. This enabled the SECURE BASE to be tested.

BEHAVIOURS Willingness to explore Stranger anxiety Separation anxiety Reunion Behaviour % of infants Characteristics

SECURE ATTACHMENT [TYPE B] High High Some easy to soothe Enthusiastic 66% Positive interaction with c/giver Not likely to cry if c/giver leaves Seeks/comfortable with social contact Secure base Function independently High Low Indifferent Avoidant 22% -

INSECURE AVOIDANT [TYPE A]

INSECURE RESISTANT [TYPE C] Low High Distressed Seeking/Rejecting 12% Ambivalent [Positive/negative feelings towards the same person] Seek and reject intimacy Seek and reject social interaction Immediate distress upon separation Upon reunion there are conflicting desires for/against contact Angry, resistant yet trying to maintain contact

Anxious type of attachment Little response if c/giver leaves Avoids social contact with others Does not seek proximity of c/giver upon return Happy to explore with or without the c/givers presence High levels of anxiousness No tendency to cling or resist being put down Angry because attachment needs are not being met

Maternal Sensitivity Hypothesis [The individual differences in attachment are due mainly to the sensitivity of the mother

Caregivers: Were very sensitive to the needs of the infant Responded to the infant in an emotionally expressive way [gave them lots of cuddles and spent time talking to them]

Caregivers: Uninterested in the infant Self centred and rigid in their behaviour, not varying it according to the childs needs

Caregivers: Interested in the infant but misunderstood their behaviour Varied in the way they treated their infant and so the infant couldnt rely on the caregivers emotional support

The Strange Situation FINDINGS Mary Ainsworth [1978]

De Woff and van Ijzendoorn [1997] carried out a Meta analysis across many cultures and found a positive [but fairly weak] correlation between maternal sensitivity and security of infant attachment. They found that as well as sensitivity, the amount of interaction between caregiver and baby and the expression of positive emotion by the caregiver were important. EVALUATION:

A weakness of Ainsworths research demonstrated by the fourth attachment type which was introduced by Main and Solomon [1986], this being THE INSECURE DISORGANISED attachment. They found that a small number of infants displayed disorganised attachment, in which the infants showed no consistent pattern of behaviour and fitted none of the three main attachments. However, Main and Solomon accepted the validity of the three types identified by Ainsworth Further to this Ainsworth and Bell [1970] put infants into 3 categories. This oversimplifies matters because infants within any given category differ from each other in their attachment behaviour. For example, two infants may be classified as showing avoidant attachment, but one might display much more avoidant behaviour than the other Additionally the research method used by Ainsworth, controlled observation, may be subject to observer bias. This is a weakness of this method because interpretations of the behaviour being viewed may be subjective. Additionally the behaviour of the subjects being observed may be affected because they know they are being observed. This lowers the ecological validity of this research as it does not reflect the usual everyday behaviour between infants and caregivers However, the research method used has however been useful and it gives a great deal of information in a relatively short space of time about babies attachments and it does provide a good measure of attachment that differentiates between different attachment types. Further to this the methodology is quite easy to replicate and this led to a rapid increase in the amount of research carried out into variations in attachment both within and between cultures. A final weakness of the Strange Situation is that it was developed in the USA and so may be culturally biased, therefore the findings cannot be generalised. Behaviour that is regarded as healthy in the USA may not be regarded as healthy elsewhere in the world. However, the research that comes from these studies clearly shows that secure attachment is the preferred type in terms of healthy social and emotional development.

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