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Ainsworth's Strange Situation - Coggle Diagram
Ainsworth's Strange Situation
Evaluation
Validity
Study between infant and mother who brought them.
Mother may not have been the primary caregiver/ attachment figure.
The study doesn't necessarily always measure primary attachment as the aim suggests.
Culture
Infants in different cultures may react in different ways
Psychologists during the studies differ in opinion on what type of attachment to class each infant as.
Methodological
Lab setting - allowed Ainsworth to control the variables within the study.
Lacked realism - in real life, the parent wouldn't normally leave their child with a stranger for a long period of time.
Lab setting - not show genuine reaction to a more realistic situation of stranger/separation anxiety.
Can be easily repeated in other labs across the world.
Ethics
Child left with stranger for extended period of time on more than one occasion in an unfamiliar setting.
infant left crying and unable to be comforted for a long time, this caused considerable distress and could be considered cruel and unethical.
Procedure
Novel setting - infant and mother put in unfamiliar setting to play.
Stranger enters room to interact with infant then mother leaves as the stranger tries to comfort infant.
Mother returns and stranger leaves. The child is comforted at the reunion.
Mother leaves again so the infant is left alone.
Stranger enters and tries to comfort infant again.
Stranger leaves and mother returns, there is a second reunion and the infant is comforted.
Findings
Type A - Insecure Ambivalent - 22%
AKA Insecure - resistant. Infants seek and reject intimacy. Often upset when caregiver leaves but will not necessarily reach for the caregiver in happiness upon return. May resist being picked up etc.
Type B - Secure Attachment - 66%
Upset and distressed when caregiver leaves but happy and enthusiastic upon their return.
Type C - Insecure Avoidant - 12%
Shows lack of distress when caregiver leaves and is unbothered by stranger or return of caregiver.
Aim and behaviours
Ainsworth was one of Bowlby's students, the lab study and observation was conducted with a two-way mirror.
Aim - to see how infants aged between 9 and 18 months reacted and behaved under conditions of mild stress and novelty.
Looked for exploratory behaviours such as using mother as a secure base to return to; proximity seeking; stranger anxiety; separation anxiety; and reunion behaviour.