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STRANGE SITUATION - AINSWORTH - Coggle Diagram
STRANGE SITUATION - AINSWORTH
The Strange situation
Lab study using an observational technique put forward by Mary Ainsworth
Used to investigate the different types of attachments
Investigation involved 7 stages, each lasting 3 minutes
Stages involved the mother + a stranger entering + leaving a room where the infant was left to play with some toys
ETHICAL CONCERNS
It is a very stressful situation for infants - 20% cried desperately at 1 point
In some countries, such as Japan, the observations have had to be stopped due to high levels of distress
This is an ethical issue as it is inappropriate to inflict emotional harm on the subjects of a study
Observation - 4 behaviours were observed
Willingness to explore
- whether the infant sticks close to the mother or explore the surroundings
Stranger anxiety
- the infant's response to the presence of a stranger
Seperation anxiety
- the unease the infant shows when left by the caregiver
Reunion behaviour
- the way the caregiver was greeted on return
Results of the observation - 3 main attachment types
Secure
- children are distressed when their mother leaves + avoidnt of strangers when alone but friendly when the mother is present
Insecure resistant
- infants show signs of intense distress when the mother leaves + avoids the stranger, when the mother returns they will seek out the mother but then resist contact
Insecure avoidant
- infants show no sign of distress when the mother leaves + is fine in the presence of a stranger they show little interest when the mother returns
LACKS ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
It was conducted in an artificial environment + might not be generalised to other situations
It is possible that the anxiety infants show may just be due to being in an unfamiliar environment
This suggests the findings may not be applicable to the real world + we may find different results if they were in their natural environment
Good inter-rater reliability - Johanna Bick et al
Tested inter-rater reliability for the Strange situation for a team of trained observers + found agreement on attachment type in 94% of cases
This high level of reliability may be because behaviours (such as proximity-seeking + stranger anxiety) involve large movements + therefore easy to observe
E.g. anxious babies cry + crawl away from strangers
This means that we can be confident that attachment type as assessed by the strange situation does not depend on subjective judgements
High Internal Validity
Ainsworth controlled many factors within her experiment
E.g. same stranger for each child same amount of time with/without the child mothers behaviour was controlled, how much time with + without the child