Attachment - The Strange Situation

The Strange Situation was conducted by Ainsworth and Bell to determine attachment types in infants.

100 American middle-class infants and their mothers were used. Controlled observation was used to determine children's separation behaviour, reunion behaviour, willingness to explore and stranger anxiety.

Procedure

1) Mother and child are introduced to the room.
2) Mother and child are left alone to investigate the room.
3) A stranger enters the room and attempts to play with the child.
4) Mother leaves and the stranger interacts with the child.
5) Mother comes to comfort child.
6) Child is left alone.
7) Stranger returns and engages with child.
8) Mother returns and stranger leaves.

Three types of attachment were found.

Type A - Insecure- avoidant - Babies did not show distress on separation nor comfort on reunion. 22%

Type B - Secure - Babies were distressed on separation but comforted and happy upon reunion. 66%

Type C - Insecure-resistant - Babies were extremely distressed on separation but often rejected comfort on reunion and continued to be distressed.

Evaluation

+ Easy to replicate - makes the study reliable.
+ Efficient - it could measure a lot of behaviours quite quickly and bring in lots of participants.

- Ethical issues - distress
- Ecological validity - ethnocentric
- Population validity
- External Validity