AQA A Level Psychology复习笔记3.4.1 Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’

Ainsworth's strange situation

This is a lab observation designed to measure the quality of attachment and the differences in attachment styles in infants.

Ainsworth wanted to measure attachment styles in a controlled way and so devised a technique known as 'The Strange Situation.

In 1970 Ainsworth and Bell observed 100 middle-class infants from a US University nursery.

Procedure

A standardised room was used containing chairs, toys and a one-way mirror so the psychologists could film and observe without being seen

The room was standardised in that the furniture and toys were always in the same place and all participants had exactly the same layout

Only mothers were used as the Primary Care Giver (PCG) in this version

The mother and infant are left to play and the child is encouraged to explore

The stranger enters the room and attempts to interact with the infant

The mother leaves whilst the stranger is in the room

The mother returns and the stranger leaves

The mother leaves

The stranger returns

The mother returns and the stranger leaves

What was Ainsworth looking for?

Ainsworth was looking for 4 things:

How willing the infant was to explore the room?

How the infant reacted to the stranger?

How the infant reacted to being left?

How the infant reacted upon reunion with the mother?

All of these behaviours could be observed on several occasions

Results

Ainsworth had three classifications for the infants she observed:

Type B Secure   70% of infants were classified as Secure

Type A Insecure Avoidant   15% of infants were classified as Insecure Avoidant

Type C Insecure Resistant   15% of infants were classified as Insecure Resistant

Conclusion

Ainsworth concluded that the mother's behaviour toward her infant will predict attachment type

She called this the Caregiver Sensitivity Hypothesis

The fact that the majority of infants in her study were securely attached seemed to support this hypothesis

Evaluation of Ainsworth's strange situation

The positives of the strange situation

It is very reliable as it is very easy to repeat: Especially as everything is standardised

There is also inter-rater reliability as more than one observer was used and the experiment was filmed

Further evidence for reliability comes from other research that has found that the categories used to observe the infants also work and the classifications for attachment are also reliable

Independent observers come to the same classifications of attachment as the original observers in a study completed by Waters (1978)

The negatives of the strange situation

The population validity is low as it was a relatively small sample and all the participants came from similar socio-economic and geographical backgrounds

This means it cannot be generalised

It lacks ecological validity: It does not represent tasks completed by caregivers-infants in real life

However, Ainsworth was aware of this: She calls the study 'Strange'

She had to sacrifice ecological validity for the control of a lab observation

Is the Strange Situation valid in other cultures?

Ainsworth is judging children by Western standards and this may not be applicable to other cultures where child-rearing practices are different i.e. Japan

What if the mother was not the PCG?

A large assumption was made here as the infant may have had different attachment styles with the multiple attachments they probably already had

Other attachment figures were ignored