Types of Attachment

Ainsworth Strange Situation

Mary Ainsworth and Sylvia Bell in 1970 developed a technique called the Strange Situation as a way of measuring the quality of a baby's attachment to its caregiver.

Procedure

The Strange Situation is a controlled observation in which the baby and its caregiver are observed with the aim of assessing the strength of the relationship between the two. It is a controlled observation because it is it takes place in laboratory setting with a two-way mirror and/or cameras through which the psychologists can observe the baby’s behaviour.

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The main behaviours used to judge the quality of attachment include:

Proximity Seeking – this is, the extent to which the baby will stay close to the caregiver.

Exploration and Secure Base Behaviour – a child with a good quality attachment will feel confident to explore a strange environment using the caregiver as a secure base.

Stranger Anxiety – this is extent to which the baby shows anxiety when a stranger approaches.

Separation Anxiety – this is the extent to which the baby protests when separated from its primary caregiver

Response to Reunion – babies who are securely attached tend to greet the caregiver on reunion

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The procedure has seven episodes each of which last approximately three minutes:

To begin with the caregiver and the baby enter into the laboratory, which is set out as a playroom

1. The baby is encouraged to explore – This tests exploration, and secure base behavior

2. A stranger comes in to talk to the caregiver and approaches the the baby – this tests stranger anxiety

3. The caregiver leaves the baby in the stranger together – this tests separation and stranger anxiety

4. The caregiver returns and the stranger leaves – this test reunion behaviour and secure base behaviour

5. The caregiver leaves the baby alone – this tests separation anxiety

6. The stranger returns – this tests stranger anxiety

7. The caregiver returns and is reunited with the baby – this test reunion behaviour

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Findings

Ainsworth et al in 1978 found that there were distinct patterns in the way that a baby behaves in the Strange Situation and as a result identified three types of attachment.

1. Secure attachment. These babies explore happily but tend to go back to the caregiver and show proximity seeking behavior. They tend to show moderate separation distress and moderate stranger anxiety. Secure attached babies also go to the mother and accept comfort from her in the reunion stage. Around 60 to 75% of UK babies are classified as securely attached.

2. Insecure – avoidant attachment. These babies explore freely but do not seek proximity and do not show secure base behavior. They show little or no reaction when the caregiver leaves and little to no reaction in terms of stranger anxiety. They make few efforts to make contact with the caregiver on her return and even avoid contact. Around 20 to 25% of UK babies are classified as insecure avoidant.

3. Insecure resistant attachment. These babies seek proximity to the mother and explore less. These babies are very clingy. They show a high stranger and separation distress. They also resist comfort and contact when the caregiver returns, and show a type of ambivalence where they want the caregiver to pick them up, but alternatively, they push them away and resist contact. Only 3% of UK babies are classified as insecure resistant.

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Evaluation

1. One strength of the strange situation is that it predicts several aspects of the baby’s later development. Babies who are classified as being secure attached to their primary caregivers tend to have better outcomes in life than the other attachment types. Myron -Wilson and Smith have found that they achieve better at school and tend to be less involved in bullying. Securely attached babies, according to Ward et al (2006) go on to have better mental health in adulthood, whereas babies who considered to be insecure resistant tend to have the worst outcomes.

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2. One weakness of the strange situation is that not all psychologists believe that the Strange Situation can predict later behaviour. For example, Kagan in 1982, suggested that there is a genetic element to anxiety, which could affect the variations in attachment behaviour in the strange situation and also later development.

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3. Another strength of the Strange Situation is that appears to have good inter-rater reliability. This is the level of agreement between different observers. Bick et al (2012) tested inter-rater reliability for the Strange Situation and found 94% agreement between observers. This might be because the procedure itself takes place in a very controlled condition and the behaviours observed involve very prominent movements and are easy to observe by the researchers. For example, anxious babies, cry, and crawl away from strangers so there is no ambiguity in what that movement means. Therefore, we can be confident that the attachment type measured by the Strange Situation does not really depend upon subjective judgment.

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4. One limitation of the Strange Situation is the criticism that the strange situation may be culturally bound. This means that it might not be a valid measure of attachments in different cultures. Mary Ainsworth developed the strange situation in Britain and the US and some researchers have argued that she has an Anglo-American bias. This means that it cannot be used to apply to attachment types in other cultures.

Different cultures have different child rearing methods and this might affect how the baby babies respond in the Strange Situation. For example, a study conducted in Japan by Takahashi in 1986 found that babies showed high level of separation anxiety during the procedure and therefore were classified as being insecure resistant babies. Takahashi argued that this anxiety response was not due to insecure attachment, but was due to the unusual nature of the experiment as Japanese mothers and babies are very rarely separated. This would mean the babies would show a high level of anxiety just because they had been separated not because they have an insecure attachment to their mothers.

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5. Another limitation of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation is that she only identifies three types of attachment. Main and Solomon in 1986 identified a fourth type of attachment which they referred to as disorganised or type D attachment. This appears to be a mix of resistant and avoidant behaviors. These types of babies are very unusual and it is thought that they have experienced severe neglect or abuse. Children with this type of attachment tend to go on to have psychological issues in adulthood.