In conclusion, the results of the experiment were that 3 main attachment types were identified. 70% of the children were categorized as having secure attachment, 15% as having an insecure-resistant attachment and the final 15% as having an insecure-avoidant attachment. Ainsworth defined a secure attachment as when the child was willing to explore from a safe base, had high stranger anxiety when the caregiver was not around, was distressed when mother left and was positive and happy upon her return. Insecure avoidant attachment is where the child was willing to explore, had low stranger anxiety, was indifferent to separation and rejected the caregiver upon return. Having an insecure resistant attachment was were the child involved was unwilling to explore, had high stranger anxiety, was distressed upon separation and rejected their caregiver upon return.
However there were some issues with the strange situation. Firstly, the experiment used mother and child pairs and this is an issue as many babies’ attachment figures may be someone other than their mother, for example father or grandparent (Lamb 1977). Due to this, you can’t generalize the results to real life as the experiment lacks internal validity. Furthermore, Ainsworth’s study can be criticized because she only used a small sample of participants. This us an issue as to have an valid experiment you should ideally have 100+ participants, so that it is representative of the whole population. There is also potential for ethnocentrism, as all the participants were from America. This is an issue as it may be that the results from America are very different to those worldwide (Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg 1988, Takahashi 1990)
In addition, in regards to consent, the infants were not able to give fully informed consent to participate in the investigation due to their linguistic skills. This is an ethical issue as they have no way of denying taking part, and obviously the experiment causes them distress when their caregiver leaves the room. This is an ethical issue, both in terms of consent and participant protection. Lastly, Ainsworth used an observation method and this meant that the mothers knew they were being watched and may have behaved differently. This is an issue as it means there was low ecological validity and the experiment therefore should not be triangulated.
The experiment was in many other ways successful though. Other researchers have conducted similar investigations and found similar results. This is good as it show that the experiment is easily replicable and so is reliable. Furthermore, as Ainsworth’s observation was conducted in a laboratory she was able to control many variables. This is an advantage as she was allowed to isolate a key variable and record the effect, and be sure that it was only the manipulation to the independent variable that caused the dependent variable. However, being conducted in a laboratory could also lead to demand characteristics in the caregiver. The mother could deliberately act in a way she think will please the experimenters, or the “screw you effect”. This will undermine the validity, as it is not a normal situation. Lastly, the attachments discovered in the strange situation still serve to be the most popular way of categorizing baby’s attachment types around the world.
by
kveck12 (student)
