Strange Situation -

Ainsworth et al. (1970)

Attachment:

Attachment is a mutual and intense emotional relationship between two people, in this instance child and caregiver. Compared to other animals. humans are extremely helpless in infancy. relying less on their instincts. Thus unless the infant is highly motivated to stay near the caregiver, and the caregiver is in tune to the infant's needs, we would not be around today.

Aims:

To establish a universal method of assessing the strength of attachment, and to study individual differences in separation and stranger anxiety in infants aged 12 - 18 months.

Procedure:

This was a longitudinal study. Meaning it was conducted over a long period of time, where Ainsworth visited 26 mother - child couples at home every month of the child's first year of life.
Join now!


Every aspect of the mother and babies behaviour was recorded, but Ainsworth was primarily interested in the reunion behaviour of both the child and mother. The study was broken down into seven stages, each three minutes long:

Stage 1: Mother and child enter room; child is free to play with toys while mother is passive.

Stage 2: Stranger enters and talks with mother, gradually approaching child

Stage 3: Mother leaves, stranger is passive

Stage 4: Stranger leaves and mother returns. This is where she greets and / or comforts child back into play

...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Here's what a star student thought of this essay

Spelling and grammar are of a consistently high level, only minor points would be to avoid the repetition of the word ‘spurious’ in the evaluation paragraph – the essay is very short so repetition of words like this is not really necessary.

The student provides a good level of analysis, exploring in detail the findings from the study (e.g. the three types of attachment theorised) as well as a potential explanation for why these attachments are demonstrated (the temperament hypothesis) Furthermore, the student summarises with some nice concluding remarks (e.g. “The strange situation is a good method of assessing an infant’s attachment, but it is important to remember that these attachment styles are malleable”) demonstrating their ability to bring the review to a clear end. The concluding statement also demonstrates the student’s high ability as they address the strengths of the Strange Situation (e.g. influenced other attachment methods), but also show that other factors must be considered (e.g. family stress) – this is important as it demonstrates good critical analysis, showing both sides of an argument objectively. What would improve this, however, is if the student discussed limitations of the Strange Situation method itself, for example, how there may be differences between children who regularly have contact with strangers (in day care for examples) and those who spend most time with their mothers.

This review of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation is structurally very clear and provides a good summary of the method and theoretical aspects of the technique. The student covers each necessary topic (e.g. introduction to attachment, aims, procedure, findings, and so on) demonstrating a thorough understanding of the entire concept. It is nice to see an introductory paragraph for attachment, which provides the reader with some background information on what the Strange Situation is measuring (e.g. “Attachment is a mutual and intense emotional relationship between two people, in this instance child and caregiver”), however, the definition is slightly vague and perhaps it could be improved by referencing an official definition of attachment from another author – this would ensure 100% clarity for the reader, and gain extra marks for further reading.