What does the strange situation evaluate?
What does the strange situation evaluate?
The strange situation is a procedure devised by Mary Ainsworth in the 1970s to observe attachment in children, that is relationships between a caregiver and child. It applies to children between the age of nine and 18 months.
What three things are necessary for a secure attachment?
A secure attachment has at least three functions:
- Provides a sense of safety and security.
- Regulates emotions, by soothing distress, creating joy, and supporting calm.
- Offers a secure base from which to explore.
What are the 3 characteristics of attachment?
1) Proximity Maintenance – The desire to be near the people we are attached to. 2) Safe Haven – Returning to the attachment figure for comfort and safety in the face of a fear or threat. 3) Secure Base – The attachment figure acts as a base of security from which the child can explore the surrounding environment.
What are the four patterns of attachment?
Of the four patterns of attachment (secure, avoidant, resistant and disorganized), disorganized attachment in infancy and early childhood is recognized as a powerful predictor for serious psychopathology and maladjustment in children (2,18–24).
How did Ainsworth measure attachment?
Ainsworth’s Strange Situation (1970) used structured observational research to assess & measure the quality of attachment. It has 8 pre-determined stages, including the mother leaving the child, for a short while, to play with available toys in the presence of a stranger & alone and the mother returning to the child.
What are the 8 stages of the Strange Situation?
Ainsworth’s strange situation includes eight stages, each lasting roughly 3 minutes:
- Stage 1: Mother and Baby.
- Stage 2: Mother, Baby and Stranger.
- Stage 3: Stranger and Baby.
- Stage 4: Mother returns.
- Stage 5: Stranger leaves.
- Stage 6: Mother leaves, leaving baby alone.
- Stage 7: Stranger returns.
What is Ainsworth attachment theory?
Ainsworth’s maternal sensitivity hypothesis argues that a child’s attachment style is dependent on the behavior their mother shows towards them. ‘Sensitive’ mothers are responsive to the child’s needs and respond to their moods and feelings correctly.
What are the 4 types of attachment identified by John Bowlby?
Bowlby identified four types of attachment styles: secure, anxious-ambivalent, disorganised and avoidant.
What is Ainsworth theory?
What is the general research conclusions regarding the Strange Situation?
What was the conclusion of the Strange Situation study? There appears to be an association between the mother’s behaviour and the child’s attachment type. Negative points of the Strange Situation.
What did other researchers hope to do with the Strange Situation in their research?
In using the Strange Situation, researchers hope that their observations will provide information about the infant’s motivation to be near the caregiver and the degree to which the caregiver’s presence provides the infant with security and confidence.
What does insecurely attached mean?
People with an insecure attachment style generally have trouble making emotional connections with others. They can be aggressive or unpredictable toward their loved ones—a behavior that is rooted in the lack of consistent love and affection they experienced in their childhood.
What is Ainsworth’s Strange Situation?
Ainsworth’s Strange Situation (1970) used structured observational research to assess & measure the quality of attachment. It has 8 pre-determined stages, including the mother leaving the child, for a short while, to play with available toys in the presence of a stranger & alone and the mother returning to the child.
What was the Strange Situation Paradigm used to study?
The security of attachment in one- to two-year-olds were investigated using the strange situation paradigm, in order to determine the nature of attachment behaviors and styles of attachment. Ainsworth developed an experimental procedure in order to observe the variety of attachment forms exhibited between mothers and infants.
What is Mary Ainsworth’s (1971) study of individual differences in attachment?
Mary Ainsworth’s (1971, 1978) observational study of individual differences in attachment is described below. The security of attachment in one- to two-year-olds were investigated using the strange situation paradigm, in order to determine the nature of attachment behaviors and styles of attachment.
Can the strange situation be used to identify the child’s attachment type?
Mary Ainsworth concluded that the strange situation could be used to identify the child’s type of attachment has been criticized on the grounds that it identifies only the type of attachment to the mother. The child may have a different type of attachment to the father or grandmother, for example (Lamb, 1977).
