Strange Situation Mary Ainsworth

1 strange situation

1.1 anxious-avoidant insecure attachment
1.2 secure attachment
1.3 anxious-resistant insecure attachment
1.4 disorganized/disoriented attachment

strange situation

in 1965, ainsworth , wittig designed strange situation procedure way of assessing individual differences in attachment behaviour evoking individual s reaction when encountering stress. strange situation procedure divided 8 episodes, lasting 3 minutes each. in first episode, infant , or caregiver enter pleasant laboratory setting, many toys. after 1 minute, person unknown infant enters room , tries make acquaintance. caregiver leaves child stranger 3 minutes; , returns. caregiver departs second time, leaving child alone 3 minutes; stranger enters, , offers comfort infant. finally, caregiver returns, , instructed pick child. episodes increase stress of infant increments, observer can watch infant’s movement between behavioural systems: interplay of exploration , attachment behaviour, in presence , in absence of parent.

on basis of behaviors, 26 children in ainsworth s original baltimore study placed 1 of 3 classifications. each of these groups reflects different kind of attachment relationship caregiver, , implies different forms of communication, emotion regulation, , ways of responding perceived threats.

despite many findings strange situation experiment, there criticism. said have emphasis on mother , did not measure general attachment style. said ainsworth s work biased because study conducted middle class american families. critics believed experiment artificial , lacked ecological validity.

anxious-avoidant insecure attachment

a child anxious-avoidant insecure attachment style avoid or ignore caregiver - showing little emotion when caregiver departs or returns. child not explore regardless of there. there not emotional range regardless of in room or if empty. infants classified anxious-avoidant (a) represented puzzle in 1970s. did not exhibit distress on separation, , either ignored caregiver on return (a1 subtype) or showed tendency approach tendency ignore or turn away caregiver (a2 subtype). ainsworth , bell (1970) theorised apparently unruffled behaviour of avoidant infants in fact mask distress, hypothesis later evidenced through studies of heart-rate of avoidant infants.

secure attachment

a child s securely attached mother explore freely while caregiver present, using safe base explore. child engage stranger when caregiver present, , visibly upset when caregiver departs happy see caregiver on or return. in united states, seventy percent of middle-class babies present secure attachment in study.

anxious-resistant insecure attachment

children classified anxious-ambivalent/resistant (c) showed distress before separation, , clingy , difficult comfort on caregiver’s return. either showed signs of resentment in response absence (c1 subtype), or signs of helpless passivity (c2 subtype). in ainsworth’s original sample, 6 c infants showed distress in course of episodes of strange situation procedure ‘that observations had discontinued.’ 1 percent of infants had responded high degree of passivity , inactivity in situation of helpless settings.

disorganized/disoriented attachment

a fourth category added ainsworth s colleague mary main. in 1990, ainsworth put in print blessing new ‘d’ classification, though urged addition regarded ‘open-ended, in sense subcategories may distinguished’, worried d classification might encompassing , might subsume many different forms of behaviour in contrast infants in other categories classified mary ainsworth, possess standard path of reaction while dealing stress of separation , reunion, type d infants appeared possess no symptom of coping mechanism. in fact, these infants had mixed features such strong proximity seeking followed strong avoidance or appeared dazed , disoriented upon reunion caretakers (or both).

from project steep, infants having disorganized/disoriented (type d) tested of secreting higher cortisol concentrations in saliva infants in traditional (abc) classifications. results of study demonstrates model of stress reactivity reflects how varies classification of traditional (abc) behaviors become factor affecting physiological stress responses.