Outline and Evaluate the Strange Situation and Types of Attachment PDF

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Essay on types of attachment...

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Outline and Evaluate the Strange Situation and Types of Attachment In the first step the parent and infant play together, then the parent sits whilst the infant plays, which measures how the child uses the parent as a secure base. After this, a stranger enters and begins talking to the parent, measuring the infant’s stranger anxiety. Then, the mother leaves, and the infant plays, with the stranger offering comfort if necessary. This tests the child’s separation anxiety. After three minutes, the parent returns, greets the child, and offers comfort if necessary. The stranger leaves. This tests the reunion behaviour. Next, the parent leaves the infant alone, to test the separation anxiety, then the stranger re-enters and offers comfort, to measure the strange anxiety again. Finally, the parent comes back in and greets the child, offering any comfort needed. Again, this tests the reunion behaviour. She found three types of attachment, from this study. The first was secure attachments which 66% of infants have. They have high willingness to explore, high stranger anxiety, some separation anxiety but can be soothed easily, and are enthusiastic when their mother returns. The next type of attachment was the insecure avoidant. 22% of infants were found to have this. They have high willingness to explore, low stranger anxiety, no separation anxiety, and when the mother returns they avoid contact. The final attachment is the insecure resistant. 12% of infants have this. They have lo willingness to explore, high stranger anxiety, and are extremely distressed when their mother leaves. When she returns they seek her out but reject her. The study has high reliability, using a standardised procedure. Many observers were watching the children and were all able to agree on the same attachment types. This may be due to the high levels of control and the easily observed behaviour categories. Thus, there was a high rate of inter observer reliability, and the study is easy to replicate. This is further supported by Bick who conducted a similar study and found that 94% of observers were able to identify the same behaviours and classify the babies. Despite this, there is evidence to show a fourth type of attachment. Main and Soloman found there is an insecure disorganised attachment type. These are unpredictable. They have a lack of consistent pattern of social behaviour, with little stranger anxiety. It is suggested that babies have this attachment type when the mother has mental health issues, and care is not consistent. This is further supported by Van Ijzendoorn’s meta-analysis, in which they found 15% of infants were insecure disorganised. This suggests the study lacks internal validity. Furthermore, it is culturally biased. It used a limited sample of middle class Americans, and all the research was conducted in America. Thus, the criteria is based on US values, relating to child-parent behaviour. This is particularly the case due to the individualist-collectivist divide between western and eastern countries, alongside differences in upbringing and the experiences a child is exposed to. Babies raised in different cultures are shown to respond differently in the strange situation. For example, Takaheshi found that Japanese infants are most commonly insecure resistant. In addition, cultural difference in individualism and collectivism show changes in the upbringing and experiences which the child is exposed to. This suggests the study cannot be applied to everyone, and thus lacks universality. The research is limited by only measuring the responses to one attachment figure. Ainsworth assumed the primary attachment figure was the mother in all cases. This may not have been true, thus leading to an inaccurate representation of attachment types; the babies may have been securely attached to another person, and insecurely attached to the mother. This suggests there is a lack of face validity due to the procedure used....