Securely Attached Infants When Studied Again at Age 2 Tend to Be

Mary Ainsworth

The Strange State of affairs | Zipper Styles

By Saul McLeod, updated 2018

The Strange situation is a standardized procedure devised by Mary Ainsworth in the 1970s to observe attachment security in children within the context of caregiver relationships. It applies to infants between the historic period of ix and 18 months.

The procedure involves series of eight episodes lasting approximately iii minutes each, whereby a mother, child and stranger are introduced, separated and reunited.

John Bowlby (1969) believed that attachment was an all or nada procedure. However, research has shown that there are private differences in zipper quality. Indeed, ane of the primary paradigms in attachment theory is that of the security of an individual's attachment (Ainsworth & Bell, 1970).

Much research in psychology has focused on how forms of attachment differ among infants. For instance, Schaffer and Emerson (1964) discovered what appeared to be innate differences in sociability in babies; some babies preferred cuddling more than than others, from very early on, earlier much interaction had occurred to cause such differences.

It's easy enough to know when you are attached to someone considering you know how you feel when you are apart from that person, and, being an adult, yous can put your feelings into words and depict how it feels.

However, most attachment research is carried out using infants and immature children, and then psychologists take to devise subtle ways of researching attachment styles, unremarkably involving the observational method.

Psychologist Mary Ainsworth devised an cess technique called the Strange Situation Classification (SSC) in order to investigate how attachments might vary betwixt children.

The Foreign Situation was devised past Ainsworth and Wittig (1969) and was based on Ainsworth's previous Republic of uganda (1967) and afterward Baltimore studies (Ainsworth et al., 1971, 1978).

Mary Ainsworth's (1971, 1978) observational report of private differences in attachment is described below.

Foreign State of affairs Procedure

The security of attachment in one- to two-yr-olds were investigated using the foreign situation paradigm, in social club to determine the nature of attachment behaviors and styles of attachment.

Ainsworth developed an experimental procedure in club to notice the variety of attachment forms exhibited between mothers and infants.

The experiment is set up in a small room with one way glass then the behavior of the infant can be observed covertly. Infants were aged between 12 and 18 months. The sample comprised of 100 middle-class American families.

The procedure, known as the 'Strange Situation,' was conducted past observing the behavior of the infant in a series of viii episodes lasting approximately 3 minutes each:

(1) Female parent, baby, and experimenter (lasts less than one infinitesimal).

(ii) Mother and baby lonely.

(three) A stranger joins the mother and infant.

(4) Mother leaves baby and stranger alone.

(5) Mother returns and stranger leaves.

(6) Mother leaves; infant left completely alone.

(7) Stranger returns.

(8) Mother returns and stranger leaves.

Scoring

Strange Situation classifications (i.e., attachment styles) are based primarily on four interaction behaviors directed toward the mother in the two reunion episodes (Ep. 5 & Ep. 8).

Proximity and contacting seeking

Contact maintaining

Avoidance of proximity and contact

Resistance to contact and comforting

The observer notes down the behavior displayed during xv-second intervals and scores the beliefs for intensity on a scale of 1 to 7.

strange situation scoring

Other behaviors observed included:

Exploratory behaviors e.g., moving around the room, playing with toys, looking around the room.
Search behaviors, eastward.g., following mother to the door, banging on the door, orienting to the door, looking at the door, going to mother'southward empty chair, looking at mother's empty chair.
Affect Displays negative, e.g., crying, smiling.

Results - Attachment Styles

Ainsworth (1970) identified three master attachment styles, secure (type B), insecure avoidant (type A) and insecure ambivalent/resistant (blazon C). She ended that these zipper styles were the result of early interactions with the female parent.

A fourth attachment style known as disorganized was later identified (Main, & Solomon, 1990).

	Secure	Resistant	Avoidant
Separation Anxiety	Distressed when mother leaves	Intense distress when the female parent leaves	No sign of distress when the the mother leaves
Stranger Anxiety	Avoidant of stranger when solitary, but friendly when the mother is present	The baby avoids the stranger - shows fear of the stranger	The baby is okay with the stranger and plays normally when the stranger is present
Reunion beliefs	Positive and happy when mother returns	The infant approaches the female parent, but resists contact, may even push her away	The Infant shows footling interest when the mother returns
Other	Uses the female parent equally a safe base to explore their environment	The baby cries more and explores less than the other two types	The female parent and stranger are able to condolement the infant as well
% of infants	seventy%	xv%	15%

B: Secure Attachment

Securely attached children comprised the majority of the sample in Ainsworth's (1971, 1978) studies.

Such children experience confident that the attachment effigy volition exist available to meet their needs. They use the attachment figure as a safe base to explore the environment and seek the attachment figure in times of distress (Chief, & Cassidy, 1988).

Securely attached infants are hands soothed past the attachment figure when upset. Infants develop a secure attachment when the caregiver is sensitive to their signals, and responds appropriately to their needs.

According to Bowlby (1980), an private who has experienced a secure attachment 'is likely to possess a representational model of attachment figures(southward) every bit existence bachelor, responsive, and helpful' (Bowlby, 1980, p. 242).

A: Insecure Avoidant

Insecure avoidant children do not orientate to their attachment figure while investigating the environment.

They are very independent of the attachment figure both physically and emotionally (Behrens, Hesse, & Main, 2007).

They do not seek contact with the attachment figure when distressed. Such children are likely to have a caregiver who is insensitive and rejecting of their needs (Ainsworth, 1979).

The zipper effigy may withdraw from helping during difficult tasks (Stevenson-Hinde, & Verschueren, 2002) and is frequently unavailable during times of emotional distress.

C: Insecure Ambivalent

The tertiary attachment style identified past Ainsworth (1970) was insecure clashing (also called insecure resistant).

Here children adopt an clashing behavioral mode towards the zipper figure. The child volition usually exhibit clingy and dependent behavior, but will be rejecting of the zipper figure when they engage in interaction.

The child fails to develop any feelings of security from the zipper effigy. Accordingly, they exhibit difficulty moving away from the zipper effigy to explore novel surroundings.

When distressed they are hard to soothe and are not comforted past interaction with the attachment figure. This behavior results from an inconsistent level of response to their needs from the primary caregiver.

Strange Situation Conclusion

Ainsworth (1978) suggested the 'caregiver sensitivity hypothesis' as an caption for different attachment types. Ainsworth's maternal sensitivity hypothesis argues that a child's zipper style is dependent on the beliefs their mother shows towards them.

'Sensitive' mothers are responsive to the child's needs and answer to their moods and feelings correctly. Sensitive mothers are more than probable to take securely attached children.
In dissimilarity, mothers who are less sensitive towards their child, for example, those who respond to the child'south needs incorrectly or who are impatient or ignore the child, are likely to have insecurely fastened children.

For instance, deeply attached babe are associated with sensitive and responsive principal intendance. Insecure clashing attached infants are associated with inconsistent main care. Sometimes the child'due south needs and met, and sometimes they are ignored by the female parent / father.

Insecure-avoidant infants are associated with unresponsive principal care. The child comes to believe that communication of needs has no influence on the mother/father.

Ainsworth's (1971, 1978) findings provided the offset empirical evidence for Bowlby's attachment theory.

For example, securely attached children develop a positive working model of themselves and take mental representations of others every bit being helpful while viewing themselves as worthy of respect (Jacobsen, & Hoffman, 1997).

Avoidant children recall themselves unworthy and unacceptable, acquired by a rejecting chief caregiver (Larose, & Bernier, 2001). Ambivalent children have a negative self-image and exaggerate their emotional responses as a manner to proceeds attention (Kobak et al., 1993).

Accordingly, insecure attachment styles are associated with an increased hazard of social and emotional behavioral problems via the internal working model.

attachment styles

Theoretical Evaluation

This caregiver sensitivity theory is supported past research from, Wolff and Van Ijzendoorn (1997) who conducted a Meta-analysis (a review) of inquiry into attachment types.

They found that there is a relatively weak correlation of 0.24 between parental sensitivity and zipper blazon – generally more sensitive parents had securely attached children.

However, in evaluation, critics of this theory contend that the correlation between parental sensitivity and the child's attachment type is simply weak. This suggests that in that location are other reasons which may better explicate why children develop different attachment types and that the maternal sensitivity theory places likewise much emphasis on the mother.

Focusing merely on maternal sensitivity when trying to explain why children have different attachment types is, therefore, a reductionist approach.

An culling theory proposed by Kagan (1984) suggests that the temperament of the child is actually what leads to the unlike attachment types. Children with different innate (inborn) temperaments will have different zipper types.

This theory is supported by research from Fox (1989) who found that babies with an 'Piece of cake' temperament (those who consume and sleep regularly, and take new experiences) are probable to develop secure attachments.

Babies with a 'slow to warm up' temperament (those who took a while to get used to new experiences) are likely to have insecure-avoidant attachments. Babies with a 'Hard' temperament (those who eat and sleep irregularly and who refuse new experiences) are probable to take insecure-ambivalent attachments.

In determination, the most complete caption of why children develop dissimilar attachment types would be an interactionist theory. This would argue that a child'south zipper type is a outcome of a combination of factors – both the child's innate temperament and their parent'due south sensitivity towards their needs.

Belsky and Rovine (1987) propose an interesting interactionist theory to explain the unlike attachment types. They argue that the kid'south attachment type is a result of both the child'southward innate temperament and besides how the parent responds to them (i.e., the parents' sensitivity level).

Additionally, the child's innate temperament may, in fact, influence the way their parent responds to them (i.e, the infants' temperament influences the parental sensitivity shown to them). To develop a secure attachment, a 'difficult' child would demand a caregiver who is sensitive and patient for a secure zipper to develop.

Methodological Evaluation

The foreign situation nomenclature has been establish to have good reliability. This ways that it achieves consequent results. For example, a written report conducted in Germany constitute 78% of the children were classified in the same way at ages 1 and 6 years (Wartner et al., 1994).

Although, as Melhuish (1993) suggests, the Strange State of affairs is the about widely used method for assessing babe attachment to a caregiver, Lamb et al. (1985) accept criticized it for beingness highly artificial and therefore defective ecological validity.

The child is placed in a foreign and bogus environment, and the procedure of the mother and stranger inbound and leaving the room follows a predetermined script.

Mary Ainsworth concluded that the strange situation could exist used to place the kid's blazon of attachment has been criticized on the grounds that it identifies simply the blazon of attachment to the mother. The child may have a unlike type of zipper to the father or grandmother, for instance (Lamb, 1977). This means that it lacks validity, as information technology does non measure a general attachment style, but instead an zipper style specific to the mother.

In addition, some enquiry has shown that the same child may show different attachment behaviors on dissimilar occasions. Children's attachments may change, peradventure because of changes in the kid's circumstances, and then a securely attached kid may announced insecurely fastened if the female parent becomes sick or the family circumstances change.

The strange situation has also been criticized on ethical grounds. Because the kid is put nether stress (separation and stranger anxiety), the study has broken the upstanding guideline protection of participants.

However, in its defense, the separation episodes were curtailed prematurely if the kid became too stressed. Likewise, according to Marrone (1998), although the Strange State of affairs has been criticized for existence stressful, information technology is simulating everyday experiences, as mothers do exit their babies for brief periods of time in different settings and often with unfamiliar people such as babysitters.

Finally, the study's sample is biased - comprising 100 center-class American families. Therefore, it is difficult to generalize the findings exterior of America and to working-grade families.

How to reference this commodity:

How to reference this article:

McLeod, S. A. (2018, Baronial 05). Mary ainsworth. Just Psychology. www.simplypsychology.org/mary-ainsworth.html

APA Style References

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Ainsworth, One thousand. D. S., Bell, S. M., & Stayton, D. J. (1971) Private differences in strange- state of affairs behavior of 1-yr-olds. In H. R. Schaffer (Ed.) The origins of human social relations. London and New York: Academic Press. Pp. 17-58.

Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, Yard. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of zipper: A psychological study of the strange state of affairs. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Ainsworth, M. D. S., & Wittig, B. A. (1969). Attachment and exploratory beliefs of 1-twelvemonth-olds in a strange situation. In B. M. Foss(Ed. ), Determinants of infant beliefs (Vol. iv,pp. 111-136). London: Methuen.

Behrens, G. Y., Hesse, E., & Main, M. (2007). Mothers' attachment condition equally adamant past the Adult Attachment Interview predicts their half dozen-yr-olds' reunion responses: A report conducted in Nippon. Developmental Psychology, 43(6), 1553.

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How to reference this article:

McLeod, S. A. (2018, August 05). Mary ainsworth. But Psychology. www.simplypsychology.org/mary-ainsworth.html

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Securely Attached Infants When Studied Again at Age 2 Tend to Be