Lecture on Attachment Theory and the Strange Situation

Introduction

• Attachment Types: Secure, Avoidant, Resistant
• Key Questions:
  • Do you share feelings with your partner?
  • Do you struggle with intimacy?
  • Are you overly clingy or anxious in relationships?
• Understanding Attachment: Explore Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation to identify attachment types.

Mary Ainsworth and the Strange Situation

• Background:

  • Worked at the Tavistock Clinic in London with John Bowlby.
  • Developed the Strange Situation in the USA.

• Strange Situation Overview:

  • Aims to assess the quality of child attachment to caregivers.
  • Uses controlled observations in a playroom setting.

Behavioral Categories Used in the Strange Situation

• Proximity Seeking: How closely the infant stays to the caregiver.
• Exploration and Secure Base Behavior: Child's exploration using the mother as a safe base.
• Stranger Anxiety: Child's reaction to a stranger entering the room.
• Separation Anxiety: Child's behavior when the mother leaves.
• Response to Reunion: Child's behavior when the mother returns.

The Strange Situation Procedure

• Conducted with 100 middle-class American infants (12-18 months).
• 8 Episodes:
  1. Mother and child enter playroom.
  2. Child explores and plays.
  3. Stranger enters and interacts.
  4. Mother leaves, stranger stays.
  5. Mother returns, stranger leaves.
  6. Mother leaves again.
  7. Stranger returns.
  8. Mother returns and interacts.

Identified Attachment Types

• Secure Attachment:
  • Uses mother as a safe base.
  • Moderate separation and stranger anxiety.
  • Shows joy and is comforted upon mother’s return.
• Insecure Avoidant Attachment:
  • Explores without using the mother as a base.
  • Low separation and stranger anxiety.
  • Indifferent to mother’s return.
• Insecure Resistant (Ambivalent) Attachment:
  • Little exploration, high clinginess.
  • High separation and stranger anxiety.
  • Ambivalent upon mother’s return.

Implications of Attachment Types

• Secure Attachment: Results from sensitive, responsive parenting.
• Insecure Avoidant: Linked to parents not meeting child’s needs for comfort.
• Insecure Resistant: Due to inconsistent caregiver behavior.

Strengths of the Strange Situation

• Controlled Observation: Standardized procedure allows replication across cultures.
• Reliability: High inter-observer reliability (correlation coefficient 0.94).

Criticisms of the Strange Situation

• Lacks Ecological Validity: Controlled environment may not reflect natural behavior.
• Incomplete Attachment Types: Proposal of a fourth type, Disorganized.
• Cultural Limitations:
  • Designed in America with American samples, may not apply globally.
  • Cultural differences (e.g., Germany, Japan) affect attachment type distribution.

Conclusion and Next Steps

• Next lecture will cover cultural variations in attachment.
• Encourages further exploration of how attachment types manifest in various cultures.