Unit 1 Psychology -Types of Attachment Studies
- Created by: Emma Kwiecinska
- Created on: 20-05-13 12:52
Types of Attachment - Ainsworth - Strange Situatio
- How infants aged 9-18 months behave under conditions of mild stress + novelty. The stress is created by 1) The presence of a stranger + 2) The separation from the caregiver.
-Stranger Anxiety -Separation Anxiety
- The results, collected from 106 middle class infants helped Ainsworth to identify 3 main types of children, which each possess different attachment characteristics depending on their group.
-Secure Attachment -Insecure Avoidant -Insecure Resistant
- The group that you are in supposedly affects your future relationships/personal emotional state regarding things such aggression and dependence on other people.
- This study also supports Bowlbys theory, such as the internal working model, and the secure base hypothesis. Even so, we cannot make a causal link between attachment type and later attachment experiences. e.g. romantic relationships
Ainsworth's Strange Situation-Procedure
Each episode is around 3 minutes in duration.
- Parent and infant play together -
- The parent watches as the infant plays -Using parent as a secure base
- The stranger enters and talks to the parent -Stranger Anxiety
- The parent leaves and the infant plays,stranger offers comfort if needed -Separation Anxiety
- The parent returns, greets infant and offers comfort, stranger leaves -Reunion
- Parent leaves, infant is alone -Seperation Anxiety
- Stranger enters and offers comfort -Stranger Anxiety
- Parent returns, greets infant, offers comfort -Reunion
The observers recorded the infants behaviour every 15 seconds, out of 5 groups, on a scale of 1-7 depending on the intensity of the behaviour exhibited.
- Proximity/contact seeking behaviours
- Contact maintaining behaviours
- Proximity/interaction avoiding behaviours
- Contact/interaction resisting behaviours
- Search behaviours
Ainsworth Strange Situation-Secure Attachment
Willingness to explore - High Stranger Anxiety - High Seperation Anxiety - Easy to soothe Reunion Behaviour - Enthusiastic % of infants in this category - 66%
- These infants have harmonious and co-operative relationships with their caregiver.
- Not likely to cry upon separation
- When anxious, they seek close bodily contact, but can be soothed easily, and may be reluctant to leave the caregivers side early
- Comfortable w/ social interaction and actively seek it
- Use the caregiver as a secure base and so therefore can function independently
Ainsworth Strange Situation - Insecure Avoidant
Willingness to explore - High
Stranger Anxiety - Low
Separation Anxiety - Indifferent
Reunion behaviour - Avoids contact
% of infants showing this behaviour - 22%
- These children tend to avoid social interaction + intimacy with others
- Showed little response to separation, no proximity seeking behaviour on reunion
- No clinging or resisting behaviour when picked up
- Happy to explore w/ or w/o caregiver
- High levels of anxiety
- May become angry if their attachment needs are not met
Ainsworth Strange Situation-Insecure Resistant
Willingness to explore - Low
Stranger Anxiety - High
Separation Anxiety - Distressed
Reunion Behaviour - Seeks and rejects
Percentage of infants in this category - 12%
- These infants both seek + reject intimacy
- Respond to separation w/ immediate + intense distress
- On reunion, there are conflicting desires between wanting contact w/ the caregiver. (e.g being picked up)
- E.g Some may want to maintain proximity, whilst others may angrily resist.
Evaluation of Ainsworth's Strange Situation
Later childhood behaviours- There are a number of longitudinal studies which have shown a link between attachment type and social functioning later in life. A study by Prior and Glaser has summarised this:
- Secure Attachment-Less emotional dependency, interpersonal harmony
- Avoidant Attachment-Negative effects, e.g. Aggressiveness
- Resistant Attachment-Anxious + withdrawn behaviour
Adult Romantic Relationships
Bowlby states that the mothers behaviour towards the child affects its internal working model about future relationships it may have. Hazan and Shaver's love quiz;
- Used early childhood experiences (identify attachment type)
- Current love experiences + attitudes towards love (internal working model)
Found characteristic patterns between attachment type and romantic behaviour, this supports Bowlby's theory. (We cannot draw causal conclusions though)
Issues of Ainsworth's Strange Situation
Validity
- Instead of measuring attachment type, is it just measuring the quality of relationship?
- Research evidence from other studies supports findings, e.g. Hazen and Shavers Love Quiz.
Reliability
- Observation between different people may be different, decreasing the reliability
-Inter rating reliability has found almost perfect/0.94 agreement between the raters.
Ainsworth's Strange Situation-Other Influencing Fa
Sensitivity
Ainsworth created a Maternal Sensitivity Scale, to identify key group differences in the mothers behaviour:
- Securely attached infant mothers-More sensitive, caring,cooperative, accessible
- Insecurely attached infant mothers - Less affectionate + unresponsive to crying
- Avoidant infant mothers-More rejecting, paid less attention to infants
- Resistant infant mothers-Tend to be occupied with other routine activities whilst holding the infant.
Maternal Reflective Functioning
- "The ability to understand what someone else is thinking/feeling"
- Some studies have found a low correlation between maternal sensitivity and strength of attachment
- Maternal reflective thinking rather than sensitivity may be more important in identifying attachment type.
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