In which type of attachment does a child use a caregiver as a secure base?

1. Attachment
2. Strange Situation

Mary Ainsworth

The Strange Situation | Attachment Styles

By, 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 age of nine and 18 months.

The procedure involves series of eight episodes lasting approximately 3 minutes each, whereby a mother, child and stranger are introduced, separated and reunited.

John Bowlby [1969] believed that attachment was an all or nothing process. However, research has shown that there are individual differences in attachment quality. Indeed, one 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 example, Schaffer and Emerson [1964] discovered what appeared to be innate differences in sociability in babies; some babies preferred cuddling more than others, from very early on, before much interaction had occurred to cause such differences.

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

However, most attachment research is carried out using infants and young children, so psychologists have to devise subtle ways of researching attachment styles, usually involving the observational method.

Psychologist Mary Ainsworth devised an assessment technique called the Strange Situation Classification [SSC] in order to investigate how attachments might vary between children.

The Strange Situation was devised by Ainsworth and Wittig [1969] and was based on Ainsworth’s previous Uganda [1967] and later Baltimore studies [Ainsworth et al., 1971, 1978].

Mary Ainsworth's [1971, 1978] observational study of individual differences in attachment is described below.

Strange Situation Procedure

The security of attachment in one- to two-year-olds were investigated using the strange situation paradigm, in order to determine the nature of attachment behaviors and styles of attachment.

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

The experiment is set up in a small room with one way glass so 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 by observing the behavior of the infant in a series of eight episodes lasting approximately 3 minutes each:

[1] Mother, baby, and experimenter [lasts less than one minute].

[2] Mother and baby alone.

[3] 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

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].

1. Proximity and contacting seeking
2. Contact maintaining
3. Avoidance of proximity and contact
4. Resistance to contact and comforting

The observer notes down the behavior displayed during 15-second intervals and scores the behavior for intensity on a scale of 1 to 7.