What is Strange Situation technique?

The Strange Situation is a semi-structured laboratory procedure that allows us to identify, without lengthy home observation, infants who effectively use a primary caregiver as a secure base.

What is the Strange Situation and what does it test?

The original method, developed by the influential psychologist Mary Ainsworth, is the laboratory procedure called the “Strange Situation” (Ainsworth et al 1978). Typically, the Strange Situation tests how babies or young children respond to the temporary absence of their mothers.

What is Strange Situation behavior?

The strange situation is a procedure devised by Mary Ainsworth in the 1970s to observe attachment in children, that is relationships between a caregiver and child. It applies to children between the age of nine and 30 months.

What type of experiment is the Strange Situation?

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation (1970) used structured observational research to assess & measure the quality of attachment. It has 8 pre-determined stages, including the mother leaving the child, for a short while, to play with available toys in the presence of a stranger & alone and the mother returning to the child.

Why is it called Strange Situation?

The test is called The Strange Situation Technique because it is conducted in a context that is unfamiliar to the child and therefore likely to heighten the child’s need for his or her parent (Ainsworth, 1979).

What is the difference between Bowlby and Ainsworth?

John Bowlby is considered the father of attachment theory. His research into the relationship developed between a caregiver and an infant as an evolutionary homeostatic function produced four characteristics of attachment. Ainsworth built upon the foundation of attachment theory built by Bowlby.

Who created the Strange Situation?

psychologist Mary Ainsworth
The American-Canadian psychologist Mary Ainsworth (1913-1999) developed the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) to measure mother-child attachment and attachment theorists have used it ever since.

What is one of the main criticisms of the Strange Situation?

The biggest flaw of Ainsworth’s strange situation is the fact that it may not measure the attachment type of the infant but rather the quality of the relationship between the infant and caregiver. A study conducted by Main and Weston concluded that infants behave differently depending on which parent they are with.

Did Harlow influence Bowlby?

In constructing his new theory on the nature of the bond between children and their caregivers, Bowlby profited highly from Harlow’s experimental work with rhesus monkeys. Harlow in his turn was influenced and inspired by Bowlby’s new thinking.

Why is the Strange Situation important?

Her creation of the Strange Situation (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978) provided a gold standard for identifying and classifying individual differences in infant attachment security (and insecurity) and ushered in decades of research examining the precursors and outcomes of individual differences in infant …

What is the strange situation?

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.

What is the Strange Situation experiment in psychology?

What Is The Strange Situation. In the 1960s, psychologist Mary Ainsworth created a standardized laboratory procedure, called The Strange Situation experiment to observe an infant’s response to separations and reunions with the parent in order to identify early attachment security depicted in the Attachment Theory.

What was the Strange Situation Paradigm used to study?

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.

What is Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation technique?

Mary Ainsworth and the Strange Situation Technique 1 Caregiver Interactions and the Formation of Attachment: Most developmental psychologists argue that a child becomes securely attached when there is consistent contact from one or more caregivers who meet the 2 insecure ambivalent style. 3 insecure avoidant style.