Ainsworth’s Strange Situation: Pros And Cons

Mary Ainsworth and colleagues devised a test procedure to determine the cause of this unusual situation. In 1978, attachment was measured. This study was intended to measure infant attachment in mild stress situations. Ainsworth also evaluated the quality and differences in attachments between mothers and infants. The 100 infants were from middle-class American families, ranging in age between 9 and 18 months. The infants were observed in 8 stages and recorded their behavior after each stage. The infant and his caregiver were first introduced to the unfamiliar environment. They were then encouraged to explore it. A stranger approaches the infant and attempts to interact after about 3 minutes. The mother is then asked to leave the room. A stranger enters and offers comfort to any child. The stranger leaves after 3 minutes. The caregiver then leaves the room, but the stranger comes back to offer comfort and support. Finally, the caretaker comes in and greets him. The behavior tested was proximity seeking. There were three types: Securely Attached, Securely Avoidant and Insecure-Resistant attachments.

Ainsworth’s bizarre situation has a strong internal validity. Ainsworth was able to control many factors in her experiment because she used a controlled environment. Ainsworth controlled the experiment using one stranger for the entire time. This allowed Ainsworth to evaluate the infant’s interaction with the stranger and also control the mother’s behavior. Her study was also very easy to perform and observe. The only equipment needed was a safe and child-friendly room with toys and other things that could be used by the infant. This controlled setting allows for repeated replications of the study to confirm consistency. Researchers also observed mother-child and stranger child relations from behind a one way mirror. Ainsworth’s unusual situation has one disadvantage: it lacks external validity. Because the experiment was done in artificial environments, the data cannot easily be transferred to the external world. The artificial environment could have caused distress in the child and affected the results. Cultural bias is another disadvantage. Because attachments may vary in cultures, the American mother and infant who were subject to the experiment is less representative. Ainsworth’s study does not consider father-infant attachments. This is the final drawback. Main and Weston observed that children behaved differently depending on their parent in strange situations. Some children had insecure-attachments with their mothers and secure attachments with their fathers. This suggests that attachment types can be linked to individual relationships between children and their caregivers, not to certain characteristics. This suggests that attachment types can be measured in a variety of situations.