The way in which the child behaves during the strange situation is determined by the behaviour the care giver presents to the child. For example insecure children are associated with inconsistent mothers and absent child are associated with unresponsive mothers (Oates, 2005). The desired attachment categorise is secure attachment.secure children are confident that the attachment figure will meet their needs, that they will provide a safe base. The children are easily soothed and look to the figure during distress or upset, these attachments are formed if the figure responses to their needs and is sensitive to their signals (Oates, 2005). As described by winncot ‘ good enough mothers’.
The fourth stage is just the stranger and baby. The fifth staged the stranger leaves and the mother will comfort the baby if needed. After the 3 minutes the mother will leave the baby alone after saying ‘Bye-Bye’. The sixth step is the baby alone. The seventh step is the stranger and baby, where the stranger tries to interact with the baby and stage eight is where the mother enters ad tries to pick up the baby while the stranger leave unobtrusive.
The Strange Situation procedure was formulated to observe attachment relationships between a caregiver and children between the age of nine and 18 months. It was developed by Mary Ainsworth, a developmental psychologist. Originally it was devised to enable children to be classified into the attachment styles known as secure, anxious-avoidant and anxious-ambivalent. As research accumulated and atypical patterns of attachment became more apparent it was further developed by Main and Solomon in 1986 and 1990 to include the new category of disorganized/disoriented attachment. In this procedure the child is observed playing for 20 minutes while caregivers and strangers enter and leave the room, recreating the flow of the familiar and unfamiliar presence in most children's lives.
Ainsworth’s strange situation The strange situation was an experiment carried out by Mary Ainsworth to measure and test the nature of attachment between an infant and their caregiver. The strange situation (SS) was used to look at how infants react under a stressful situation e.g. separated from caregiver (causing separation anxiety) and also the presence of a stranger (stranger anxiety). Furthermore it aimed to encourage infants to explore. There were a panel of experienced judges that observed the behaviours that were observed between the infants and caregivers.
Attachment Theory and Child Abuse Alan Challoner MA (Phil) MChS Abstract Child abuse is seen to follow a general pattern and it is the intrusion of fear into what might otherwise be good enough care-giving that is necessary for the development of a disorganised or disoriented attachment. Research has shown that in the case of the rejected infant only one signal is required to throw the child into conflict. Withdrawal tendencies occur as a result of main carer’s threat. This paper seeks to find some reasons for the perpetuation of abuse through the generations, and draws attention to the potential remedies. ______________ In recent years research has shown that the revealed characteristics of abusing parents and abused children
The test consists of ‘a series of separations and reunions of child, caregiver and a stranger’ [Oates et al, 2005]. The child’s behaviour is assessed during these episodes and given an attachment classification of secure or insecure – insecure attachment can be either ‘avoidant’ or ‘ambivalent’ [Oates et al, 2005]. Insecure attachment has been frequently linked with psychological problems and could be considered another ‘risk
* Mother leaves the room and reappears after a short absence. * A Stranger enters the room and talks to mother. * The mother then leaves the child with the stranger. Ainsworth discovered 3 distinct attachment types : secure attachment (infants with a happy relationship with caregiver, comfortable with social interactions and greet the caregiver cheerily on their return), insecure-avoidant attachment (infants who avoid all social interaction, showing no
Attachment is the close emotional relationship between two people, which involves a feeling of well-being and a desire to be close. There are different types of attachments, Mary Ainsworth investigated these different types by placing 12-18 month old infants into and increasingly stressful environment, known as the ‘Strange Situation’ experiment. Ainsworth identified three different types of attachment in American infants; insecure-avoidant – in which the infant was unconcerned whether the caregiver was present or not and could be comforted by the caregiver or the stranger, securely attached – the infant would stay close to the caregiver and are distressed by their departure but easily comforted upon return, and insecure-resistant – both close and resistant to the caregiver at times, but are always resistant towards the stranger. A fourth type of attachment, insecure-disorganised, was identified by Main (1991), in which the infant is scared of the care giver and shows conflict as to whether to seek or resist closeness. Stroufe (1983) found that securely attached infants tend to become popular and confident social leaders.
What causes them to detect the change? In this paper “Detecting impossible changes in infancy: a three system account”, by Su-hua Wang and Renee Baillargeon two questions are being asked. One being that what change violations do infants spontaneously detect and can infants be induced through contextual manipulations to detect change violations they do not spontaneously detect? In this research it suggests that at least 3 different systems – the object-tracking, object – representation, and physical – reasoning is needed to explain infants respond to change violations. In order to answer the first question they took 11 and 12 month old infants and experimented if they saw a change using in variable heights covering events.
They are four of them that were a conclusion from a study conducted by Ainsworth (1970). Types of attachment On the grounds of these four interactions there are four types of attachment styles which include secure, ambivalent, avoidant and disorganized. According to Ainsworth (1970) the secure attachment is seen in a child who is most comfortable when their mother is present. In the absence of the mother they are distressed and antisocial to strangers. Infants that have ambivalent attachment are deeply distressed in the absence of their mothers, fear strangers and resists contact with their mothers after reunion.