The Strange Situation Procedure And Attachment Classification By Mary Ainsworth

Strange Situation Procedure

Discuss and explain about the Strange Situation procedure of Mary Ainsworth's, also about the classification of the attachment associated with it?

In this essay I will discuss and explain about the Strange Situation procedure of Mary Ainsworth's, also about the classification of the attachment associated with it. With this will also discuss about the different types of attachment in the infants which are observed in the experiments. According to the investing psychology, an attachment is explained as a long-term and deep rooted bond which connects a person to another person. According to the Mary Ainsworth that love of the baby for her mother is because his needs are satisfied by her mother. But when the interaction of the mother and the infant are observed in detailed by the Mary Ainsworth, the ideas of the Bowlbys immediately became apparent. Ainsworth started her research on the attachment in the year 1953. Ainsworth with her husband moved to Ugandan and lived there for two years. During this period she collected a very little amount of the funds which helped her in collecting the data from the 26 families of the Uganda having infants within the age group of 1 month to 24 months. The families were observed by her every fortnight for 2 hours for almost the period of Nine months.

In detail, observing the interaction of the babies and the mothers, she found that the mothers of the Ugandan were more responsive to the signals of their babies as with the cries of the babies the more explorative and confident they are seems to be.  As per the Watson if the mothers seem to be emotionally detached and unresponsive, then the babies tend to cry a lot and often seem to be more insecure and clingy. Hence, Mary Ainsworth clears that, just as the theory of Harlow’s terry the mothers made from the cloth and the human mothers both  seem to act like a ‘safe base’, who promotes the independent exploration in their babies.

Study related to the strange situation is conducted by the in the US and she found that, as the families of the Ugandan families, appears to promote the independence and the confidence in the children. For an example, it was observed by her that the mothers of the infants who gave great holding during life’s first 3 months are sought to be contact less often from the age of the 9 to 12 months.  And when the contact occurs, it seems to be much affectionate and satisfying. An as per her research she concluded that the responsiveness of the mother help the babies to develop the confidence with his own ability.

Criticism of Strange Situation Procedure

Such strange conditions and situations were used to notice how young children react when under some stressful conditions like being separated from their caregiver plus get to know about the change of behaviour in case they are in touch with some strangers.

According to the Open University strange situation is " Basically the useful and powerful process which has been till date available so as to study the socio, emotional behaviour and development in the age of infant". The classification system of Ainsworth is regarded as trustworthy and most reliable as has been brought into use in a comparative much larger number of findings and studies in which these concerned attachment are the major dependent prospective and variable.

Due to the differences in the cultural settings of the participants the strange situation of the participants also differs. This, in turn, results into the different types of distress. This can be easily explained with an example of the Japanese children who are very rarely isolated from their mother. The departure of the mothers makes the infants distress. Whereas, the infants who are raised in the Israel kibbutzim, were distressed with the stranger entrance.  This method of the strange situation is the method which is mostly used to access the attachment of the infant with the caregiver. This strange situation is also used in different species.  The chimpanzees grown in the nursery by the human infants observed a high incident of the disorganised attachment. This data of the chimpanzees were similar to the children’s who were raised in the Romanian orphan where the adults were very little interacted.

In an experiment, it was also observed that the behaviour of the adult dogs in the strange situation resembles to the behaviour of the human babies. This evidence concluded that the relation of the owner and the dog is of an affection bond rather than to be the attachment bond.

This differentiated and strange situation at times has also been strongly criticised for not at all being. The simple reason for this is that, this is so as this is not correct to the concept of life, and it completely did not reflects the everyday circumstances and situations. At times it may also not be possible to understand and to generalise the actual and findings to the real-life settings.

The strange situation theory of the Mary Ainsworth provided the researches with the expedient and the convenient way of accessing the attachment in different persons. The research of the cross cultural also proposes that the bond is to be seen as adaptive and flexible. The various styles of the attachment which are developed under variant conditions are the response to the various situations. Researches also indicate and show that all different kinds of attachment might have separate and different effects on the child’s bringing up and on the development as well.

Conclusion

Conclusion:

The Open University concludes that the love and care of the adult are important for the survival of the infant.  An observational study has shown the behaviour of attachment in the different people and is not on the basis of the cupboard love. This research helps in developing the evolutionary and the ethological theory which challenged the psychoanalytic. The behaviourist attachment theories arguing that different gender innate the tendencies that results to forge them emotionally with the relationships that are powerful. The experiment has been a great understanding factor in order to understand that the behaviour of the different people also respond to changing situations, and is just like the elders despite being much younger to them.

In this DE 100 project report, the participants sat on the desk, which is placed on the metallic box and is approximately 35 cm long. A series of 30 switches were arranged in the single horizontal line with the mark of 15 volt to 450 volt. A short label is also attached under each switch which describes the magnitude of the electric shock and which has to be administered. For example, the small shock of 15 volts, an intense shock of 225 volts and a very intense shock of almost 435 volts. A laptop was used in this study to display the images which were generated in the Milgram’s study shock generator used in the study and the confederate. This machine was approximately 15 inches high, 16 inches deep and 3 feet long. The type of the generator was ZLB, Dyson instrument company, Waltam Mass which is accompanied with the volt indicators.

In the said experiment total 84 participants participate, out of which 61 were the females, having a middle age of 21.4 and the youngest participant is of 18 years and the eldest participant is of 65 years. All the participants were the undergraduate students of the Wessex University and having English as their first language. The recruitment of the participant was done by sending an email to the Wessex student.  No payment incentives or the course credit were offered. The students who were aware of the Milgrams research was not allowed to take participate in the experiment.

The participants in the experiment sat in front of the desk which is placed on the metallic box and is approximately 35 cm high and 60 cm long. A series of the 30 switches were arranged on the single horizontal line and is marked as the volt increments from the 15 v to 450 v. Each switch is enclosed with the label which describes the magnitude of the electric shock which is to be administered. The instructor of the experiment dressed in a white lab coat carries the clipboard that carries all the instruction of the participants and the highest voltage were prepared for the administer. A  Laptop was placed in front of the experiment in charge in such a way that the screen is not to be visible to the participants and a folder of the audio files is to be placed. These files are to be played with the speakers in the adjoining room and a pre-recorded response of the learner is recorded in the file.

This essay helps in developing an understanding for following the guidelines and reading notes carefully. This activity has helped me to write assignment with the material which is provided in the course book. In this report I have tried to evaluate the procedure of the strange situation. Tried to put my thoughts on paper regarding the assignment have developed an understanding on how important it is to follow the guidelines and to read notes carefully. Tutor has also raised his concern for the TMA2 assignment done by me. His honest criticism helped me to understand the importance of planning an essay on time.