The Strange Situation | Mary Ainsworth, 1969 | Developmental Psychology

In 1969, American psychologist Mary Ainsworth gave developmental psychology a new procedure for studying attachment in infants.
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She called it the Strange Situation Classification, and it is widely referred to as simply the Strange Situation.

As an adult you know when you’ve formed an attachment with someone; you know how it feels and you know how to express your feelings in words. However, when it comes to babies and young children they haven’t yet developed these skills and therefore researchers must turn to more subtle techniques.
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Such as the Strange Situation, which measures the security of an attachment in 1 to 2 year olds; a twenty minute participatory observation, during which the researcher observes the infant’s behavioural responses to a series of scenarios.

Ainsworth’s strange situation includes eight stages, each lasting roughly 3 minutes:

Stage 1: Mother and Baby
Stage 2: Mother, Baby and Stranger
Stage 3: Stranger and Baby
Stage 4: Mother returns
Stage 5: Stranger leaves
Stage 6: Mother leaves, leaving baby alone
Stage 7: Stranger returns
Stage 8: Mother returns and stranger leaves

So what were the researchers measuring? When the mother was in the room with the baby, they scored the infant’s behaviour on four measures:

Proximity and contact-seeking; Contact maintaining; Avoidance of proximity and contact; and resistance to contact and comforting. The baby’s exploratory behaviours were also recorded as they explored the environment.
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Ainsworth reported that infants display one of three attachment types:

Securely attached infants showed distress when separated from their mother, were avoidant of the stranger when alone but friendly in the presence of their mother, and were happy when the mother returned from outside the room. Seventy percent of children studied fell into this category.

Fifteen percent of children demonstrated an ambivalent attachment with their mother. These children showed intense distress when the mother left the room, and demonstrated a significant fear of the stranger. When the mother returned to the room, ambivalent children approached the mother but rejected contact.

Ainsworth reported that a final fifteen percent had an avoidant attachment style. Such infants show no interest when the mother leaves the room and play happily with the stranger. When the mother returns, avoidant children barely seem to notice.

In 1990, Main and Solomon added that a very small percentage were inconstant in their behaviours and defined this attachment style as disorganised.

Ainsworth’s caregiver sensitivity hypothesis suggests that differences in infants’ attachment styles are dependent on the mother’s behaviour towards the baby during a critical period of development.
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[ValentinaShouldbeoffgrid]

always love learning more about attachment styles, it's so important to reparent our inner child according to our needs so that we can have healthy, fulfilling relationships as adults!

[williamlarder]

Anyone else watching this in Psychology class online

[jbailey]

2:00 whatever that creature is in the back just died😂😂

[peilin]

Did anyone catch the bunny flop in the background. Cute bunny. haha

[LesliWebandMediaSvcsonYouTube]

I'm just starting out as a graduate student in counseling and this is a great video with a great visual on the strange situation experiment, which most of us are just reading about in a textbook. Thanks for bringing a little bit of life to it!

[chloemair]

You presented this really clearly. Thanks for consolidating my understanding!

[Froidlings]

Really great concise presentation - I will be using in my course this semester!

[dr.donitam.lester]

This was very nice! Very detailed in a very short period of time. I know I have a better understanding of 'Strange Situation' by Mary Ainsworth! This may appear on my LPC exam. I have subscribed to your chanel.:)

[ishitagarg]

Perfectly explained. Thank u for this short video it makes my learning easy by watching it visually.😊

[nidaasif]

Beautifully explained. Thank you so much

[brittneyoudbier]

Googling how bunnies sleep, to make sure that rabbit is okay... lmao

[ainedoyle]

Thank you for the clear and easy to follow video :)

[mariabacha]

Does anyone know where to read more on the data that describes what mothering practices look like with the baby that produces or influences the attachment styles?

[AlbanBytyqi]

I am confused. Which option is the healthiest, secure attachment right?

[sjwgenius]

Can any psychology student tell me how the hell you can remember all these theories and development stages?

[Zoralda]

Pls show the not optimal cases too. On the video is only the optimal case. About the others you only speak, but not show.

[NomadicAsia]

What kind of impacts these experiment would have when the baby grows up.

[LuminantMoon]

It was really interesting see the attachment styles with the baby but I have a question, what would happen it a male entered the room with the baby instead of a female.

[leolewensztain]

Which of the 4 types is shown on the video? I cant tell if its secure, avoidant or maybe disorganized?

[meghangossett]

Wonder if this works with adopted children