Strange Situation Analysis

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Ainsworth (1978) designed the Strange Situation (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978) to observe the infants’ motivation to be near the mother, how they would use her as a secure base from which to explore the environment and how they would react to brief separations and reunions. Based on how infants responded in this experiment, Ainsworth (1978) and her colleagues defined three attachment styles: secure, insecure avoidant and insecure resistant/ambivalent attachment. Can even take this out? Securely attached infants explored the environment in the mother’s presence and used her as a secure base, but their exploratory behaviour diminished when the mother left the room. They re-established positive interaction with the mother when she returned and continued to explore the environment once again. Insecure avoidant infants explored the environment, but they did not use the mother as a secure base. They did not become upset when she left and did not seek proximity to her when she returned. Insecure resistant/ambivalent infants hardly explored the…show more content…
They proposed that individuals with different types of attachment also differ in the way they experience their most important relationships. Based on the three major attachment styles defined by Ainsworth (1978), Hazan and Shaver (1987) studied the possible relationship between attachment styles in childhood and individual differences in romantic relationships in adulthood. They proposed a four-category model of adult attachment based on two dimensions of avoidance and anxiety. Secure individuals were found to be low in anxiety and avoidance. Preoccupied people were found to be high in attachment anxiety and low in avoidance. Dismissive individuals were low in anxiety and high in avoidance, and fearful individuals were high both in avoidance and anxiety (Hazan & Shaver,
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