What is the Strange Situation?
The Strange Situation is a laboratory procedure that assesses the quality of attachment by observing how an infant of about 12–18 months behaves when briefly separated from and reunited with a caregiver in an unfamiliar room. Developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth devised it to test Bowlby’s attachment theory. Ainsworth and Silvia Bell (1970) used it to report one-year-olds’ exploration, separation and reunion behavior.
- Meaning
- Assesses attachment through separation and reunion episodes
- Devised by
- Mary Ainsworth
- Participants
- Infants of roughly 12–18 months and a caregiver
- Structure
- Eight episodes of about three minutes each
The procedure
| Episode | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1 | Mother and baby enter the playroom |
| 2 | Mother sits while the baby explores toys |
| 3 | A stranger enters, talks with the mother and approaches the baby |
| 4 | Mother leaves; baby stays with the stranger (first separation) |
| 5 | Mother returns; stranger leaves (first reunion) |
| 6 | Mother leaves again; baby is alone |
| 7 | Stranger returns |
| 8 | Mother returns (second reunion) |
Attachment types
What matters more than whether the baby cries when the mother leaves? Ainsworth paid special attention not to the separations but to the reunions. A securely attached baby greets the returning mother, seeks comfort and soon goes back to play. An avoidant baby ignores her, and a resistant baby wants to be held but stays angry and hard to soothe.
| Type | At reunion |
|---|---|
| B Secure | Seeks contact, calms quickly, resumes exploring |
| A Insecure-avoidant | Avoids or ignores the mother, focuses on toys |
| C Insecure-resistant (ambivalent) | Clings yet shows anger, hard to soothe |
| D Disorganized | Freezing or contradictory behavior (added by Main and Solomon) |
Culture and limitations
When Keiko Takahashi (1986) tested 60 pairs in Sapporo, Japan, the share of secure infants (68%) was similar to U.S. data, but all insecure infants were resistant and none were avoidant. She suggested the procedure may have been excessively stressful for Japanese infants of the time, who rarely experienced separation from their mothers. Results reflect caregiving culture, so a single session should not be used to label a child. See adult attachment theory for how early attachment relates to adult love and Baumrind’s parenting styles for parenting.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the Strange Situation?
- Ainsworth’s procedure that assesses attachment by observing an infant’s behavior during separations from and reunions with a caregiver.
- What are the attachment types?
- Secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-resistant (ambivalent), and the later-added disorganized type.
- Why are reunions important?
- They reveal most clearly whether a baby uses the caregiver as a secure base or avoids or resists them.
References
- Ainsworth, M. D. S., & Bell, S. M. (1970). Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illustrated by the behavior of one-year-olds in a strange situation. Child Development, 41(1), 49–67.
- Takahashi, K. (1986). Examining the strange-situation procedure with Japanese mothers and 12-month-old infants. Developmental Psychology, 22(2), 265–270.