Attachment Theory as Examined in Strange Situation Theory is Universal
Introduction
In psychology research, the attachment theory is amongst the most commonly studied theories, especially Bowlby and Ainsworth's attachment models. The model describes children's behavior towards their attachment figures, particularly during times of reunion and separation (Bolwby and Ainsworth, 2013). The behavioral patterns seen in babies universally reflect the patterns demonstrated by other primates facing the activation of contradicting behavior systems. Additionally, the Strange Situation procedure has been universally validated across culture, temperament, and gender (Ainsworth, 2015). Furthermore, the procedure acts as a source of validation for a variety of extra attachment evaluations both in adulthood and childhood inclusive of the extensively used Adult Attachment Interview. Also, security in the procedure predicts a range of mental health variables, mental representations, and behaviors throughout childhood as well as when the relationship and environmental conditions remain steady into adulthood. The procedure is considered among the most theoretically based and extensively relied on tools in the study of human development. This paper will seek to support the fact that the attachment theory as analyzed in the Strange Situation Procedures is universal.
Ainsworth’s Attachment Theory
Ainsworth's attachment theory builds on J. Bowlby’s theory since the latter is considered the father of attachment theory. According to Bowlby, attachment starts from infancy and lasts throughout a person’s life; besides, many innate behavioral control systems are required for procreation and survival (Bolwby and Ainsworth, 2013). Exploration and attachment are critical in the attachment theory. The primary caregiver acts as a basis for exploration. Hence, an infant creates a strong attachment to the person. According to Ainsworth (2015), a child’s innate behavior allows him or her to explore new things; nonetheless, as the child explores and becomes scared or endangered, the primary caregiver eventually becomes the secure protection base.
Ainsworth’s attachment theory further considered the control systems using the Strange Situation. Ainsworth came up with three types of attachment: secure, avoidant, and resistant (Ainsworth, 1969). Secure attachment refers to when a child seeks comfort or protection from their primary caregivers/mothers and gets care unfailingly. Mostly, the mother is considered as affectionate and loving. Avoidant attachment mostly happens when the children ignore or pull away from their mother (Ainsworth, 1976). The resistant attachment describes the scenario whereby the child stays close to his/her mother. As a standard practice in psychology, the Strange Situation is very popular in promoting the attachment theory and can be applied universally.
Strange Situation Procedure
While working at Johns Hopkins University in the 1960s, Professor Mary and Barbara Witting, one of her students came up with a strange situation procedure to explain certain concepts critical to the ethological theory of attachment as proposed by John Bowlby (Ainsworth, 2015). Despite being designed to provoke behaviors that are assumed to be universal among all infants subjected to stress, the Strange Situation procedure provoked systematic variances in the behavioral strategies utilized by the infants.
The theoretical conceptualization of such patterns as proposed by Ainsworth improved Bowlby's theory of attachment. According to Bowlby, all living primates have an attachment behavioral system which biologically based and functions to warn a person of likely stresses, threats, and dangers (Bowlby and Ainsworth, 2013). Any threat is indicated by the existence of natural clues to risks like the separation from unfamiliar surroundings and attachment figures. Additionally, the attachment system functions to influence people to seek another person’s protection when he or she faces any threat (Main and Solomon, 2012). Subsequently, a person improves his or her chances of survival.
When there are no threats, the initiation of the attachment system weakens, letting behavioral systems like the exploration function. People usually form lasting emotional attachments or bonds to their relatives who offer such ‘haven of safety’ functions (Crittenden, 2017). Children usually form their initial attachments/bonds to their primary caregivers. Ainsworth (2015) contends that in a controlled presence of natural indicators of danger especially in a laboratory setting, the Strange Situation procedure usually initiates the attachment system.
Individual Attachment
Universally, how children seek proximity and protection from their mothers is equivalent to how people seek physical comfort or food. As an evolutionary adaptive behavioral system, the attachment is triggered when the realization of such need is endangered especially when the mother leaves or when there is a perceived threat in the immediate surroundings (Lamb, 2013). In this scenario, the child might become distressed and opt for physical comfort and contact from his/her mother who responds to a caregiving behavior for instance feeding or holding the baby that is accustomed to the child’s needs.
Strange Situation procedure can be done both in a laboratory and natural settings whereby the parent and child are subjected to a controlled series of reunions as well as separations (Archer et al., 2015). Ainsworth established a ‘secure attachment’ behavioral pattern in almost two-thirds of children in contrast to two diverse styles of ‘insecure attachment’ (anxious and avoidant). Recently, researchers have identified a fourth behavioral pattern known as ‘‘disorganized attachment’’ (Bretherton, 2016). The mother-child relationship is the most critical determinant of the infant’s attachment style particularly the ‘maternal sensitivity’ to the child’s signs of discomfort.
Children who demonstrate secure attachment in the procedure balanced their attention and behaviors between attachment despite a threat being present as well as exploration when there was no threat (Clarke-Stewart et al., 2012). The children demonstrated a prototypical pattern of distress upon separation but calmed and returned to play after being reunited with their parents. They showed signs of missing their mothers after separation and comfort when the mother returned. Secondly, the resistant-ambivalent children showed attention and behaviors that were uncompromisingly oriented toward the mother. Hence, it stops exploration despite the threat being removed. Such children are thoroughly troubled after separation yet inconsolable after the mother returns (Bretherton, 2012a). For instance, many children are grouped as ambivalent-resistant and hang onto their mothers after being reunited while concurrently pushing away and squirming. Additionally, some children are grouped as avoidant when they demonstrate the opposite pattern that is attention and behaviors inflexibly oriented away from the mother (Cassidy and Shaver, 2012). Such infants fail to show overt signs of missing the mother after being separated, and then they actively avoid the mother after being reunited.
For instance, several children who are grouped as avoidant informally turn their backs towards the mother after being reunited while concentrating attentively on a toy (Ainsworth, 2015). Despite the avoidant children appearing very peaceful, quality of play, stress hormones, and data on heart rate show that these children are very distressed similar to the other children. As opposed to demonstrating a coherent and specific pattern, children grouped as disorganized or disoriented exhibit any of such variety of short but odd behaviors (Ainsworth, 1969). For instance, such infants might show anomalous hand-to-mouth gestures, freezing, and stilling postures as well as stereotypes like constant rocking.
Strange Situation Protocol
The strange situation is usually done in an odd toy-filled room by a strange examiner known as the stranger, and it entails almost eight episodes. The Ainsworth Strange Situation experiment can be conducted across context and time (Bretherton, 2012b). Hence, it is time-consuming and complex to analyze in unconstrained outdoor settings or at home. Additionally, the experiment is a semi-structured laboratory procedure that lets people determine without prolonged home observation, children who successfully rely on their primary caregivers as a source of security (Palm, 2014).
Most people assume that children aged between 12 to 18 months being brought up at home have a strong attachment to their primary caregiver (Ainsworth, 2015). The procedure is universally applied to allow us to understand the quality of infant-primary caregiver relationship. Additionally, most psychologists seek to determine if the child is capable of using an individual he or she is attached to as a source of security allowing him/her to explore and seek comfort or haven (Palm, 2014).
Typically, the Strange Situation is done in eight brief episodes in a room full of a collection of toys for the child to allow him/her to explore, a one-way window to allow observation and filming, and a door that allows an adult to enter and exit the room (Crittenden, 2017). Additionally, there are two chairs for the mother and the research assistant. The first episode takes almost one minute while the other seven episodes take three minutes each. The stranger will introduce the parent and the child to the room then he/she will silently leave the room in the first episode (Ainsworth, 2015). In the second episode, the child is placed on the floor and allowed to explore the toys whereas the parent sits on the chair and gives a thumb up via a magazine.
Additionally, the stranger is seen entering the room in the third episode casually talking to the mother and engaging the child in play (Ainsworth, 2015). The first separation entails the first separation whereby the parent leaves the room and leaves the child with the stranger. The first reunion is witnessed in the fifth episode whereby the parent comes back, and the stranger silently leaves the room. The second separation is witnessed in the sixth episode as the parent leaves the room and the child is completely left unaccompanied. In the seventh episode, the stranger is seen entering the room and engages the child (Ainsworth, 2015). The second reunion is witnessed in the eighth and last episode whereby the parent returns and the stranger silently leaves the room.
The protocol stipulates several standardized instructions to be observed by the stranger and the parent during the entire procedure. For instance, during the separation, the parent is directed to leave her purse next to the chair as well as to carry the child during their second reunion (Ainsworth, 2015). The current procedure has been altered after a theoretically grounded concern. The separations are meant to produce adequate stress to stimulate a child’s attachment behavioral system. Besides, the stress is managed to ensure the infant does not apply a coping strategy (Ainsworth, 2015).
Stopping the separations helps to make sure that a child’s behavior on reunion is an indication of the quality of the parent-child relationship as opposed to just a sign of intense levels of distress that become progressively challenging to suppress (Ainsworth, 2015). Other changes to the strange situation might end up threatening its validity (Lamb, 2013). Familiarity with the stranger or the room negatively affects the suitable manifestation of the natural indicators of the danger that form the basis of the procedure.
Furthermore, the strange situation mustn't be compressed to include just a single separation. The experiment depends on the progressive build-up of stress with the initial separation leaving the stranger with the child while the second one leaves the child unaccompanied (Ainsworth, 2015). Many children seem to be composed during the first separation; nonetheless, they become relatively uncomfortable after the second separation. Thus, the behavioral change impacts classification. Additionally, the strange situation must consider young children aged between 12 and 18 months (Ainsworth, 2015). Such young children do not selectively bond with a specific caregiver, or they are not able to crawl to seek closeness to the parent or caregiver.
Strange Situation Classifications
The Strange Situation classifications are believed to signify a child’s expectations of a certain parent’s availability during distress based on their past interactions (Main and Solomon, 2012). Secure babies’ parents usually establish and correctly interpret their children’s social signals like crying and after that react to such signals appropriately and promptly. Alternatively, the ambivalent-resistant and avoidant patterns are linked to several forms of insensitive caregiving (Reite, 2012). Additionally, avoidant babies’ parents are most probably going to ignore a child's bids for attachment as well as showing distress with physical contact. Similarly, ambivalent-resistant babies are most probably going to be unpredictable and inconsistent (Holmes, 2014). While such organized patterns are linked with parental insensitivity and sensitivity, disorganized child behavior is linked to parental behavior such as subtly frightening or maltreatment.
The maternal responsiveness experiences that are constantly repeated are theorized, the child usually establishes an internal working expectation or model of how people within their immediate environment will react to their need for security and protection (Goldberg, 2014). Ainsworth’s theory has a developmental dimension since infants (7 to 12 months) gradually show emotions linked to the bonding particularly ‘stranger anxiety’ (aversion or cautiousness to strange people who approach the child) as well as ‘‘separation anxiety’’ (a moment of distress triggered when the mother leaves) (Brown, 2012). One-year-old children can perfectly do the Strange Situation Procedure. Furthermore, children usually outgrow such a behavioral response pattern when they are two years of age. Ainsworth (2012) notes that the internal working models established during such a young age are considered to persist throughout their future development.
Attachment in infancy is hence theorized as having a lasting impact on adult well-being and health. The concept usually rests on four fundamental premises; first, a person’s internal working model which develops while an infant turns out to be integrated into the child’s personality and is manifested throughout his/her life (Brown et al., 2012). Nonetheless, it might be slightly altered by other experiences such as psychotherapy. Secondly, secure attachment is very important for the person’s tendency to explore his or her environment and eventually become independent, critical for the development of social competence in addition to emotion regulation and learning (Rehn et al., 2013). The third premise relates to secure attachment in early childhood and infancy impacts the person’s ability as an adult to establish other positive love relationships for instance with a spouse. Lastly, attachment patterns are passed to the next generation hence, insecurely attached parents might bring up children who are similarly insecurely attached (Harkness, 2015). Additionally, Bowlby and Ainsworth (2013) contend that when mothers and infants are insecurely attached, they are more susceptible to the impacts of loss and other trauma leading to caretaking behavior that might frighten or confuse the infant resulting in the disorganized pattern of attachment.
Importantly, attachment theory consists of an interconnected set of concepts inclusive of the evolutionary source of attachment in childhood. Similarly, the theory highlights the significance of the mother’s responsive and sensitive care to assist the child to develop trusting and positive internal working models of relationship with all caregivers inclusive of the infant’s mother (Meins and Fernyhough, 2017). Furthermore, it highlights how the attachment patterns have individual variability with disorganized or insecure attachment contrasted to secure attachment. Lastly, it describes the developmental sequelae of diverse types of infancy attachment experiences (Rosmalen et al., 2015). Mostly, the evaluation of personal differences has depended largely on the Strange Situation Procedure done in a laboratory-like setting.
Variances in Infant Strange Situation Behavior
The Strange Situation Procedure is recorded and coded by the overt behaviors demonstrated by the infant. Relying on her original sample, Ainsworth established three general classes of behavioral patterns (Valentino et al., 2015). The four Strange Situation Classifications signify the quality of a child’s relationship with a certain caregiver, and hence, it might be unique about each parent. Furthermore, Reite (2012) argues that such classifications relate to the quality of the attachment as opposed to its strength. Attachment to a person who fails to offer optimal care is crucial to the infant’s survival. Except for anomalous conditions, all children become attached despite being maltreated by the caregivers (Takahashi, 1986). Additionally, when the attachment system is activated, the magnitude of a child’s cry does not reflect the quality of the attachment. Ainsworth (1979) argues that despite a child’s temperament being linked to the level of discomfort faced during separation in the Strange Situation, it is not linked to the child’s classification. Vaugh and Waters (2012) contend that a child’s behavior, when he/she is separated from the mother, is important with regards to placing the reunion behavior in context. Nonetheless, it is fundamentally the behavior towards the parent during the reunion that offers the perception of the quality of the attachment relationship.
Children Establish Attachments with their Parents
As discussed above, attachment starts in infancy and lasts throughout the infant’s lifetime. Universally, a newborn infant requires instant care from a person either a nanny or a sibling, and they end up forming a strong attachment between them minutes after the birth (Archer et al., 2015). Ainsworth believes that the primary caregiver mostly impacts the infant’s character and personality. Additionally, it is critical after the birth the new parent and baby must be left alone to create a strong attachment. According to Reite (2012), in case the room has many people after the birth process, the natural process of bonding is negatively weakened, and it can lead to lasting effects on the relationship between the parents and the child.
The mother spontaneously has some attachment to the infant since she carried the child for nine months; nonetheless, early contact is critical to forming a strong bond. Holmes (2014) argued that infants whose mothers are allowed an additional five hours of contact daily for the initial three days of life have considerably higher IQ scores. Such children score very highly on comprehension and language examinations by age five as compared to children from a parent who is not given additional time (Goldberg, 2014). Such mothers demonstrate more comforting behavior towards their children and make extra eye and physical contact with the child. Similarly, Brown et al. (2012) examined almost 301 underprivileged mothers. In his study, the control mothers were given half an hour to bond with their two-day-old infants. The session occurred four hours after the children were fed. The other mothers were given an additional six hours daily with their children (Brown et al., 2012). Further follow-ups proved that the considerably more controlled children were later admitted to the hospital for such reasons as neglect and abuse.
The mother-child relationship creates an automatic attachment; nonetheless, the father needs to create a bond after the child's birth (Harkness, 2015). The father must be involved in the child’s delivery and be available to take care of the child especially if the mother fails as a result of other reasons or circumstances. Different studies have proved that a father who establishes early contact with his children has a stronger bond just a few months after their birth (Rosmalen et al., 2015). Father-child strong attachment is demonstrated via physical contact and while holding and facing each other.
Furthermore, the interactions between father/child and mother/child are comparatively different. Observing mother-child interactions shows the mother as being affectionate and nurturing towards the child (Bolwby and Ainsworth, 2013). Alternatively, the father-infant interaction is characterized by play and affiliation. The relationship between father and child is more physical while a mother’s relationship is considered as relatively verbal. Additionally, it has been proven that the dad’s play interactions are usually more pleasurable and exciting to the infants as compared to the mother’s play interactions (Valentino et al., 2014). Furthermore, the parent-child attachments are most critical in establishing the child’s personality. Babies are conditioned at birth to be attracted to their social world (Ainsworth, 2015). Additionally, it is presumed that children learn more about the world via their caregivers and hence, their caregivers greatly influence their sense of others and personality.
Adolescents Establish Attachments with Peers
During adolescence, a child usually avoids a parental type figure as he or she seeks to stop the attachment relationships. Most adolescents treat the attachment as a relation that restrains as opposed to ties that secure and anchor. Most adolescents form new methods of approaching the bonds or attachment as they grow (Tahakashi, 1986). The new kind of attachment is extrapolative of the attachment behavior in the child’s future behavior especially with their marital relationships or with their kids. Importantly, Vaugh and Waters (2012) argue that the parent-child relationship cannot be regarded as less significant during adolescence; the adolescent minimally depends on his or her parents.
The adolescents are pursuing to be independent during such years; nonetheless, they are aware that their parents continually support them whenever possible. Such a phenomenon is consistent or applicable to the exploratory system and infants (Reite, 2012). Adolescents explore ideas of seeking autonomy, nonetheless when autonomy becomes too overpowering; they see their parents’ interventions as their secure base for assistance (Holmes, 2014). Adolescents who demonstrate independence-seeking behavior mostly have an encouraging relationship with their parents proving that they feel very relaxed exploring since they are aware that their parents will offer the necessary support (Rehn et al., 2013).
The adolescents depend more on their peers who act as their new attachment figures as they seek autonomy from their parents. Such strong relationships are established as adolescents share a similar thinking process at such an age (Crittenden, 2017). The process is very critical in any adolescent’s life since it allows the development of adult attachment styles despite being difficult initially. Lastly, adolescents establish lasting relationships with their peers that might be intimate and turn into a full or lifelong attachment relationship. Such relationships are established due to the need for species survival and attachment (Lamb, 2013). Romantic relationships are strengthened purposely for procreation reasons as well as to establish a parent-child relationship as future parents.
Many adolescents face challenges as they break away from their parents to change their attachment behaviors to their peers from their parents (Cassidy and Shaver, 2012). Additionally, parents with insecure adolescents face greater challenges balancing their children’s attachment needs and autonomy. Such adolescents usually have minimal self-assurance that their attachment relationships will last longer especially when they face problems or disagreements. Hence, they usually circumvent the problems completely (Ainsworth, 2015). Additionally, secure adolescents will encounter challenges and seek to resolve the problem instantaneously. Furthermore, insecure adolescents might face future challenges within their attachment relationship as they opt for avoidance thus; such a scenario can lead to depression among other issues (Bretherton, 2016).
Mostly, maternal attachment insecurity leads to adolescent depression hence; there is emotional instability, tension, and moodiness. As the attachment system is being affected negatively, the child and parent must be very sensitive to the new sensation (Bretherton, 2012a). Despite striving for independence, it is evident that the adolescent needs their parents at this critical point. Conclusively, as adults undergo adolescence, friendship attachments are critical as they act as a source of support and emotional security, prototypes for future relationships as well as frameworks for growth and development in social competence.
Children's Attachment Has Significant Consequences
Parents greatly impact their children’s attachment system. Investigations have been done with children to evaluate whether or not the children are secure in their parental relationship. According to Lamb (2013), secure children usually show fear when their parents leave, but they feel comfortable when the parents return. Alternatively, avoidant children usually do not show anxieties and fears; hence, they feel secure and act in a manner that proves everything is under control (Crittenden, 2017). Bad times and distressing times are usually ignored while good and joyful times are exaggerated. Such children appear to have challenges showing several emotional perspectives simultaneously (Brown et al., 2012). Many psychiatric disorders are linked to insecure attachment systems to which a child is typically vulnerable to losing an attachment figure.
Severe attachment disorders can force children to seek refuge in an attachment figure and then withdraw before being rejected, or they consider themselves worthless in the attachment figure’s eyes (Goldberg, 2014). Children who demonstrate security can form new attachment relationships while keeping their present parental ties. Harkness (2015) argues that insecure children concentrate on realizing a positive parental relationship hence; they make it hard to establish new attachment relationships.
Limitations of the Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Procedure
The main idea of Ainsworth’s theory of attachment relates to the observation of an infant’s behavior when the mother is present or absent. The theory allows us to understand personality development (Fitton, 2012). A child can react with great intensity when separated from her mother. Similarly, they respond with unusual detachment or anxiety. Nonetheless, the major limitations of the idea include the fact that the model attachment is focused on behaviors that happen during stressful situations or temporary separations as opposed to during non-stressful situations (Fitton, 2012). An extensive understanding of the bonding necessitates the observation of how the child and mother interact and reciprocate during natural, non-stressful situations. Takahashi (1986) argued that a child’s behavior toward an attachment figure when reuniting or separating cannot be considered the only factor relied on when describing attachment.
Additionally, the list of attachment behaviors is restricted to those that happen the most as the primary attachment figure. Nonetheless, other attachments are unnecessarily characterized by similar behaviors (Palm, 2014). Infants can be attached to other people nonetheless; they fail to demonstrate such an attachment in return. For instance, when a child is separated from their sibling they become unable to sleep or fussy as opposed to crying or following their mother when she wants to leave the baby behind (Fitton, 2012). Furthermore, the list of attachment model behavior only consists of obvious behaviors nonetheless; there might be physiological changes during reunions and separations.
Lastly, in the attachment model, the mother is perceived as the primary attachment figure. Nonetheless, a sibling or father might have a similar kind of attachment to the baby simultaneously (Meins and Fernyhough, 2017). The notion applies to adults who can have spouses and children as their primary attachment figures. Attachment is not constrained to early childhood or infancy and ends during the puberty stage. There are attachments during adolescence, adulthood, and later life or retirement.
Conclusion
As discussed the attachment theory is among the most popular studied theories, particularly Ainsworth's attachment models using the Strange Situation Procedure. The model describes the behavior of children towards their attachment figures in the early stages of infancy, particularly during reunion and separation times. It is mostly assumed that infancy attachment behaviors greatly determine the attachment relationships individual have in their adulthood. Nonetheless, a child’s environment and peers can also impact a child’s personality. The concept of attachment offers important perspectives on children’s development. The attachment theory as examined in the Strange Situation Procedures is universal.
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