Attachment:
Ainsworth constructed a strange situation experiment with 2 separation and 2 reunion episodes.
An infant is observed in the presence and absence of its mother and a stranger in the vicinity in seven different combinations. According to the infant’s behaviour it is classified as type A, B or C.
Situation 1 Both mother and infant enter the room
Situation 2 A stranger joins them
Situation 3 Mother leaves now; infant left
with stranger
Situation 4 Mother returns; stranger leaves
Situation 5 Infant left alone; mother leaves
now
Situation 6 Stranger comes back and tries to
comfort the childSituation 7 Mother comes back and
comforts, stranger leaves.
Type A: Anxious avoidant: 15%. Indifferent attitude to mother leaving the room or entering the room; keeps playing indifferent to mother’s presence. Distress when alone, not when mother is leaving. Stranger can comfort the child easily. Highly environment directed, low attachment
behaviour. Greater in the West. Perpetrators of bullying mostly have this pattern.
Type B: Secure: 70%. Plays independently when mother is in vicinity (secure base effect).
Distress when mother is leaving; seeks contact on return of the mother and gets quickly comforted by the mother not stranger.
Type C: Anxious resistant: 15%. Fussy and cries a lot and cannot use mother as a secure base to
explore around. Very high levels of distress when mother is leaving. But not comforted easily even on her return; appears ambivalent on her return. Active resistance to stranger’s efforts to pacify. Highly care giver directed, low play behaviour. Greater in Japan and Israel. Victims of bullying mostly have this pattern.
In some cases a fourth type D is seen – disorganised type. This is seen in maltreated or maternally deprived children. Insecure, dazed look and acts as if it is frightened of the mother.My be a precursor to personality difficulties latrer or dissociative experiences. Mother may have been herself abused as a child.
Attachment style may differ with different care giver; it is a function of quality of care giving. NOT temperament of child.