In: Psychology
Explain Ainsworth's approach to attachment and the reasoning behind the Strange Situation.Having this basis,discuss the criticisms
Ainsworth conducted experiments to ascertain how infants get attached to their significant others. She came up with the experiments of strange situation where infants were left with strangers without their mothers being nearby. The basic purpose of these experiments was to assess the kind and intensity of emotional bonds between infants and their mothers. Ainsworth suggested, alongwith Bowlby, that the type of attchment style infants have determines the type of attachment they will form with their romantic partners in later life.
Ainsworth conducted experiments win which infants were left with strangers without their mothers for twenty minutes and then their behavior was analyzed on certain dimensions. The dimensions were- how much infants explored their environment, were they distressed with their mothers not around them, how did the child react towards the departure and arrival of their mothers etc. The outcomes of this experiment was later on used to come up with four types of attachment styles- secure attachment style, anxious- ambivalent, anxious avoidant and indifferent attachment style.
The results though indicated and have been used in many researches, do predict that attachment style influences the romantic attachments in later life, yet Ainsworth’s experiments have been criticized on certain aspects. The major criticisms revolve around- the duration of experiment (20 minutes) to be too short to assess the behavioral patterns. There are many situational variables which influence an individuals’ behavior, such as the caregiver’s and infant’s moods at the time, the role that cultural variation can play, etc which were not taken proper care by Ainsworth.