Types of attachment including insecure and secure attachments SPECIFICATION: Outline the characteristics of secure and insecure attachment, including the differences between them Describe and evaluate Ainsworth’s study and link to different types of attachment

Learning Objectives: Find out how babies differ in the types of attachment behaviours that they show Investigate what behaviours are shown by babies with secure and insecure attachment types Explore two explanations given for these differences in attachment types

Starter Key terms test Blank piece of paper, pens out ready!

Research study – Ainsworth 1970 Infants aged one year to 18 months were observed through video cameras in a purpose built lab playroom Room contained two comfortable chairs and a play area with toys Children were with their mothers Standardised situations were given to all the children – see pages in your textbook

What were the situations? 1.Mother and infant enter. Mother sits in chair. Reads magazine. Child put on floor to play 2.After three minutes, stranger enters, sits on second chair and chats to mother 3.Stranger approaches infant and attempts to play with them 4.Mother leaves room. Stranger comforts infant if they cry 5.After 3 minutes mother returns. Stranger leaves 6.3 minutes later mother leaves. Infant alone 7.Stranger re-enters and offers to comfort infant 8.Mother returns and stranger leaves

Three types of attachment behaviour Attachment typeBehaviour patterns Secure infants TYPE B Used mother as a safe base. Were happy to explore room when mother there. Showed distress when she left and welcomed her back, settling back to play quickly. Wary of stranger, treated differently to mother. 70% of babies fell in this category Insecure-Avoidant infants TYPE A Showed some distress at mother leaving. Did not seek comfort from her on return. Rejected stranger’s attempts to comfort them. Tended to keep their distance and avoid closeness. 15% of babies Insecure-Ambivalent infants TYPE C Very upset at separation but not easily comforted upon return. Angry and rejected attempts to be comforted. Seemed to expect relationship to be difficult. Alternate between closeness and rejection 15% of babies

Evaluating the evidence Using page 59 in your textbooks, answer the following: How useful is the methodology that Ainsworth used? Is it reliable? Why might we say that it lacks validity? What ethical considerations are there to think of?

What causes the differences? Ainsworth: mothers who are sensitive to their babies needs, who could read their moods and feelings were likely to produce securely attached infants Kagan: it is more likely to be innate in the baby how they attach from birth Thomas and Chess’ study – page 60 in your textbook (second paragraph) summarise their findings in one paragraph

Temperament Hypothesis Kagan (1982) Children can be born to be more friendly – they have a different temperament which means that they respond better to strangers This would mean that it is nothing to do with the mothers sensitivity and all to do with the way that the baby responds to those around them Providing an alternative explanation

Plenary – check your understanding 1.Explain what is meant by secure and insecure attachments 2.Give one strength and one weakness of Ainsworth’s methodology 3.Suggest an alternative way of investigating this research 4.Evaluate one explanation of differences in attachment types 5.Compare the methods used by Ainsworth and Schaffer and Emerson in terms of ethics and validity. Which research is ‘better’? Why?