Analysis of Ainsworth´s Strange Situation

The "strange situation" of Ainsworth's research suggests that the connection between mother and child affects the behavior and development of the baby. How mother responds to infant signals is the focus of maternal and child relationship development. In Ainsworth's study, how the attachment between children changes, the nature of affection behavior, and the style of attachment have been investigated. Ainsworth's theory is to help Bowlby's attachment theory, ie the baby experiencing a secure affection, prove the validity of "attachment may be prompt and useful".

Mary Ainsworth extended the work of Bowlbys through her series of "strange conditions" experiments (Ainsworth, 2009). In the simplest form, if a child is observed to play in the room for 20 minutes, a strange situation may arise when carers and strangers enter and leave the room. The idea is to reproduce an unfamiliar, unfamiliar environment that exists in your child's life. This situation alternates tension and calmness, and the reaction of a child classifies him or her into four groups (Ainsworth, 2009).

Ainsworth and colleagues (Ainsworth et al., 1978) have developed one of the most widely used methods to study the attachment of young children. The Ainsworth team believes that the degree of affection for a baby's mother can be evaluated by the baby's response to a series of "unfamiliar" events. Basically, children are exposed to eight structured events within 25 minutes. The degree of affection for a child's mother depends on how the child responds to her mother after "divorce".

Mary Ainsworth (Ainsworth and Bell, 1970) designed a test to judge the quality of attachment to a mother of a 1 year old baby. In this test called "unfamiliar situation", a stranger observes the reaction of the baby when the baby enters the room playing with the mother. Then my mother leaves, letting a child alone with a stranger, and my mother in a short time. Based on this experiment, children can be classified as "safely attached" or "not securely attached". When the mother leaves, children safely attached show some pain, but they are ready to talk to strangers. When their mothers return, they greet eagerly to her and if they feel uneasy, she can comfort them. Children who are not safe will respond in various ways, such as not reacting to the mother, refusing when returning home, feeling a terrible pain to leaving. Therefore, we refuse to contact with strangers.