Section 2.5 Attachment theories

4. Mary Ainsworth and the strange situation

The strange situation is a psychological observation technique devised by Mary Ainsworth in the 1970s to observe attachment in children with their caregiver, which seemed a completely novel and unique instrument. It applies to children between the age of 9 and 30 months and were originally categorized under four attachment styles: secure, anxious-insecure, avoidant-insecure, and disorganized-insecure. Depending upon how the children are attached to their parents, they would act in predictable ways in the strange situation experiment.

Mary Ainsworth explained the four types of attachment as follows (Shemmings, 2011; Brown and Ward, 2013):

•    Secure attachment 

•    Insecure avoidant attachment 

•    Insecure ambivalent attachment 

•    Disorganised attachment