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Strange Situation

The Strange Situation is a semistructured laboratory procedure for assessing individual differences in infant attachment security. It provides information about an infant's confidence in its caregiver's availability and responsiveness and about its skill at using the caregiver as a secure base from which to explore and as a haven of safety in naturalistic settings. Psychologist Mary Ainsworth (1913–1999) developed the Strange Situation procedure to illustrate the influence of context on infant attachment behavior and to measure individual differences in infants' attachment security. The procedure consists of eight brief episodes designed to simulate exploratory behavior and responses to separation and reunion that are part of an infant's everyday life. The Strange Situation is not a test of whether the infant or child is attached to the mother or of the “strength” of the infant-caregiver bond. This entry discusses the background, procedure, scoring, and developmental significance of the Strange Situation.

Psychoanalysts were among the first to emphasize the importance of early experience on personality development. They tended to view the infant and young child as needy and dependent, seeking its mother as a means through which to reduce instinctual drives. Modern attachment theory (sometimes referred to as ethological attachment theory) stems from British psychoanalyst John Bowlby's important reformulation of this traditional view. He emphasized that infants and young children are both competent and inquisitive about their surroundings and that the hallmark of the child-parent bond is using the mother as a “secure base from which to explore.” Ainsworth worked closely with Bowlby in developing this perspective and grounding it in careful observations of infants and mothers in naturalistic settings. Reflecting this emphasis on naturalistic observation, they often described their work as an ethological attachment theory.

While a professor at Johns Hopkins University, Ainsworth, in 1962, undertook a detailed longitudinal study of 23 infant-mother dyads systematically observed in their homes from 3 weeks to 54 weeks of age. The Strange Situation procedure was developed as a semistandardized adjunct to the naturalistic observations made in this study. The goal was to confirm Bowlby's view that infants, instead of focusing primarily on internal drive states, are highly motivated to explore their environments and that confidence in the mother's availability and responsiveness makes her a valuable secure base from which to conduct such explorations, as well as a haven of safety to which the infant knows it can retreat when necessary.

The Strange Situation Procedure

The Strange Situation procedure consists of eight episodes: 1 minute to introduce mother and infant into the experimental room and then seven 3-minute test episodes. The entire procedure is recorded on videotape.

Episode 1 (Introduction to the room, 1 minute). Mother and baby enter the room. Mother sits on a chair. Baby plays with toys.Episode 2 (Free play). Mother sits quietly. Mother responds to baby's bids for attention or interaction. This provides a baseline against which to compare baby's play in subsequent episodes.Episode 3 (Stranger enters). Female research assistant enters and is seated on a chair. She sits quietly for 1 minute; she talks to mother for 1 minute and then begins to engage the baby. This episode provides a gentle introduction to the “stranger.” It provides an opportunity to observe the baby's interest in and style of approaching the new person. The stranger is not introduced in order to frighten the baby. Indeed, babies are less likely to cry when left with the stranger than when left alone.Episode 4 (First separation). A knock on the wall signals mother to leave room. She is instructed to say “I'll be right back” and to leave in a manner familiar to the baby. Once she has left, she joins the experimenter observing the infant and stranger through a one-way window. Fewer than 50 percent of healthy home-reared infants cry in response to this separation. If the baby cries hard for a full minute, the episode is abbreviated.Episode 5 (First reunion). Mother knocks on the door from outside, calls baby's name, and enters. She pauses just inside the door and extends her hands, offering the baby a chance to approach or be picked up. If the baby is crying, she can pick the baby up and comfort it as she would in other contexts. Many babies simply greet the mother across a distance, in which case she returns the greeting and returns to her chair. Once the reunion is established, the stranger leaves the room.Episode 6 (Second separation). A knock on the wall signals mother to leave room as in the first separation. She exits and joins the experimenter observing the infant through the one-way window. Infant is alone. Approximately 50 percent of healthy home-reared infants cry in this episode. If the infant cries hard for a full minute, this episode is abbreviated. Importantly, crying is not an indicator of the infant's attachment behavior at home and is not the focus of Strange Situation scoring.Episode 7 (Stranger enters). Stranger returns to the room. If the baby is playing, she sits quietly responding to bids for attention or interaction. If the baby is crying or seems distressed, she offers comfort in the form of holding, physical contact, soothing words, or by offering toys. If the baby cannot be comforted, this episode is abbreviated. This episode provides an opportunity to observe the baby's preference for the mother as a source of comfort.Episode 8 (Second reunion). Mother knocks on the door from outside, calls baby's name, and enters. She pauses just inside the door and extends her hands, offering the baby a chance to approach or be picked up. If the baby is crying, she can pick the baby up and comfort it as she would in ordinary contexts. Otherwise, she acknowledges any greeting and returns to her chair. She remains responsive to any bids for contact or interaction.

Normative and Individual Difference Results

Ainsworth examined both normative behavior averaged across the entire sample and individual differences in patterns of response. The normative results confirmed Bowlby's view that infant attachment behavior is characterized by a balance between exploration away from the mother and intermittent proximity and contact seeking. Instead of being controlled by the ebb and flow of internal drive states, infant behavior proved exquisitely sensitive to context. Exploration of the unfamiliar environment predominated when the mother was available. It declined dramatically in quantity and quality when she was absent. Although the stranger's presence often diminished distress, it rarely did so completely and rarely led to full recovery of active exploration. Mother's return elicited proximity and contact seeking, which in most cases promptly reduced distress and tipped the balance in favor of renewed exploration.

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