Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Procedure

Ainsworth and her team developed a laboratory-based methodology for verifying Bowlby’s theory, leading to Strange Situation Procedure (SSP).


How Does it Occur?

Newborns form attachment after birth and continue through early childhood.

All the following gestures assist the formation of good parent-child attachment (Thompson, 1998).


 Crying serves as a powerful social signal that induces sympathy.



 Infants of 4- to 6-week-old demonstrate social smiling that will elicit joy and pleasure.



 At 6 months old, they give happy greetings such as smiling and extending out their arms when their parents return.



Are There Different Kinds of Attachments?

Ainsworth and her team conducted this 20-minute long SSP session to observe how children react to separation from their caregivers. Infants will be crying in distress if they discover that their parents leave them.



A mother and her baby entered a laboratory room that was redesigned to resemble a comfortable living room. The mother sat down and the child began to explore the surrounding. Then, a stranger, being unfamiliar but appeared friendly, entered the room. Next, she got up and left the place, leaving the baby alone with the unfamiliar adult.



Moments later, she came back to the room and the stranger left the place. She was alone with the baby for several minutes. The whole session was secretly videotaped, so that the child reactions and behaviors could be analyzed later.



SSP is a useful tool for assessing attachment security. Infants’ reaction on separation and reunion of their parents at home can be linked to the quality of parental responsiveness as well as how the infants regard their parents as the secure base in which they can explore the surrounding confidently (Pederson and Moran, 1996;Pederson et al., 1998).


There are four categories of attachment, namely secure, avoidant, ambivalent, and disoriented.


Approximately 60 % of North American infants in middle-SES families possess secure attachment.


Baby explored the room freely when mother is around. Next, stranger came and conversed with mother. She left inconspicuously and the stranger attempted to respond to the baby by offering comfort if feeling upset. The baby cries because they prefer mother over stranger. When mother returned, the baby actively established contact and the crying ceased immediately.


Mothers of secure infants provide more affection and stimulation to their babies. A caregiver’s responsiveness to infants can contribute to a more harmonious relationship later in life between the child and parents.


There are approximately 10% of North American infants in middle-SES families with this ambivalent attachment.


Baby explores very little and spends more time clinging to mother. Baby is extremely distressed when mother left. The child displays inconsistent behavior such as clinging angrily while being carried.


What Are the Effects of Attachment?

The children need the parental support to gain emotional stability in unfamiliar surroundings. They react to unresponsive mothers by expressing anger and hostility due to the internalization of the episodes of unresponsive treatment they experience in the past.


Bowlby suggested that early experiences of infant-parent interaction would eventually form working models for adult relationship. It is internalized in the form of unconscious expectations about relationship that exert powerful influence on adult interpersonal communication.


If children feel neglected, or find it difficult to trust their mothers to take care of them, they may begin to form the impression that others will neglect them too. On the contrary, if they are confident about their parents’ love for them, then they will anticipate others to find them lovable as well (Bowlby, 1988).



High dependency, poor coping skills and social relationship are closely associated with insecure attachment (Burge et.al, 1997; M.S. Howard & Medway, 2004). Unless intervention is implemented, she will likely to have difficulty forming healthy bonds with parents or other adults in the future.


Sensitive caregiving, regardless of the difference of parents or caregivers, cross cultural variance, or socioeconomic status, is considered the key element in enhancing attachment (De Wolff & van IJzendoorn, 1997; Posada et al., 2002, 2004; Stams, Juffer, & van IJzendoorn, 2002; van IJzendoorn et al., 2004)