AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -The strange situation is a procedure devised by Mary Ainsworth in the 1970s to observe attachment in children, that is relationships between a caregiver and child. It applies to children between the age of nine and 30 months.

Detailed explanation-2: -The American-Canadian psychologist Mary Ainsworth (1913-1999) developed the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) to measure mother-child attachment and attachment theorists have used it ever since. When Ainsworth published the first results of the SSP in 1969, it seemed a completely novel and unique instrument.

Detailed explanation-3: -The original method, developed by the influential psychologist Mary Ainsworth, is the laboratory procedure called the “Strange Situation” (Ainsworth et al 1978). It tests how babies or young children respond to the temporary absence of their mothers.

Detailed explanation-4: -British psychologist John Bowlby was the first attachment theorist. He described attachment as a “lasting psychological connectedness between human beings."1 Bowlby was interested in understanding the anxiety and distress that children experience when separated from their primary caregivers.

Detailed explanation-5: -Attachment theory is the joint work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth (Ainsworth & Bowlby, 1991 ). Drawing on concepts from ethology, cybernetics, information processing, developmental psychology, and psychoanalysts, John Bowlby formulated the basic tenets of the theory.