Certificate In Psychology (CPSY) Practice Exam

Mary Ainsworth and her colleagues studied attachment in human infants using:

1. The "strange situation."

2. Frame-by-frame film analysis.

3. Strange objects.

4. Surrogate mothers.

The correct answer is: The "strange situation."

Mary Ainsworth and her colleagues developed the "strange situation" as a systematic observational procedure to assess attachment styles in infants. This method involves a series of structured episodes that observe infants’ reactions to a caregiver leaving and returning to a room that also includes a stranger. The "strange situation" specifically categorizes infant attachment into types – secure, insecure-avoidant, and insecure-resistant – based on the child's behavioral responses during these separations and reunions. The study's design was pivotal in identifying how these attachment styles correlate with later emotional and social outcomes, laying the groundwork for further attachment theory research. In contrast, frame-by-frame film analysis, strange objects, and surrogate mothers relate to different aspects of psychological research but were not the primary tools used by Ainsworth for studying infant attachment. Each of those methods focuses on various elements of development or different aspects of attachment, but none encompass the comprehensive observational paradigm Ainsworth utilized in the "strange situation."