Lesson 7.1.2

7.1.2 Ainsworth's attachment types and the Strange Situation Quiz: Pearson Edexcel Psychology, Unit 7

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 7.1.2, Ainsworth's attachment types and the Strange Situation: 20 multiple choice questions for the Pearson Edexcel Psychology (9PS0), Unit 7: Child psychology, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Who developed the Strange Situation procedure to classify attachment types?

    • John Bowlby
    • Hans Eysenck
    • Albert Bandura
    • Mary Ainsworth

  2. How many episodes does the Strange Situation procedure contain?

    • Eight
    • Twelve
    • Five
    • Three

  3. Which attachment type in the Strange Situation is labelled insecure-avoidant?

    • Type A
    • Type D
    • Type B
    • Type C

  4. What distinguishes Type C infants in the Strange Situation?

    • They are highly distressed on separation and hard to comfort on reunion
    • They show no distress and avoid the caregiver
    • They are calm on separation and eager to explore on reunion
    • They ignore the stranger completely at all times

  5. What does a Type B infant typically do on reunion with the caregiver?

    • Seek contact, settle quickly and return to play
    • Avoid the caregiver and ignore them completely
    • Cling and refuse to be comforted for an hour
    • Show no response to the caregiver at all

  6. Ainsworth linked attachment type to what aspect of caregiving?

    • The caregiver's ability to play chess
    • The sensitivity and responsiveness of the caregiver to the infant's signals
    • The caregiver's height and weight
    • The caregiver's favourite television programme

  7. What was the setting of Ainsworth's home observations of infants?

    • A school playground with teachers only
    • Infants' own homes in Baltimore, where mothers were observed in everyday interaction
    • A laboratory with no caregivers allowed
    • A hospital ward with no parents present

  8. A researcher uses the Strange Situation with 12-month-old infants. Which feature of the procedure is the purpose of the reunion episodes?

    • To check the infant's eyesight in dim light
    • To measure the infant's weight gain
    • To measure how the infant responds when the caregiver returns after separation
    • To test the infant's ability to speak

  9. Why does the Strange Situation use a stranger as well as a separation?

    • To test whether the infant can count to ten
    • To give the caregiver a short break from work
    • To check the room temperature every few minutes
    • To observe how the infant responds to an unfamiliar adult when the caregiver is away

  10. Which evaluation of the Strange Situation is most balanced?

    • It only applies to infants older than five years
    • It has no value for assessing attachment in any child
    • It is completely culture-free and needs no further testing
    • It is a standardised, reliable measure, but it may reflect the culture in which it was developed

  11. Which technique is used to check that the Strange Situation's classifications are consistent across observers?

    • Inter-rater reliability, where independent observers agree on the classification
    • Random allocation of infants to caregivers
    • Measuring infants' weight at each stage
    • Repeated testing of the same infant on one day

  12. Why might the Strange Situation be criticised as a reductionist measure?

    • It reduces complex attachment relationships to a short set of behaviours in one artificial setting
    • It requires infants to speak fluently
    • It uses too many caregivers in each test
    • It measures too many behaviours at once

  13. What is the best use of the Strange Situation in research on attachment?

    • As a method to measure the child's IQ
    • As a standardised tool to classify attachment types and compare them across groups
    • As a diagnostic test for medical illness in children
    • As a school entrance examination for infants

  14. A longitudinal study finds that infants classified as secure at 12 months still show secure relationships at age 5. What does this suggest?

    • Attachment type always changes completely after one year
    • Attachment type can only be measured in adults
    • Early attachment type may have some continuity over time
    • Attachment type is unrelated to later relationships

  15. What is meant by the term attachment type in Ainsworth's work?

    • A list of foods that an infant prefers
    • A genetic code that determines eye colour
    • A measure of an infant's height at birth
    • A category describing the quality of the infant-caregiver bond shown in the Strange Situation

  16. In a sample of 100 infants, 70 were Type B, 20 Type A and 10 Type C. What percentage were securely attached?

    • 70 per cent
    • 20 per cent
    • 30 per cent
    • 90 per cent

  17. Why was the Strange Situation designed as a standard sequence of separations and reunions?

    • To make the procedure comparable across infants and observers
    • To make the infants tired so they behave in a calmer way
    • To allow the caregiver to take a holiday during the test
    • To ensure that every infant speaks at least one word

  18. Which attachment type is the most common in Ainsworth's original studies?

    • Type A, insecure-avoidant
    • Type D, disorganised
    • Type C, insecure-resistant
    • Type B, secure attachment

  19. A child is classified as securely attached in one culture but not in another. What does this suggest?

    • The child must have been mislabelled in every case
    • The Strange Situation always gives the same result everywhere
    • Culture has no effect on attachment at all
    • Attachment patterns may be interpreted differently across cultures, so the measure needs cultural care

  20. Which of the following most directly reflects the ethical issue of the Strange Situation?

    • Recording the infant's dreams during sleep
    • Keeping infants in the lab for a full day
    • Asking infants to do difficult maths problems
    • Causing distress to infants during separation, which requires careful monitoring and safeguards

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