In Ainsworth's Strange Situation, an infant who shows intense distress at separation, is difficult to soothe on reunion, and simultaneously seeks and resists contact with the returning caregiver is classified as:
ASecurely attached
BAnxious-avoidant
CAnxious-ambivalent (resistant)
DDisorganized
Anxious-ambivalent infants are hyperactivated by separation because their caregiver has been inconsistently responsive — sometimes available, sometimes not. On reunion they cannot settle: they want comfort but are angry that it wasn't consistently available, producing the characteristic approach-avoidance conflict. Anxious-avoidant infants, by contrast, appear indifferent at reunion, having learned that proximity-seeking is unreliable. Disorganized infants show no coherent strategy at all.
Question 2 True / False
Secure attachment develops primarily when caregivers respond perfectly to most infant signal without any misattunement.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: False
Research consistently shows that 'good enough' responsiveness — not perfection — predicts secure attachment. Misattunements are normal and unavoidable; what matters is whether the caregiver repairs the interaction by recognizing and responding to the infant's distress. This repair process may itself be an important mechanism: it teaches the infant that ruptures are recoverable and that the caregiver is reliable over time, even if not infallible moment to moment.
Question 3 Short Answer
What is Bowlby's concept of an 'internal working model,' and how does it explain why early attachment patterns might influence adult relationships?
Think about your answer, then reveal below.
Model answer: An internal working model is a mental representation — built from repeated early attachment experiences — of whether caregivers are likely to be available and responsive, and whether the self is worthy of care. These models become implicit templates for interpreting relationships: a child with a secure internal working model expects others to be trustworthy and approaches new relationships with confidence, while an insecure model may produce chronic vigilance or avoidance. Because these representations operate largely outside conscious awareness, they tend to persist and shape how adults interpret ambiguous social cues.
The internal working model concept is Bowlby's answer to the continuity question: why do early experiences matter for adult outcomes? The model is not deterministic — significant new relationships can revise it — but it creates a prior expectation that must be overcome. This is why secure attachment predicts better adult relationships on average, even though many individuals with insecure early histories develop secure adult attachment through corrective experiences.