concepts
type: Collection
type: ConceptGroup
member: strange situation

methods for studying relationships
type: Concept
narrower: strange situation

social development and social behavior
type: Concept
narrower: strange situation

social relations in childhood and adolescence
type: Concept
narrower: strange situation

strange situation
type: Concept
broader: social relations in childhood and adolescence
broader: social development and social behavior
broader: methods for studying relationships
definition: Professor Mary Ainsworth and her student Barbara Wittig at Johns Hopkins University devised the strange situation procedure in the 1960s to demonstrate concepts central to John Bowlby's ethological theory of attachment. Although originally designed to elicit behaviors presumed to be universal among infants under stress, the strange situation instead was found to elicit systematic differences in the behavioral strategies used by infants. [Source: Encyclopedia of Human Development; Strange Situation]