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Why do two infants who are equally upset when their mother leaves the room behave completely differently the moment she comes back? That difference matters because it is not really about how much distress the infant shows — it is about whether the infant has learned that the caregiver can be used to make the distress go away. For example, imagine a toddler who cries hard when mum leaves the room but runs straight to her, is comforted within moments, and goes back to playing when she returns. Contrast that with a toddler who ignores mum on reunion and avoids eye contact, even though the same amount of separation happened.

The Strange Situation paradigm developed by Mary Ainsworth is a scripted eight-episode laboratory procedure: caregiver and infant enter a room with toys, a stranger enters, the caregiver leaves briefly twice, and each separation is followed by a reunion. Trained observers code the infant's reunion behaviour, not the separation distress itself, into a small set of patterns. A securely attached infant seeks the caregiver on reunion and is soon settled enough to return to play. An avoidant infant appears indifferent, ignoring or turning away from the returning caregiver. A resistant, or ambivalent, infant seeks contact but simultaneously resists it, remaining distressed and hard to settle. Clinically, a fourth pattern, disorganised attachment, shows contradictory or frozen behaviour on reunion and is associated with frightening or inconsistent caregiving, including some cases of maltreatment.

Look for a vignette describing a young child's behaviour specifically when the caregiver returns after a brief absence, rather than the child's behaviour during the absence itself. Words like 'settles quickly', 'ignores', 'clings but pushes away', or 'freezes and appears confused' are the coded reunion behaviours the exam is testing.

Distinguish avoidant (indifferent, no proximity-seeking) from resistant/ambivalent (seeks contact but resists comfort, remains distressed) — both are insecure but the reunion behaviour looks almost opposite. Distinguish disorganised attachment (contradictory, frozen, or fearful behaviour, often linked to frightening caregiving) from simple insecure patterns, which are organised, consistent strategies even if not secure. Distinguish the Strange Situation (infant observational paradigm) from the Adult Attachment Interview (adult narrative-based classification) — they measure attachment at different ages using different methods.

Trap 1, assuming a distressed infant during separation is automatically insecurely attached — separation distress itself is normal and does not determine the classification. Trap 2: confusing avoidant with secure because an avoidant infant may appear calm — the calm is indifference, not effective use of the caregiver to regulate distress. Trap 3: assuming disorganised attachment is simply a more severe version of resistant attachment, rather than a qualitatively different, contradictory pattern.

When a developmental-psychology stem describes caregiver-infant behaviour, first identify which phase of interaction is being described (separation vs reunion vs stranger presence), then match the reunion behaviour specifically to one of the four attachment patterns, and only then consider whether the vignette hints at a caregiving risk factor such as maltreatment, which points toward disorganised attachment.