1. When Mary Ainsworth created the strange situation research design, her intent was to see how babies responded when they found themselves separated from their caretakers, then either left alone or approached by new people. For many first-year college students, arrival on campus might be the young adult version of a strange situation:

watching parents drive away from the residence hall after move-in day, left with plenty of moments of solitude and surrounded by plenty of unfamiliar faces. Some researchers noticed this parallel and pointed out the upside: that college can be a time for young adults whose parental attachment gave them a sense of security to explore and master the new environment (Kenny & Barton, 2003). Of course, the downside is that new college students whose parental attachment is not so secure might shy away from exploration (for example, hide out in their rooms) or experience high levels of distress (anxiety, depression, eating disorders, etc.). These researchers have conducted numerous studies that support this connection between parental attachment and well-being in firstyear college students (Kenny, 1987; Kenny & Donaldson, 1991; Kenny & Perez, 1996). Do you think your own experience as a first-year college student was influenced by the type of attachment you had to your parents as a young child? What about your siblings, high school friends, or roommates? Did they handle the “strange situation” of college as you would have predicted based on their attachments to their parents?