Mary Ainsworth
American developmental psychologist and attachment researcher
American developmental psychologist who studied mother-infant interaction in Uganda, designed the Strange Situation procedure and described secure, avoidant and ambivalent attachment patterns, working closely with John Bowlby.
Why this person matters
Ainsworth turned attachment theory into observable patterns. Her collaboration with Bowlby lasted many decades. Colleagues including Blehar, Waters and Wall co-authored Patterns of Attachment, and Mary Main later added a fourth category.
Main contributions
Uganda study
From 1953 to 1955 she worked at the East African Institute of Social Research in Kampala, carrying out a short-term naturalistic study of mother-infant relationships. It was published as Infancy in Uganda (1967).
Strange Situation
A laboratory procedure of eight episodes of about three minutes that observes how a child reacts when a caregiver leaves and returns. The original study used 26 children in Baltimore.
Attachment patterns
She and colleagues identified secure, anxious-avoidant and anxious-ambivalent patterns, and Mary Main later added a disorganised category. Patterns of Attachment (1978) was co-authored with Blehar, Waters and Wall.
Context and limits
Critics said her work put too much emphasis on the mother, used only middle-class American families and had low ecological validity. Her recommendation of feeding on demand was widely debated, and she acknowledged that her work could be read as telling mothers to stay home, saying alternative arrangements were possible. Sources date the first use of the Strange Situation to 1963 or 1965.
In your introductory course
Lifespan development.Her Strange Situation and attachment styles appear in lifespan development chapters and in discussions of parenting and childcare.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 2.2. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1939
She received her PhD at the University of Toronto.
- 1953
She began her Uganda study (one source gives 1954).
- 1955
She began work at Johns Hopkins University, becoming a full professor in 1963.
- 1978
She co-published Patterns of Attachment.
Sources
- Psychology's Feminist Voices, Mary AinsworthArchive or museum. Institutional biography inspected.
- Wikipedia, Mary AinsworthReference work. Reference article inspected.