Infancy in Uganda: Infant Care and the Growth of Love

Three patterns1

Secure babies cried little and explored with mother present; insecure babies cried often, even when held; some were not yet attached.

Sensitivity matters1

Babies of sensitive mothers tended to be secure; mothers' enjoyment of breast-feeding also went with security.

Attachment crosses cultures2

Wikipedia calls it a classic ethological study showing attachment has universal features across language, culture and place.

Watch at home, not in the lab1

Ainsworth observed in family living rooms, with an interpreter, timing when each signal became directed at the mother.

Secure base1

Ainsworth contributed the idea of the attachment figure as a secure base from which an infant explores.

Maternal sensitivity1

She rated how well mothers noticed and answered their baby's signals, a measure central to her later work.

A changed plan1

She came to study weaning, when children were sent away "to forget the breast"; that custom had faded, so she studied attachment instead.

Early measures1

Bretherton notes its measures were not yet as sophisticated as those of her later studies.

A cool first reception2

When she presented the findings in London, listeners pressed her on how she defined attachment.

Patterns of Attachment

Her Baltimore study, which turned these observations into the Strange Situation.

Attachment and Loss

Bowlby's theory, which drew on her Uganda data.