Mary Ainsworth
Also known as Mary Dinsmore Ainsworth, Mary Salter Ainsworth
Psychologist who created the Strange Situation and the ABC attachment patterns.
At a glance
Main ideas
The secure base, Measuring attachment, Three patterns …
See all 5Criticism of her method
Narrow sample, Artificial setting
See all 2Books to start with
Infancy in Uganda, Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation
See all 2Connections
John Bowlby, Attachment theory and 2 others
See all 4
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Ainsworth gave attachment theory a way to be measured: the Strange Situation procedure.
- With it she described three patterns, secure, avoidant and ambivalent, labelled B, A and C.
- She introduced the idea of the secure base and stressed the mother's sensitivity to distress.
- She worked with John Bowlby for over 40 years.
Why it matters
- The attachment styles that therapists and self-help books talk about start with her observations.
Key facts
- Born
- 1 Dec 1913, Glendale, Ohio1
- Died
- 21 Mar 1999, Charlottesville, Virginia1
- Known for
- The Strange Situation procedure; the ABC model of attachment1
- Education
- PhD, University of Toronto, 19391
- Worked at
- Tavistock Clinic, Johns Hopkins University, University of Virginia1
- Field work
- Mother-infant observations in villages around Kampala, Uganda, from 19541
Main ideas
-
The secure base1
Her 1939 dissertation already argued that without family security a person lacks "a secure base from which to work".
-
Measuring attachment1
She was the first to develop a validated method to assess attachment, observing a child with their caregiver.
-
Three patterns1
From 26 children in her Baltimore study she described secure, avoidant and ambivalent attachment.
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Avoidance masks distress2
With Bell she argued avoidant infants' calm hides distress, later supported by heart-rate studies.
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A fourth pattern1
In 1990 she endorsed Mary Main's disorganised category, warning it might lump too much together.
Criticism of her method
Books to start with
The line under a date fills as it gets older: empty when new, full at 2 years.
-
Her ethological field study of mother-infant attachment in Uganda.
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Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation1
The founding account of the Strange Situation and the attachment patterns.
Connections
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
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The line under a date fills as time passes: empty when new, then one equal share each for a day, a week, a month and a year. For episodes and other items it is full at 2 years; for "last checked", at a year. A striped line means the date is known only to the month or year.