Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation

Reunions reveal the pattern3

Some one-year-olds were angry and ambivalent when mother returned; others avoided her; most sought contact.

Lab matches home3

Infants ambivalent or avoidant on reunion had less harmonious relationships with their mothers at home.

Responsive mothers, less crying3

In the Baltimore project, babies whose mothers responded promptly to crying early on cried less late in the first year.

The Strange Situation4

Eight short episodes in a playroom: a stranger enters, mother leaves twice and returns, once leaving the baby alone.

Three groups: A, B, C4

Avoidant (A), secure (B) and ambivalent or resistant (C); Main and Solomon later added a fourth, disorganized.

Secure base behavior3

Infants explored more with mother present than after a stranger came in or mother left.

Expectations from experience3

Ainsworth explained the patterns by what infants had come to expect from earlier satisfying or rejecting care.

Kicking at mother3

Ambivalent babies cried and wanted contact but would not "sink in" when picked up, kicking or swiping at their mother.

Book outline1

Chapters cover procedures, each episode, links with home behavior, subgroups, and maternal sensitivity scales in the appendices.

Small and narrow sample5

The original Baltimore classification rested on 26 middle-class American children, a criticism of bias.

Artificial and mother-centred5

Critics said the procedure lacked ecological validity and focused on the mother rather than a general style.

Culture4

Brief separations may not mean the same everywhere; Japanese infants, rarely separated, were a case in point.

Global spread holds4

A meta-analysis of 2,000 dyads found 21% A, 65% B, 14% C, broadly matching the 1978 distributions.

Infancy in Uganda

Ainsworth's first attachment study, where these patterns first appeared.

Attachment and Loss

Bowlby's theory that this study tested.

Hold Me Tight

How adult attachment patterns show up between partners.