Mary Ainsworth

Mary Dinsmore Ainsworth (; December 1, 1913 – March 21, 1999) was an American-Canadian developmental psychologist known for her work in the development of the attachment theory. Over 40 years she worked closely with John Bowlby, who is credited with pioneering attachment theory. First applied in 1963, it involves observation of interactions between a child and their primary caregiver. From her research with this assessment tool she described three primary patterns of attachment which she originally labelled A, B, and C. These basic patterns continue to be a foundation piece for all major theories of attachment.

Her work on attachment science and theory became known as the Ainsworth-Bowlby model, or simply the ABC model of attachment.

A 2002 Review of General Psychology survey ranked Ainsworth as the 97th most cited psychologist of the 20th century. Many of Ainsworth's studies are "cornerstones" of modern-day attachment theory.

Life Mary Dinsmore Salter was born in Glendale, Ohio on December 1, 1913, the eldest of three daughters born to Mary and Charles Salter. Her father, who possessed a master's degree in history, worked at a manufacturing firm in Cincinnati and her mother was a nurse. Both her parents were graduates of Dickinson College who placed "high value on a good liberal arts education" and expected their children to have excellent academic achievements. In 1918, her father's manufacturing firm transferred him and the family moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where Salter would spend the rest of her childhood.

Salter was a precocious child who thirsted for knowledge. She began reading by the age of three, and the family would once a week visit the local library where her mother would select appropriate books for her level. Salter excelled in school, and decided to become a psychologist after reading William McDougall's book Character and the Conduct of Life (1926) at the age of 15.

After graduation, Salter stayed on at the University of Toronto as a teacher before joining the Canadian Women's Army Corps in 1942. She married Leonard Ainsworth, a graduate student in the Psychology department of University of Toronto, in 1950 and moved to London with him to allow him to finish his PhD at University College London. the 10 years of accompanying Leonard to different places for his career gave Mary the opportunity to meet and work with many influential psychologists including John Bowlby, as well as the occasion when they moved to Kampala, Uganda where her first "mother-infant" observation was done. She died on March 21, 1999, at the age of eighty-five due to a stroke.

Early work During graduate school, Mary studied under the mentorship of William E. Blatz. Blatz focused on studying what he referred to as "security theory." This theory outlined Blatz's idea that different levels of dependence on parents meant different qualities of relationships with those parents, as well as the quality of relationships with future partners. His tiers of dependence were labeled secure dependence, independent security, immature dependent security, and mature secure dependence. Blatz theorized that the more secure and mature the interaction was between individuals, the more likely the relationship was to be healthy and without insecurities.

After leaving the Canadian Women's corps she returned to Toronto to continue teaching personality psychology and conducting research. She married Leonard Ainsworth in 1950 and moved to London with him to allow him to finish his graduate degree at University College. While in England, Ainsworth joined the research team of John Bowlby at the Tavistock Clinic, investigating the effects of maternal separation on child development. Comparison of disrupted mother-child bonds to normal mother-child relationships showed that a child's lack of a mother figure led to "adverse development effects." Ainsworth's book from that field study, Infancy in Uganda, remains an exceptional and classic ethological study in the development of attachment and demonstrates that the process reflects specific universal characteristics that cross linguistic, cultural and geographic lines.

Mary Ainsworth followed her husband when a position as a forensic psychologist brought him to Baltimore. In the first episode, the infant and their caregiver enter into a pleasant laboratory setting, with many toys. After one minute, a person unknown to the infant enters the room and slowly tries to make acquaintance. The caregiver leaves the child with the stranger for three minutes; and then returns. The caregiver departs for a second time, leaving the child alone for three minutes; it is then the stranger who enters, and offers to comfort the infant. Finally, the caregiver returns, and is instructed to pick up the child. As the episodes increase the stress of the infant by increments, the observer can watch the infant's movement between behavioural systems: the interplay of exploration and attachment behaviour, in the presence and in the absence of the parent.

On the basis of their behaviors, the 26 children in Ainsworth's original Baltimore study were placed into one of three classifications. Each of these groups reflects a different kind of attachment relationship with the caregiver, and implies different forms of communication, emotion regulation, and ways of responding to perceived threats.

Despite the many findings from her Strange Situation experiment, there was also criticism. It was said to have too much emphasis on the mother and did not measure a general attachment style. It was said that Ainsworth's work was biased because the study was conducted with only middle class American families. Critics also believed the experiment was artificial and lacked ecological validity.

Secure attachment A child who's securely attached to its mother will explore freely while the caregiver is present, using her as a 'safe base' from which to explore. The child will engage with the stranger when the caregiver is present, and will be visibly upset when the caregiver departs but happy to see the caregiver on their return. In the United States, about seventy percent of middle-class babies present secure attachment in this study.

Anxious-resistant insecure attachment Children classified as Anxious-Ambivalent/Resistant (C) showed distress even before separation, and were clingy and difficult to comfort on the caregiver's return. They either showed signs of resentment in response to the absence (C1 subtype), or signs of helpless passivity (C2 subtype). In Ainsworth's original sample, all six C infants showed so much distress in the course of the episodes of the Strange Situation Procedure 'that observations had to be discontinued.' One percent of infants had responded with high degree of passivity and inactivity in a situation of helpless settings.

Disorganized/disoriented attachment A fourth category was added by Ainsworth's colleague Mary Main. In 1990, Ainsworth put in print her blessing for the new 'D' classification, though she urged that the addition be regarded as 'open-ended, in the sense that subcategories may be distinguished', as she worried that the D classification might be too encompassing and might subsume too many different forms of behaviour. In contrast to infants in other categories classified by Mary Ainsworth, which possess a standard path of reaction while dealing with the stress of separation and reunion, type D infants appeared to possess no symptom of coping mechanism. In fact, these infants had mixed features such as "strong proximity seeking followed by strong avoidance or appeared dazed and disoriented upon reunion with their caretakers (or both)."

From Project STEEP, infants that were having Disorganized/Disoriented (Type D) tested of secreting higher cortisol concentrations in saliva than infants in the traditional (ABC) classifications. Results of this study demonstrate a model of stress reactivity that reflects how the various classification of traditional (ABC) behaviors become a factor that is affecting physiological stress responses.

Lifetime awards Phi Beta Kappa, University of Toronto Distinguished Contribution Award, Maryland Psychological Association (1973) Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, Virginia Psychological Association (1983) Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, Division 12 (Division of Clinical Psychology), American Psychological Association (APA; 1984) G. Stanley Hall Award, Division 7 (Division of Developmental Psychology), APA (1984) Salmon Lecturer, Salmon Committee on Psychiatry and Mental Hygiene, New York Academy of Medicine (1984) William T. Grant Lecturer in Behavioral Pediatrics, Society for Behavioral Pediatrics (1985) Award for Distinguished Contributions to Child Development Research, Society for Research in Child Development (1985) C. Anderson Aldrich Award in Child Development, American Academy of Pediatrics (1987) Honorary Fellowship, Royal College of Psychiatrists (1989) Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, APA (1989) American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1992) Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology, American Psychological Foundation (APF, 1998)

Major works Ainsworth, M. and Bowlby, J. (1965). Child Care and the Growth of Love. London: Penguin Books. Ainsworth, M. (1967). Infancy in Uganda. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins. Ainsworth, M., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of Attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.