MARY AINSWORTH.

Staci, Lisa & Ella

Ainsworth’s theory is further developed from Bowlby’s theories.

Mary Dinsmore Salter Ainsworth was an American-Canadian developmental psychologist known for her work in early emotional attachment with the Strange Situation design, as well as her work in the development of attachment theory.

THE ATTACHMENT THEORY.

THE IMPACT ON SETTINGS…

It has made an impact on setting because it highlights the importance of needing to help the child settle in to their setting before the parent leaves them. They need to form a relationship with their teachers/keyworkers so they don’t feel overly distressed when their parent has to leave.

ANXIOUS-AVOIDANT INSECURE ATTACHMENT

A child with the anxious-avoidant insecure attachment style will avoid or ignore the caregiver showing little emotion when the caregiver leaves or returns. The child will not explore very much regardless of who is there. There is not much emotional range regardless of who is in the room or if it is empty. Infants classified as anxious-avoidant represented a puzzle in the early 1970s. They did not show distress on separation, and either ignored the caregiver on their return or showed some tendency to approach together with some tendency to ignore or turn away from the caregiver. Apparently calm behaviour of the avoidant infants is in fact as a mask for distress, a hypothesis later evidenced through studies of the heart-rate of avoidant infants.

ANXIOUS-RESISTANT INSECURE ATTACHMENTChildren classified as Anxious-Ambivalent/Resistant 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, or signs of helpless passivity. In Ainsworth’s original sample, all six 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.

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 his or her return. In the United States, about 70% of middle-class babies present secure attachment in this study

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."

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