Mary Ainsworth was a psychologist known for developing attachment theory and the Strange Situation experiment. Her work showed that early emotional attachment between infants and caregivers influences later development. She identified secure, anxious-avoidant, and anxious-resistant attachment styles in infants. Secure infants explored freely when caregivers were present and were distressed when separated but found comfort on reunion. Insecure styles involved avoiding, ignoring, or clinging to caregivers. A fourth disorganized/disoriented style was later identified and linked to higher stress levels in infants. Ainsworth's work highlighted the importance of children forming secure attachments at childcare settings before parents leave.

1. MARY AINSWORTH.
Staci, Lisa & Ella

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. ANXIOUS-RESISTANT
INSECURE ATTACHMENT
Children 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.

6. 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

7. 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.