CANADIAN CONTRIBUTIONS 15.2 MARY AINSWORTH, ATTACHMENT STYLES, AND
DISTRESS
Mary Ainsworth is widely regarded as one of the top psychologists produced in
Canada. She spent most of her childhood in Toronto and completed her undergraduate
and graduate work at the University of Toronto. She obtained her Ph. D. in 1939. She
was a research fellow at the Institute of Child Study at the University of Toronto from
1946 to 1950. In 1950, she married and moved to England, where she began her
lifelong research collaboration with attachment- style theorist John Bowlby.
Ainsworth is known primarily for her work on infant attachment styles. She developed
a paradigm known as the Strange Situation, in which an infant was left in a room for a
brief period with a stranger, the mother having left the room. Observational data
indicated that three distinct types of infants reflect the differences between
secure attachment and anxious attachment (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall,
1978).
A securely attached infant shows little distress and interacts quite willingly with
the stranger, secure in the knowledge that his or her mother will return. This
pattern of behaviour contrasts with the pattern expressed by two types of insecurely
attached infants. An anxiously attached infant becomes very distressed when his
or her mother leaves the room. These infants have been described as “clingy” and
are at risk of being overly dependent and prone to feelings of separation anxiety.
When mothers of anxiously attached infants return to the room, their babies tend
to express their upset by making a fuss as a form of protest, as if they are saying,
“Don’t do that to me again.” In contrast, an infant with an avoidant attachment
style displays little emotion when the mother leaves the room and shows little
reaction upon her return, almost if an attachment bond has never been formed in
the first place. Avoidantly attached infants can become withdrawn and socially
isolated. Insecure forms of attachment are likely to develop when a child is
exposed to harsh or inconsistent parenting (see Ainsworth, 1984). Secure
attachment emerges when the parent responds to the infant’s needs in a warm
and predictable manner, so that the infant comes to believe that the parent will be
available as a source of comfort on a regular basis. A fourth attachment style has
since been identified.
The disorganized attachment style is evident in infants who seem totally confused
by their surroundings. This style results from being exposed to chaotic and
abusive environments. It is possible to distinguish older children, adolescents, and
adults in terms of whether they have a secure or insecure style. What are the early
experiences and related factors that contribute to insecure attachment?
A meta- analytic study conducted by researchers in Canada concluded that maternal
mental health variables are associated with degree of attachment security
(Atkinson et al., 2000). Significant correlates of attachment security included the
amount of social support available to the mother, marital satisfaction, maternal
stress, and maternal depression. Forms of insecure attachment have been linked with
adjustment problems in children and adolescents. One longitudinal study assessed
children exposed to the Strange Situation at 1 year of age and then used
interviews 18 years later to determine which children had developed an anxiety
disorder (Warren, Huston, Egeland, & Sroufe, 1997). An anxious attachment style
among infants predicted subsequent anxiety disorders, while an avoidant
attachment style predicted other types of psychiatric disorders.
Another study conducted by researchers from Simon Fraser University found that
fearful, insecure attachment in adolescents was associated with the severity of suicide
risk in a clinical sample (Lessard & Moretti, 1998). A study conducted by Canadian
researchers yielded evidence that male adolescents with an avoidant attachment style
are more likely than males with a secure attachment style to express and receive
coercive behaviours in dating relationships (Wekerle & Wolfe, 1998).
Ainsworth received numerous awards, including the American Psychological
Association Gold Medal Award in 1998 for “Lifetime Achievement in the Science of
Psychology.” Mary Ainsworth died in 1999. Her work will be valued for many future
generations.
From Abnormal Psychology 3rd edition Blankstein, Neal, Flett, Davison