Abstract
Mary Salter Ainsworth began her career as a psychologist, earning her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. Her dissertation titled An Evaluation of Adjustment Based upon the Concept of Security was completed in 1940. It focused on the issue of the child’s need for security, a topic closely related to attachment to which she was to make a major contribution later on. During the war, she served in the Canadian Army Corp. Upon her discharge, she returned to the University of Toronto to conduct research in personality development. Following her husband’s move to London in 1950, she became involved in Tavistock Clinic’s research projects and began a lifelong working relationship with Bowlby. At first, she joined others in the psychoanalytic community who expressed skepticism of his views on attachment. Her attitude changed following her studies of children and families in Uganda (see Bretherton, 1992 ; Main, 1999).
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References
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation (p. 37). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmental Psychology, 28, 759–775.
Cassidy, J., & Shaver, P. R. (Eds.). (1999). Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications. New York: Guilford Press.
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Hesse, E. (1999). The adult attachment interview: Historical and current perspectives. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 395–433). New York: Guilford Press.
Main, M. (1999). Mary D. Salter Ainsworth: Tribute and portrait. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 19(5), 882–937.
Main, M., Hesse, E., & Goldwyn, R. (2008). Studying differences in language usage in recounting attachment history: An introduction to the AAI. In H. Steele & M. Steele (Eds.), Clinical applications of the Adult Attachment Interview (pp. 31–68). New York: Guilford Press.
Main, M., & Morgan, H. (1996). Disorganization and disorientation in infant strange situation behavior: Phenotypic resemblance to dissociative states. In L. K. Michelson & W. J. Ray (Eds.), Handbook of dissociation: Theoretical, empirical, and clinical perspectives (pp. 107–138). New York: Plenum.
Main, M., & Solomon, J. (1986). Discovery of an insecure-disorganized/disoriented attachment patter: Procedures, finding, and implications for the clarification of behavior. In T. B. Brazelton & M. W. Yogman (Eds.), Affective development in infancy (pp. 95–124). Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing Corp.
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Major Works
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation (p. 37). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Main, M., & Solomon, J. (1986). Discovery of an insecure-disorganized/disoriented attachment pattern: Procedures, finding, and implications for the clarification of behavior. In T. B. Brazelton & M. W. Yogman (Eds.), Affective development in infancy (pp. 95–124). Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing Corp.
Supplementary Reading
Grossmann, K. E., Grossmann, K., & Waters, E. (Eds.). (2005). Attachment from infancy to adulthood: The major longitudinal studies. New York: Guilford Press.
Hesse, E., & Main, M. (1999). Second-generation effects of unresolved trauma in nonmal treating parents: Dissociated, frightened, and threatening parental behavior. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 19(4), 481–540.
Main, M. (1974). Exploration, play, and cognitive functioning as related to child–mother attachment. Dissertation Abstracts International, 34(11-B), 5718–5719.
Main, M. (1995a). Discourse, prediction, and recent studies in attachment: Implications for psychoanalsysis. In T. Shapiro & R. N. Emde (Eds.), Research in psychoanalysis: Process, development, outcome (pp. 209–244). Madison, CT: International Universities Press.
Main, M. (1995b). Recent studies in attachment: Overview, with selected implications for clinical work. In S. Goldberg, R. Muir, & J. Kerr (Eds.), Attachment theory: Social, developmental, and clinical perspectives (pp. 407–474). Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
Main, M. (2000). The organized categories of infant, child, and adult attachment: Flexible vs. inflexible attention under attachment-related stress. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 48(2), 1055–1096.
Main, M., Hesse, E., & Kaplan, N. (2005). Predictability of attachment behavior and representational processes at 1, 6, and 19 years of age: The Berkeley Longitudinal Study. In K. E. Grossmann, K. Grossmann, & E. Waters (Eds.), Attachment from infancy to adulthood: The major longitudinal studies (pp. 245–304). New York: Guilford Press.
Main, M., Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. Monograph of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1–2), 66–104.
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Palombo, J., Koch, B.J., Bendicsen, H.K. (2009). Mary Salter Ainsworth (1913–1999). In: Guide to Psychoanalytic Developmental Theories. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-88455-4_16
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