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Mary Dinsmore Ainsworth (1st of December, 1913 - March 21, 1999) was a female Canadian-American psychologist in the subfield of developmental psychology. She was mostly known and recognized for her work in the field of developmental attachment and attachment psychology, and famously founded attachment theory. She was mostly interested in researching caregiver and child relationship, alongside emotional attachment early on in life. She was one of the most prominent development psychologists of the 20th Century, and also one of the most cited.

Biography and early life

Researcher and psychologist Mary Dinsmore Ainsworth was born on the 1st of December, 1913 in Glendale, Ohio, USA and was the older sister of two siblings. Her parents were Charles and Mary Salter, and mostly raised Mary in Toronto, Canada. Her parents valued education highly, her father being a manufacturer with an educational background in history and her mother being a nurse and homemaker. It may have been due to these factors that Mary grew up with a passion for education and research, striving for a high standard of academic achievement. Her parents apparently played a role in this, as they placed importance on education and brought her to the library regularly. Her mother also stayed at home while not working, so Mary spent alot of time with her growing up. She also claimed to have a close relationship with her father, and spent time with him each night before bed. This may have accounted for her later interest in attachment, as it seems she had a secure attachment with her father.

She also developed an interest in psychology relatively young, apparently determining a career in the field at age 15 when she read "Character and the Conduct of Life" by William McDougall. Ainsworth delved into 3rd level education at the young age of 16, studying psychology at the University of Toronto and graduating from her bachelors degree in 1935. She then continued her academic career, obtaining her masters degree in 1936 and PhD in developmental psychology in 1939. After achieving her PhD, she worked as a psychology professor in the University of Toronto until 1942. Following this, she served in the Canadian Women's Army Corps (a non-combatant branch of the Canadian army that was set up during World War 2). Her military background gained her experience in the rank of a Major, alongside clinical and staff assessment - which may have enhanced her knowledge in psychology and developed her interpersonal skills. She was also promoted to a position of power in in 1945, serving as the Canadian Women's Army Corps Staff Selection Manager.

The second World War ended in 1945 and Ainsworth resumed her academic career in Toronto. She worked as a researcher in developmental and personality psychology, reviewing the Rorschach personality test. In 1954 she published a collaborative book "Developments in the Rorschach Technique" with Klopfer.

Collaborative work and Attachment Theory

Following her revision of the Rorschach Test, Mary married veteran and psychologist Leonard Ainsworth. The couple settled in London, United Kingdom, and Mary completed her doctorate of psychology. Mary and Leonard networked together for a decade and eventually divorced, leading Mary to establish a collaborative partnership with child psychiatrist John Bowlby. After her unification with Bowlby, Ainsworth spent a period of time living in Kampala, Uganda, where she implemented an experimental design that examined mother and baby interaction longitudinally.

Ainsworth relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, USA in 1955 to pursue clinical psychology by working in John Hopkins University - first as an associate professor until she gained the full title of a professor in 1963. She conducted a study here on caregiver and infant attachment that proved revolutionary in the field of developmental psychology, as described in Krumwiede's "Attachment theory according to John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth". Attachment theory arose from Ainsworth's maternal sensitivity hypothesis, which found that the interaction between a mother and child in the infant's early years determines how the child will develop attachment later in life - romantically besides maternally and platonically. This was a collaborative work between Ainsworth and Bowlby, which proved successful as Bowlby's focus on the sub-divisions of mother-infant interaction (be it attentive, neglective, or indifferent) complemented Ainsworth's focus on maternal sensitivity.

As illustrated in "Attachment Theory: Social, Developmental, and Clinical Perspectives" by Goldberg, Muir and Kerr, Ainsworth theorized that the mother's capability to comprehend her child's needs and wants accurately would determine the child's succession in development and secure attachment.

Strange Situation Paradigm

The Strange Situation Paradigm was a series of eight three minute experiments conducted by Ainsworth, whereby children between the ages of nine months and two and a half years were placed in a variety of environments to observe attachment behaviour. The aim of the experiments was not to determine whether or not the child displays attachment - but rather to identify signs of a nurturing relationship between the caregiver and child. Generally, the scenario would involve a child being placed in a room that has toys for the child to play with - firstly with a parent, and then without. For example, a "stranger" (the researcher) may come in to the room to comfort the child when they cry firstly, and secondly the parent would do the same. The child's response would then be noted by Ainsworth - if they showed discomfort, relief, fear, and so on.

This paradigm concluded that children can be classified into one of four attachment styles - those being, secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-disorganized and insecure-resistant. A child with secure attachment would generally notice when the mother returned, and would play with the toys with ease. They may have cried, but even if they did so they wouldn't show other signs of distress. A child with insecure-avoidant attachment tended to react indifferently, or neutrally, towards the mother leaving and returning. Insecure-disorganized children tended to be outliers in the paradigm - they would display rather sporadic behaviours, so the results of this quadrant are open for interpretation. Finally, children with an insecure-resistant attachment style tended to cry and display severe distress, refusing to play with the toys or sometimes responding aggressively.

In essence, Ainsworth's study showed that maternal attentiveness and availability can determine a child's attachment security. However, this study contained a methodological shortcoming as it displayed sample bias - all participants were American and of middle class socio-economic status. The study also didn't account for other caregiver relationships (such as the father), so proved to have a limitation. Despite these two downsides, Ainsworth's paradigm was a catalyst for change in how caregivers parent and nurture young children.

Later life and publications

Ainsworth worked at the University of Virginia following her paradigm, starting as a Visiting Professor before being promoted to a Commonwealth Professor position (from 1975 to 1984), whereby she mostly conducted, supervised and published research in developmental and clinical psychology. She concluded her successful academic and professional career 1992, having retired in 1984. Throughout her life Ainsworth won many awards and published various literary articles, such as:

• Doctor in the Making (1943)
• Infancy in Uganda (1967) [1]
• Child Care and the Growth of Love (1965)

Awards

• Distinguished Contribution Award, Maryland Psychological Association (1973) Distinguished Contribution Award, Maryland Psychological Association
• Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, Virginia Psychological Association (1983) [2]
• Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, Division 12 (Division of Clinical Psychology), American Psychological Association (APA; 1984) [3]
• G. Stanley Hall Award, Division 7 (Division of Developmental Psychology), APA (1984) [4]
• Salmon Lecturer, Salmon Committee on Psychiatry and Mental Hygiene, New York Academy of Medicine (1984) [5]
• William T. Grant Lecturer in Behavioral Pediatrics, Society for Behavioral Pediatrics (1985) [6]
• Award for Distinguished Contributions to Child Development Research, Society for Research in Child Development (1985) [7]
• Award for Distinguished Professional Contribution to Knowledge, APA (1987) [8]
• C. Anderson Aldrich Award in Child Development, American Academy of Pediatrics (1987) [9]
• Distinctive Achievement Award, Virginia Association for Infant Mental Health (1989) [10]
• Honorary Fellowship, Royal College of Psychiatrists (1989) [11]
• Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, APA (1989) https://www.apa.org/about/awards/scientific-contributions
• Elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1992) [12]
• Distinguished Professional Contribution Award, Division 12 (Division of Clinical Psychology), APA (1994) [13]
• International Society for the Study of Personal Relationships Distinguished Career Award (1996) [14]
• Mentor Award, Division 7 (Division of Developmental Psychology), APA (1998) [15]
• Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology, American Psychological Foundation (APF, 1998) [16]