The Strange Situation

1969

Mary Dinsmore Salter Ainsworth (1913–1999)

When developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth traveled with her husband to Uganda in 1954, she already had extensive experience working with John Bowlby as he developed his theories about the importance of attachment for normal development. Her observations of mother-infant interactions in Uganda persuaded her that attachment between mother and child was an important evolutionary adaptation for human survival, as the attachment bond seemed to provide the security that children need to explore the world around them. Ainsworth observed that separation from the caregiver would naturally produce anxiety, which would be reduced upon being reunited.

Could attachment be studied in the laboratory? In 1969, Ainsworth devised a twenty-minute laboratory test called the Strange Situation to do just that. In the Strange Situation, the mother and infant are placed in a room new to them both. A variety of toys are placed around the room. Once the infant settles down, a stranger comes into the room, and the mother then leaves. The stranger gently approaches the infant, then leaves the room, whereupon the mother returns. The behaviors of interest are the infant’s exploration of the room—both when the mother is present and when she is absent—and, most important, the infant’s response to the mother when she returns.

Based on these behaviors, Ainsworth posited that there are three types of attachment. Secure attachment is characterized by infant exploration of the environment, minimal separation anxiety, and being easily comforted upon mother’s return. Insecure-avoidant attachment is indicated by a small amount of distress over the mother leaving the room and avoidance of her when she returns. In insecure-ambivalent attachment, the infant is visibly upset by the mother’s departure but shows a variety of responses to her return, sometimes avoiding and other times clinging to her.

The Strange Situation paradigm became one of the most widely used research tools in the history of developmental psychology. The results have been used to shape public policy and to predict the nature of adult close relationships.

SEE ALSO Attachment Theory (1969), Ecological Systems Theory (1979)

This loving interaction illustrates a secure attachment style between mother and child.