www.psychspace.com心理学空间网REFINING ATTACHMENT THEORY AND RESEARCH:
BOWLBY AND AINSWORTH
Before the publication of “The Nature of the Child’s Tie to His Mother” in 1958, Mary
Ainsworth received a preprint of the paper from John Bowlby. This event led Bowlby and
Ainsworth to renew their close intellectual collaboration. Ainsworth’s subsequent analysis of data
from her Ganda project (Ainsworth 1963, 1967) influenced and was influenced by Bowlby’s
reformulation of attachment theory (published in 1969). In this sharing of ideas, Ainsworth’s
theoretical contribution to Bowlby’s presentation of the ontogeny of human attachment cannot be
overestimated.
Findings From Ainsworth’s Ganda Project
The Ganda data (Ainsworth, 1963, 1967) were a rich source for the study of individual
differences in the quality of mother - infant interaction, the topic that Bowlby had earlier left aside
as too difficult to study. Of special note, in light of Ainsworth’s future work, was an evaluation of
maternal sensitivity to infant signals, derived from interview data. Mothers who were excellent
informants and who provided much spontaneous detail were rated as highly sensitive, in contrast
to other mothers who seemed imperceptive of the nuances of infant behavior. Three infant
attachment patterns were observed: Securely attached infants cried little and seemed content to
explore in the presence of mother; insecurely attached infants cried frequently, even when held by
their mothers, and explored little; and not-yet attached infants manifested no differential behavior
to the mother.
It turned out that secure attachment was significantly correlated with maternal sensitivity.
Babies of sensitive mothers tended to be securely attached, whereas babies of less sensitive
mothers were more likely to he classified as insecure. Mothers’ enjoyment of breast-feeding also
correlated with infant security. These findings foreshadow some of Ainsworth’s later work,
although the measures are not yet as sophisticated as those developed for subsequent studies.
Ainsworth presented her initial findings from the Ganda project at meetings of the Tavistock
Study Group organized by Bowlby during the 1960s (Ainsworth, 1963). Participants invited to
these influential gatherings included many now-eminent infant researchers of diverse theoretical
backgrounds (in addition to Mary Ainsworth, there were Genevieve Appell, Miriam David, Jacob
Gewirtz, Hanus Papousek, Heinz Prechtl, Harriet Rheingold, Henry Ricciuti, Louis Sander, and
Peter Wolff), as well as renowned animal researchers such as Harry Harlow, Robert Hinde,
Charles Kaufmann, Jay Rosenblatt, and Thelma Rowell Their lively discussions and ensuing
studies contributed much to the developing field of infant social development in general.
Importantly for Bowlby, they also enriched his ongoing elaboration of attachment theory. Bowlby
had always believed that he had much to gain from bringing together researchers with different
theoretical backgrounds (e.g., learning theory, psychoanalysis, and ethology), whether or not thy
agreed with his theoretical position. Proceedings of these fruitful meetings were published in four
volumes entitled Determinants of Infant Behaviour (1961, 1963, 1965, and 1969, edited by Brian
Foss).
The Baltimore Project
In 1963, while still pondering the data from the Ganda study, Mary Ainsworth embarked on
a second observational project whose thoroughness no researcher has since equaled. Again, she
opted for naturalistic observations, hut with interviews playing a somewhat lesser role. The 26
participating Baltimore families were recruited before their babies were horn, with 18 home visits
beginning in the baby’s first month and ending at 54 weeks of age. Each visit lasted 4 hours to
make sure that mothers would feel comfortable enough to follow their normal routine, resulting
in approximately 72 hours of data collection per family.
Raw data took the form of narrative reports, jotted down in personal shorthand, marked in
5-minute intervals, and later dictated into a tape recorder for transcription. Typed narratives from
all visits for each quarter of the first year of life were grouped together for purposes of analysis.
A unique (at the time) aspect of Ainsworth’s methodology was the emphasis on meaningful
behavioral patterns in context, rather than on frequency counts of specific behaviors, This
approach had roots in her dissertation work, in which she classified patterns of familial and
extrafamilial dependent and independent security, in her expertise with the Rorschach test, and in
her work at the Tavistock Institute with Bowlby and Robertson.
Close examination of the narratives revealed the emergence of characteristic mother-infant
interaction patterns during the first 3 months (see Ainsworth et al., 1978; see also Ainsworth,
1982, 1983). Separate analyses were conducted on feeding situations (Ainsworth & Bell, 1969),
mother-infant face-to-face interaction (Blehar, Lieberman, & Ainsworth, 1977), crying (Bell &
Ainsworth, 1972), infant greeting and following (Stayton & Ainsworth, 1973), the attachment-
exploration balance (Ainsworth, Bell, & Stayton, 1971), obedience (Stayton, Hogan, &
Ainsworth, 1973), close bodily contact (Ainsworth, Bell, Blehar, & Main, 1971), approach
behavior (Tracy, Lamb, & Ainsworth, 1976), and affectionate contact (Tracy & Ainsworth,
1981).
Striking individual differences were observed in how sensitively, appropriately, and
promptly mothers responded to their infants’ signals. For some mother-infant pairs, feeding was
an occasion for smooth cooperation. Other mothers had difficulties in adjusting their pacing and
behavior to the baby’s cues. In response, their babies tended to struggle, choke, and spit up,
hardly the sensuous oral experience Freud had had in mind. Similar distinctive patterns were
observed in face-to-face interactions between mother and infant during the period from 6 to 15
weeks (Blehar et al,, 1977). When mothers meshed their own playful behavior with that of their
babies, infants responded with joyful bouncing, smiling, and vocalizing. However, when mothers
initiated face-to-face interactions silently and with an unsmiling expression, ensuing interactions
were muted and brief. Findings on close bodily contact resembled those on feeding and
face-to-face Interaction, as did those on crying. There were enormous variations in how many
crying episodes a mother ignored and how long she let the baby cry. In countering those who
argued that maternal responsiveness might lead to “spoiling,” Bell and Ainsworth (1972)
concluded that “an infant whose mother’s responsiveness helps him to achieve his ends develops
confidence in his own ability to control what happens to him” (p. 1188).
Maternal sensitivity in the first quarter was associated with more harmonious mother-infant
relationships In the fourth quarter. Babies whose mothers had been highly responsive to crying
during the early months now tended to cry less, relying for communication on facial expressions,
gestures, and vocalizations (Bell & Ainsworth, 1972). Similarly, infants whose mothers had
provided much tender holding during the first quarter sought contact less often during the fourth
quarter, hut when contact occurred, it was rated as more satisfying and affectionate (Ainsworth,
Bell, Blehar, et al,, 1971), Ainsworth (Ainsworth et al., 1978) explains these findings by recourse
to infants’ expectations, based on prior satisfying or rejecting experiences with mother.
All first-quarter interactive patterns were also related to infant behavior in a laboratory procedure
known as the Strange Situation (Ainsworth & Wittig, 1969). This initially very controversial
laboratory procedure for 1 -year-olds was originally designed to examine the balance of attachment
and exploratory behaviors under conditions of low and high stress, a topic in which
Harlow (196!) had aroused Ainsworth’s interest during meetings of the Tavistock group, but
which also reminded her of an earlier study by Arsenian (1943) on young children in an insecure
situation and of her dissertation work on security theory.
The Strange Situation is a 20-minute miniature drama with eight episodes. Mother and
infant are introduced to a laboratory playroom, where they are later joined by an unfamiliar
woman. While the stranger plays with the baby, the mother leaves briefly and then returns. A
second separation ensues during which the baby is completely alone. Finally, the stranger and then
the mother return.
As expected, Ainsworth found that infants explored the playroom and toys more vigorously
in the presence of their mothers than after a stranger entered or while the mother was absent
(Ainsworth & Bell, 1970). Although these results were theoretically interesting, Ainsworth
became much more intrigued with unexpected patterns of infant reunion behaviors, which
reminded her of responses Robertson had documented in children exposed to prolonged
separations, and about which Bowlby (1959) had theorized in his paper on separation.
A few of the I -year-olds from the Baltimore study were surprisingly angry when the mother
returned after a 3-minute (or shorter) separation. They cried and wanted contact but would not
simply cuddle or “sink in” when picked up by the returning mother. Instead, they showed their
ambivalence by kicking or swiping at her. Another group of children seemed to snub or avoid the
mother on reunion, even though they had often searched for her while she was gone. Analyses of
home data revealed that those infants who had been ambivalent toward or avoidant of the mother
on reunion in the Strange Situation had a less harmonious relationship with her at home than
those (a majority) who sought proximity, interaction, or contact on reunion (Ainsworth, Bell, &
Stayton, 1974). Thus originated the well-known Strange Situation classification system
(Ainsworth et al., 1978), which, to Ainsworth’s chagrin, has stolen the limelight from her
observational findings of naturalistic mother-infant interaction patterns at home.
The First Volume in the Attachment Trilogy: Attachment and Ethology
While Ainsworth wrote up the findings from her Ganda study for Infancy in Uganda (1967) and
was engaged in collecting data for the Baltimore project, Bowlby worked on the first volume of
the attachment trilogy, Attachment (1969). When he began this enterprise in 1962, the plan had
been for a single hook. However, as he explains in the preface: “As my study of theory progressed
it was gradually borne in upon me that the field I had set out to plough so light-heartedly
was no less than the one Freud had started tilling sixty years earlier.” In short, Bowlby realized
that he had to develop a new theory of motivation and behavior control, built on up-to-date science
rather than the outdated psychic energy model espoused by Freud.
In the first half of Attachment, Bowlby lays the groundwork for such a theory, taking pains
to document each important statement with available research findings. He begins by noting that
organisms at different levels of the phylogenetic scale regulate instinctive behavior in distinct
ways, ranging from primitive reflex-like “fixed action patterns” to complex plan hierarchies with
subgoals. In the most complex organisms, instinctive behaviors may be “goal-corrected” with
continual on-course adjustments (such as a bird of prey adjusting its flight to the movements of
the prey). The concept of cybernetically controlled behavioral systems organized as plan
hierarchies (Miller, Galanter, & Pribram, 1960) thus came to replace Freud’s concept of drive and
instinct. Behaviors regulated by such systems need not be rigidly innate, hut-depending on the
organism- can adapt in greater or lesser degrees to changes in environmental circumstances,
provided that these do not deviate too much from the organism’s environment of evolutionary
adaptedness. Such flexible organisms pay a price, however, because adaptable behavioral systems
can more easily be subverted from their optimal path of development. For humans, Bowlby
speculates, the environment of evolutionary adaptedness probably resembles that of present-day
hunter-gatherer societies.
The ultimate functions of behavioral systems controlling attachment, parenting, mating,
feeding, and exploration are survival and procreation. In some cases, the predictable outcome of
system activation is a time-limited behavior (such as food intake); in others it is the time-extended
maintenance of an organism in a particular relation to its environment (e.g., within its own
territory or in proximity to particular companions).
Complex behavioral systems of the kind proposed by Bowlby can work with foresight in organisms
that have evolved an ability to construct internal working models of the environment and of
their own actions in it (a concept taken over from (Craik, 1943, through the writings of the biologist
J. Young, 1964). The more adequate an organism’s internal working model, the more accurately
the organism can predict the future, However, adds Bowlby, if working models of the
environment and self are out of date or are only half revised after drastic environmental change,
pathological functioning may ensue. He speculates that useful model revision, extension, and
consistency checking may require conscious processing of model content. In humans, communicative
processes-initially limited to emotional or gestural signaling and later including language
-also permit the inter-subjective sharing of model content. On an intrapsychic level, the same
processes are useful for self-regulation and behavioral priority setting.
In mammals and birds, behavioral systems tend to become organized during specific
sensitive developmental periods. As initial reflex-like behavior chains come under more complex,
cybernetically controlled organization, the range of stimuli that can activate them also becomes
more restricted, This is the case in imprinting, broadly defined as the restriction of specific
instinctive behaviors to particular individuals or groups of individuals during sensitive phases of
development, as in filial, parental, and sexual imprinting.
Having laid out this general theory of motivation and behavior regulation in the first half of
the volume, Bowlby goes on, in the second half, to apply these ideas to the specific domain of
infant-mother attachment. He defines attachment behavior as behavior that has proximity to an
attachment figure as a predictable outcome and whose evolutionary function is protection of the
infant from danger, insisting that attachment has its own motivation and is in no way derived from
systems subserving mating and feeding.
Although human infants initially direct proximity-promoting signals fairly indiscriminately to
all caregivers, these behaviors become increasingly focused on those primary figures who are
responsive to the infant’s crying and who engage the infant in social interaction (Schaffer &
Emerson, 1964). Once attached, locomotor infants are able to use the attachment figure as a
secure base for exploration of the environment and as a safe haven to which to return for
reassurance (Ainsworth, 1967; Schaffer & Emerson, 1964). How effectively the attachment
figure can serve in these roles depends on the quality of social interaction-especially the
attachment figure’s sensitivity to the infant’s signals-although child factors also play a role.
Building on Ainsworth’s Ganda study (1967) and preliminary findings from her Baltimore
project, Bowlby (1969) comments that:
when interaction between a couple runs smoothly, each party manifests intense pleasure in
the other’s company and especially in the other’s expression of affection. Conversely,
whenever interaction results in persistent conflict each party is likely on occasion to exhibit
intense anxiety or unhappiness, especially when the other is rejecting. Proximity and
affectionate interchange are appraised and felt as pleasurable by both, whereas distance and
expressions of rejection are appraised as disagreeable or painful by both. (p. 242)
During the preschool years, the attachment behavioral system, always complementary to
the parental caregiving system, undergoes further reorganization as the child attains growing insight
into the attachment figure’s motives and plans. Bowlby refers to this stage as goal-
corrected partnership. However, in emphasizing infant initiative and sensitive maternal responding,
Bowlby’s (1951) earlier theorizing on the mother as the child’s ego and superego was regrettably
lost.
Consolidation
The publication of the first volume of the attachment trilogy in 1969 coincided with the
appearance in print of initial findings from Ainsworth’s Baltimore project (reviewed earlier).
However, many investigators strongly contested Ainsworth’s claims regarding the meaning of
Strange Situation behavior, often because they failed to note that Strange Situation classifications
had been validated against extensive home observations. Some interpreted avoidant infants’
behavior as independence. The controversy lessened somewhat after the publication of Patterns
of Attachment (Ainsworth et al., 1978), which drew together the results from the Baltimore
project and presented findings from other laboratories on the sequelae of attachment classifications
in toddlerhood and early childhood (e.g., Main, 1973; Matas, Arend, & Sroufe, 1978).
During this period, many of Ainsworth’s graduate students began to publish their own work.
Silvia Bell (1970) examined the relationship between object permanence and attachment. Mary
Main (1973) studied secure and insecure toddlers’ capacity to become invested in play activities
and problem solving. Mary Blehar (1974) undertook the first study of attachment and nonmaternal
care, and Alicia Lieberman (1977) investigated attachment and peer relationships in
preschoolers. Mary Ainsworth’s influence is also evident in the fact that many Johns Hopkins
undergraduate students who had helped with the analysis of data from the Baltimore project later
produced innovative dissertations on attachment-related topics at their respective graduate
institutions. Among these students were Robert Marvin (1972, 1977), who wrote on the
goal-corrected partnership; Milton Kotelchuck (1972), who studied father attachment; Mark
Cummings (1980), who investigated attachment and day care; Mark Greenberg (Greenberg &
Marvin, 1979), who examined attachment in deaf children; and Everett Waters (1978), who
documented the longitudinal stability of attachment patterns from 12 to 18 months.
Everett Waters’ entry into graduate study at the University of Minnesota in 1973 had a
profound effect on Alan Sroufe, who had read Mary Ainsworth’s (1968) theoretical article about
object relations and dependency but had not heard of the Strange Situation or the Baltimore project
(Sroufe, personal communication, 1988). Sroufe’s contact with Waters led to significant empirical
and theoretical collaborations. In 1977, Sroufe and Waters wrote an influential paper that
made attachment as an organizational construct accessible to a large audience. At the same time,
Sroufe and Egeland, together with many of their students, undertook a large-scale longitudinal
study of attachment with an at-risk population (disadvantaged mothers), The Minnesota study,
summarized in Sroufe (1983) but still ongoing, stands as the second major longitudinal study of
the relationship between quality of caregiving and security of attachment.
Elsewhere across the United States, much time was spent testing the predictive validity of
Strange Situation reunion classifications. Many researchers sought to train with Mary Ainsworth
or her former students to learn the procedure and classification system. Hundreds of studies using
the Strange Situation appeared in print. It often seemed as if attachment and the Strange Situation
had become synonymous.
BOWLBY AND AINSWORTH
Before the publication of “The Nature of the Child’s Tie to His Mother” in 1958, Mary
Ainsworth received a preprint of the paper from John Bowlby. This event led Bowlby and
Ainsworth to renew their close intellectual collaboration. Ainsworth’s subsequent analysis of data
from her Ganda project (Ainsworth 1963, 1967) influenced and was influenced by Bowlby’s
reformulation of attachment theory (published in 1969). In this sharing of ideas, Ainsworth’s
theoretical contribution to Bowlby’s presentation of the ontogeny of human attachment cannot be
overestimated.
Findings From Ainsworth’s Ganda Project
The Ganda data (Ainsworth, 1963, 1967) were a rich source for the study of individual
differences in the quality of mother - infant interaction, the topic that Bowlby had earlier left aside
as too difficult to study. Of special note, in light of Ainsworth’s future work, was an evaluation of
maternal sensitivity to infant signals, derived from interview data. Mothers who were excellent
informants and who provided much spontaneous detail were rated as highly sensitive, in contrast
to other mothers who seemed imperceptive of the nuances of infant behavior. Three infant
attachment patterns were observed: Securely attached infants cried little and seemed content to
explore in the presence of mother; insecurely attached infants cried frequently, even when held by
their mothers, and explored little; and not-yet attached infants manifested no differential behavior
to the mother.
It turned out that secure attachment was significantly correlated with maternal sensitivity.
Babies of sensitive mothers tended to be securely attached, whereas babies of less sensitive
mothers were more likely to he classified as insecure. Mothers’ enjoyment of breast-feeding also
correlated with infant security. These findings foreshadow some of Ainsworth’s later work,
although the measures are not yet as sophisticated as those developed for subsequent studies.
Ainsworth presented her initial findings from the Ganda project at meetings of the Tavistock
Study Group organized by Bowlby during the 1960s (Ainsworth, 1963). Participants invited to
these influential gatherings included many now-eminent infant researchers of diverse theoretical
backgrounds (in addition to Mary Ainsworth, there were Genevieve Appell, Miriam David, Jacob
Gewirtz, Hanus Papousek, Heinz Prechtl, Harriet Rheingold, Henry Ricciuti, Louis Sander, and
Peter Wolff), as well as renowned animal researchers such as Harry Harlow, Robert Hinde,
Charles Kaufmann, Jay Rosenblatt, and Thelma Rowell Their lively discussions and ensuing
studies contributed much to the developing field of infant social development in general.
Importantly for Bowlby, they also enriched his ongoing elaboration of attachment theory. Bowlby
had always believed that he had much to gain from bringing together researchers with different
theoretical backgrounds (e.g., learning theory, psychoanalysis, and ethology), whether or not thy
agreed with his theoretical position. Proceedings of these fruitful meetings were published in four
volumes entitled Determinants of Infant Behaviour (1961, 1963, 1965, and 1969, edited by Brian
Foss).
The Baltimore Project
In 1963, while still pondering the data from the Ganda study, Mary Ainsworth embarked on
a second observational project whose thoroughness no researcher has since equaled. Again, she
opted for naturalistic observations, hut with interviews playing a somewhat lesser role. The 26
participating Baltimore families were recruited before their babies were horn, with 18 home visits
beginning in the baby’s first month and ending at 54 weeks of age. Each visit lasted 4 hours to
make sure that mothers would feel comfortable enough to follow their normal routine, resulting
in approximately 72 hours of data collection per family.
Raw data took the form of narrative reports, jotted down in personal shorthand, marked in
5-minute intervals, and later dictated into a tape recorder for transcription. Typed narratives from
all visits for each quarter of the first year of life were grouped together for purposes of analysis.
A unique (at the time) aspect of Ainsworth’s methodology was the emphasis on meaningful
behavioral patterns in context, rather than on frequency counts of specific behaviors, This
approach had roots in her dissertation work, in which she classified patterns of familial and
extrafamilial dependent and independent security, in her expertise with the Rorschach test, and in
her work at the Tavistock Institute with Bowlby and Robertson.
Close examination of the narratives revealed the emergence of characteristic mother-infant
interaction patterns during the first 3 months (see Ainsworth et al., 1978; see also Ainsworth,
1982, 1983). Separate analyses were conducted on feeding situations (Ainsworth & Bell, 1969),
mother-infant face-to-face interaction (Blehar, Lieberman, & Ainsworth, 1977), crying (Bell &
Ainsworth, 1972), infant greeting and following (Stayton & Ainsworth, 1973), the attachment-
exploration balance (Ainsworth, Bell, & Stayton, 1971), obedience (Stayton, Hogan, &
Ainsworth, 1973), close bodily contact (Ainsworth, Bell, Blehar, & Main, 1971), approach
behavior (Tracy, Lamb, & Ainsworth, 1976), and affectionate contact (Tracy & Ainsworth,
1981).
Striking individual differences were observed in how sensitively, appropriately, and
promptly mothers responded to their infants’ signals. For some mother-infant pairs, feeding was
an occasion for smooth cooperation. Other mothers had difficulties in adjusting their pacing and
behavior to the baby’s cues. In response, their babies tended to struggle, choke, and spit up,
hardly the sensuous oral experience Freud had had in mind. Similar distinctive patterns were
observed in face-to-face interactions between mother and infant during the period from 6 to 15
weeks (Blehar et al,, 1977). When mothers meshed their own playful behavior with that of their
babies, infants responded with joyful bouncing, smiling, and vocalizing. However, when mothers
initiated face-to-face interactions silently and with an unsmiling expression, ensuing interactions
were muted and brief. Findings on close bodily contact resembled those on feeding and
face-to-face Interaction, as did those on crying. There were enormous variations in how many
crying episodes a mother ignored and how long she let the baby cry. In countering those who
argued that maternal responsiveness might lead to “spoiling,” Bell and Ainsworth (1972)
concluded that “an infant whose mother’s responsiveness helps him to achieve his ends develops
confidence in his own ability to control what happens to him” (p. 1188).
Maternal sensitivity in the first quarter was associated with more harmonious mother-infant
relationships In the fourth quarter. Babies whose mothers had been highly responsive to crying
during the early months now tended to cry less, relying for communication on facial expressions,
gestures, and vocalizations (Bell & Ainsworth, 1972). Similarly, infants whose mothers had
provided much tender holding during the first quarter sought contact less often during the fourth
quarter, hut when contact occurred, it was rated as more satisfying and affectionate (Ainsworth,
Bell, Blehar, et al,, 1971), Ainsworth (Ainsworth et al., 1978) explains these findings by recourse
to infants’ expectations, based on prior satisfying or rejecting experiences with mother.
All first-quarter interactive patterns were also related to infant behavior in a laboratory procedure
known as the Strange Situation (Ainsworth & Wittig, 1969). This initially very controversial
laboratory procedure for 1 -year-olds was originally designed to examine the balance of attachment
and exploratory behaviors under conditions of low and high stress, a topic in which
Harlow (196!) had aroused Ainsworth’s interest during meetings of the Tavistock group, but
which also reminded her of an earlier study by Arsenian (1943) on young children in an insecure
situation and of her dissertation work on security theory.
The Strange Situation is a 20-minute miniature drama with eight episodes. Mother and
infant are introduced to a laboratory playroom, where they are later joined by an unfamiliar
woman. While the stranger plays with the baby, the mother leaves briefly and then returns. A
second separation ensues during which the baby is completely alone. Finally, the stranger and then
the mother return.
As expected, Ainsworth found that infants explored the playroom and toys more vigorously
in the presence of their mothers than after a stranger entered or while the mother was absent
(Ainsworth & Bell, 1970). Although these results were theoretically interesting, Ainsworth
became much more intrigued with unexpected patterns of infant reunion behaviors, which
reminded her of responses Robertson had documented in children exposed to prolonged
separations, and about which Bowlby (1959) had theorized in his paper on separation.
A few of the I -year-olds from the Baltimore study were surprisingly angry when the mother
returned after a 3-minute (or shorter) separation. They cried and wanted contact but would not
simply cuddle or “sink in” when picked up by the returning mother. Instead, they showed their
ambivalence by kicking or swiping at her. Another group of children seemed to snub or avoid the
mother on reunion, even though they had often searched for her while she was gone. Analyses of
home data revealed that those infants who had been ambivalent toward or avoidant of the mother
on reunion in the Strange Situation had a less harmonious relationship with her at home than
those (a majority) who sought proximity, interaction, or contact on reunion (Ainsworth, Bell, &
Stayton, 1974). Thus originated the well-known Strange Situation classification system
(Ainsworth et al., 1978), which, to Ainsworth’s chagrin, has stolen the limelight from her
observational findings of naturalistic mother-infant interaction patterns at home.
The First Volume in the Attachment Trilogy: Attachment and Ethology
While Ainsworth wrote up the findings from her Ganda study for Infancy in Uganda (1967) and
was engaged in collecting data for the Baltimore project, Bowlby worked on the first volume of
the attachment trilogy, Attachment (1969). When he began this enterprise in 1962, the plan had
been for a single hook. However, as he explains in the preface: “As my study of theory progressed
it was gradually borne in upon me that the field I had set out to plough so light-heartedly
was no less than the one Freud had started tilling sixty years earlier.” In short, Bowlby realized
that he had to develop a new theory of motivation and behavior control, built on up-to-date science
rather than the outdated psychic energy model espoused by Freud.
In the first half of Attachment, Bowlby lays the groundwork for such a theory, taking pains
to document each important statement with available research findings. He begins by noting that
organisms at different levels of the phylogenetic scale regulate instinctive behavior in distinct
ways, ranging from primitive reflex-like “fixed action patterns” to complex plan hierarchies with
subgoals. In the most complex organisms, instinctive behaviors may be “goal-corrected” with
continual on-course adjustments (such as a bird of prey adjusting its flight to the movements of
the prey). The concept of cybernetically controlled behavioral systems organized as plan
hierarchies (Miller, Galanter, & Pribram, 1960) thus came to replace Freud’s concept of drive and
instinct. Behaviors regulated by such systems need not be rigidly innate, hut-depending on the
organism- can adapt in greater or lesser degrees to changes in environmental circumstances,
provided that these do not deviate too much from the organism’s environment of evolutionary
adaptedness. Such flexible organisms pay a price, however, because adaptable behavioral systems
can more easily be subverted from their optimal path of development. For humans, Bowlby
speculates, the environment of evolutionary adaptedness probably resembles that of present-day
hunter-gatherer societies.
The ultimate functions of behavioral systems controlling attachment, parenting, mating,
feeding, and exploration are survival and procreation. In some cases, the predictable outcome of
system activation is a time-limited behavior (such as food intake); in others it is the time-extended
maintenance of an organism in a particular relation to its environment (e.g., within its own
territory or in proximity to particular companions).
Complex behavioral systems of the kind proposed by Bowlby can work with foresight in organisms
that have evolved an ability to construct internal working models of the environment and of
their own actions in it (a concept taken over from (Craik, 1943, through the writings of the biologist
J. Young, 1964). The more adequate an organism’s internal working model, the more accurately
the organism can predict the future, However, adds Bowlby, if working models of the
environment and self are out of date or are only half revised after drastic environmental change,
pathological functioning may ensue. He speculates that useful model revision, extension, and
consistency checking may require conscious processing of model content. In humans, communicative
processes-initially limited to emotional or gestural signaling and later including language
-also permit the inter-subjective sharing of model content. On an intrapsychic level, the same
processes are useful for self-regulation and behavioral priority setting.
In mammals and birds, behavioral systems tend to become organized during specific
sensitive developmental periods. As initial reflex-like behavior chains come under more complex,
cybernetically controlled organization, the range of stimuli that can activate them also becomes
more restricted, This is the case in imprinting, broadly defined as the restriction of specific
instinctive behaviors to particular individuals or groups of individuals during sensitive phases of
development, as in filial, parental, and sexual imprinting.
Having laid out this general theory of motivation and behavior regulation in the first half of
the volume, Bowlby goes on, in the second half, to apply these ideas to the specific domain of
infant-mother attachment. He defines attachment behavior as behavior that has proximity to an
attachment figure as a predictable outcome and whose evolutionary function is protection of the
infant from danger, insisting that attachment has its own motivation and is in no way derived from
systems subserving mating and feeding.
Although human infants initially direct proximity-promoting signals fairly indiscriminately to
all caregivers, these behaviors become increasingly focused on those primary figures who are
responsive to the infant’s crying and who engage the infant in social interaction (Schaffer &
Emerson, 1964). Once attached, locomotor infants are able to use the attachment figure as a
secure base for exploration of the environment and as a safe haven to which to return for
reassurance (Ainsworth, 1967; Schaffer & Emerson, 1964). How effectively the attachment
figure can serve in these roles depends on the quality of social interaction-especially the
attachment figure’s sensitivity to the infant’s signals-although child factors also play a role.
Building on Ainsworth’s Ganda study (1967) and preliminary findings from her Baltimore
project, Bowlby (1969) comments that:
when interaction between a couple runs smoothly, each party manifests intense pleasure in
the other’s company and especially in the other’s expression of affection. Conversely,
whenever interaction results in persistent conflict each party is likely on occasion to exhibit
intense anxiety or unhappiness, especially when the other is rejecting. Proximity and
affectionate interchange are appraised and felt as pleasurable by both, whereas distance and
expressions of rejection are appraised as disagreeable or painful by both. (p. 242)
During the preschool years, the attachment behavioral system, always complementary to
the parental caregiving system, undergoes further reorganization as the child attains growing insight
into the attachment figure’s motives and plans. Bowlby refers to this stage as goal-
corrected partnership. However, in emphasizing infant initiative and sensitive maternal responding,
Bowlby’s (1951) earlier theorizing on the mother as the child’s ego and superego was regrettably
lost.
Consolidation
The publication of the first volume of the attachment trilogy in 1969 coincided with the
appearance in print of initial findings from Ainsworth’s Baltimore project (reviewed earlier).
However, many investigators strongly contested Ainsworth’s claims regarding the meaning of
Strange Situation behavior, often because they failed to note that Strange Situation classifications
had been validated against extensive home observations. Some interpreted avoidant infants’
behavior as independence. The controversy lessened somewhat after the publication of Patterns
of Attachment (Ainsworth et al., 1978), which drew together the results from the Baltimore
project and presented findings from other laboratories on the sequelae of attachment classifications
in toddlerhood and early childhood (e.g., Main, 1973; Matas, Arend, & Sroufe, 1978).
During this period, many of Ainsworth’s graduate students began to publish their own work.
Silvia Bell (1970) examined the relationship between object permanence and attachment. Mary
Main (1973) studied secure and insecure toddlers’ capacity to become invested in play activities
and problem solving. Mary Blehar (1974) undertook the first study of attachment and nonmaternal
care, and Alicia Lieberman (1977) investigated attachment and peer relationships in
preschoolers. Mary Ainsworth’s influence is also evident in the fact that many Johns Hopkins
undergraduate students who had helped with the analysis of data from the Baltimore project later
produced innovative dissertations on attachment-related topics at their respective graduate
institutions. Among these students were Robert Marvin (1972, 1977), who wrote on the
goal-corrected partnership; Milton Kotelchuck (1972), who studied father attachment; Mark
Cummings (1980), who investigated attachment and day care; Mark Greenberg (Greenberg &
Marvin, 1979), who examined attachment in deaf children; and Everett Waters (1978), who
documented the longitudinal stability of attachment patterns from 12 to 18 months.
Everett Waters’ entry into graduate study at the University of Minnesota in 1973 had a
profound effect on Alan Sroufe, who had read Mary Ainsworth’s (1968) theoretical article about
object relations and dependency but had not heard of the Strange Situation or the Baltimore project
(Sroufe, personal communication, 1988). Sroufe’s contact with Waters led to significant empirical
and theoretical collaborations. In 1977, Sroufe and Waters wrote an influential paper that
made attachment as an organizational construct accessible to a large audience. At the same time,
Sroufe and Egeland, together with many of their students, undertook a large-scale longitudinal
study of attachment with an at-risk population (disadvantaged mothers), The Minnesota study,
summarized in Sroufe (1983) but still ongoing, stands as the second major longitudinal study of
the relationship between quality of caregiving and security of attachment.
Elsewhere across the United States, much time was spent testing the predictive validity of
Strange Situation reunion classifications. Many researchers sought to train with Mary Ainsworth
or her former students to learn the procedure and classification system. Hundreds of studies using
the Strange Situation appeared in print. It often seemed as if attachment and the Strange Situation
had become synonymous.
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