Numerous studies have supported Ainsworth's conclusions and additional research has revealed that these early attachment styles can help predict behaviors later in life.Ĭhildren who are securely attached generally become visibly upset when their caregivers leave and are happy when their parents return. Researchers Main and Solomon added a fourth attachment style known as disorganized-insecure attachment.

The parent returns and comforts the child.īased on these observations, Ainsworth concluded that there were three major styles of attachment: secure attachment, ambivalent-insecure attachment, and avoidant-insecure attachment.A stranger enters the room, talks to the parent, and approaches the child.The child explores the room with parental supervision.Ainsworth's Strange Situation Assessment followed this basic sequence: The study involved observing children between the ages of 12 to 18 months responding to a situation in which they were briefly left alone and then reunited with their mother. In other words, children develop expectations that their caregivers will be responsive to their needs because, in their experience, their caregivers have been responsive in the past.ĭuring the 1970s, psychologist Mary Ainsworth further expanded upon Bowlby's groundbreaking work in her now-famous 'Strange Situation' study. įinally, he suggested that these expectations that are formed are directly tied to experience. The expectations that are formed during that period tend to remain relatively unchanged for the rest of the person's life. Secondly, he believed that this confidence is forged during a critical period of development, during the years of infancy, childhood, and adolescence.

First, he suggested that when children are raised with confidence that their primary caregiver will be available to them, they are less likely to experience fear than those who are raised without such conviction.

Separation distress: Anxiety that occurs in the absence of the attachment figure.īowlby also made three key propositions about attachment theory.

Secure base: The attachment figure acts as a base of security from which the child can explore the surrounding environment.

Safe haven: Returning to the attachment figure for comfort and safety in the face of a fear or threat.

Proximity maintenance: The desire to be near the people we are attached to.Bowlby believed that there are four distinguishing characteristics of attachment:

The new science of adult attachment