Mary Ainsworth was a developmental psychologist best known for developing the ‘Strange Situation’ experiment which elaborated on John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory that observed the relationship between a child and its caregiver. Ainsworth’s interest with psychology began at the age of fifteen when she was introduced to William McDougall’s book “Character and Conductor of Life”, with this peek interest in psychology she went on to attend the University of Toronto where she was in the honors program for psychology. After graduating, Ainsworth decided to stay and teach at the University of Toronto, then she later joined the Canadian Women’s Army Corps. While in the corps, Ainsworth worked as a Army Examiner where her duties included but not limited
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This procedure was first designed to analyze the attachment relationships between a caregiver and a child under high and low stress conditions. The strange situation procedure lasted for 20 minutes but had eight different episodes throughout the 20 minutes time span. First the mother and infant are left in a laboratory playroom where an unfamiliar woman enters the room and begins to play with the child. While the strange woman interacts with the child, the mother leaves the room briefly. Another separation is initiated, leaving the infant in the room alone, then the unfamiliar woman walks in first then the mother shortly after . At the end of the procedure, Ainsworth found that the child played more comfortably in the presence of its mother than when in the presence of the unfamiliar woman or when the mother is …show more content…
She found that a few of the infants would cry and signal for contact from their mother but wouldn’t “cuddle” up to them upon their mother’s return after about 3 minutes or less, instead the child would swipe at the mother which seemed like they were angry at their mother. Another group of infants avoided their mother upon return, even though they showed concerns for her whereabouts after she left. These results helped Ainsworth to come to the conclusion that infants that avoided or seemed angry after their mother’s return had a less harmonious relationship at home, than an infant who yearned for soothing and interaction from their mothers upon return. Because of this procedure, the Strange Situation Classification was created. Even though the Strange Situations procedure was a success, Ainsworth regretted doing that observation because it overshadowed her previous work the Ganda Project. It took away the attention of feeding, close bodily contact, face-to-face play, crying in the home or just plane mother-infant patterns at
This procedure was first designed to analyze the attachment relationships between a caregiver and a child under high and low stress conditions. The strange situation procedure lasted for 20 minutes but had eight different episodes throughout the 20 minutes time span. First the mother and infant are left in a laboratory playroom where an unfamiliar woman enters the room and begins to play with the child. While the strange woman interacts with the child, the mother leaves the room briefly. Another separation is initiated, leaving the infant in the room alone, then the unfamiliar woman walks in first then the mother shortly after . At the end of the procedure, Ainsworth found that the child played more comfortably in the presence of its mother than when in the presence of the unfamiliar woman or when the mother is …show more content…
She found that a few of the infants would cry and signal for contact from their mother but wouldn’t “cuddle” up to them upon their mother’s return after about 3 minutes or less, instead the child would swipe at the mother which seemed like they were angry at their mother. Another group of infants avoided their mother upon return, even though they showed concerns for her whereabouts after she left. These results helped Ainsworth to come to the conclusion that infants that avoided or seemed angry after their mother’s return had a less harmonious relationship at home, than an infant who yearned for soothing and interaction from their mothers upon return. Because of this procedure, the Strange Situation Classification was created. Even though the Strange Situations procedure was a success, Ainsworth regretted doing that observation because it overshadowed her previous work the Ganda Project. It took away the attention of feeding, close bodily contact, face-to-face play, crying in the home or just plane mother-infant patterns at