Human Condition - Universalmuseum Joanneum

73 Karen, Becoming Attached,
interview with Ainsworth, 1988,
p. 147.
74 Karen, Becoming Attached,
p. 172.
of three, the attachment figure could be the biological mother or father or other
relative or even a nanny. Still, his caveats did little to quell the uproar.
All of the critics were like-minded in one respect. If attachment behavior is biologically
wired, as Bowlby suggested, they demanded the scientific findings that could validate
his theory. They got what they were looking for from Mary Ainsworth, a Canadian
psycholo gist who had enjoyed a long working relationship with Bowlby. In the 1960s,
Ainsworth initiated a series of studies at Johns Hopkins Uni versity in Baltimore,
Maryland, that would provide Bowlby with the rigorous research data that he needed
to show that his theory matched reality. Ainsworth developed four scales to rate a
mother’s way of being with her baby and then compared her behavior with the reaction
of her baby. Was the mother sensitive to the baby’s signals? Did she express acceptance
or rejection of the baby? Did she accommodate the baby’s desires and synchronize
with his rhythms, or did she interfere, forc ing the child to accept her pace when handling,
playing, or feeding? And how available was she to the baby? Conversely, how often
did she ignore the infant?
Ainsworth then concocted a brilliantly simple protocol, which she called “The Strange
Situation,” to assess Bowlby’s thesis. She explained that the idea was to place the
mother and her baby in a “strange envi ronment” with toys to encourage exploration.
A stranger would be introduced so that researchers could observe the baby’s response.
At a certain point, the mother would leave the baby with the stranger. The researcher
would then observe how the baby responded to the depar ture and subsequently to her
mother’s return. They would then create a second situation with the baby by itself in
the room, to observe whether the baby’s stress would ease when the stranger returned.
Finally, they would make room for another reunion with the mother. Ainsworth said
that she and her colleagues devised the whole idea in less than an hour.73
The studies backed up Bowlby’s thesis that the securely attached baby is able to
reach out on his or her own to explore the world, while the insecurely attached baby
has difficulty doing so. Ainsworth observed three distinct behavioral sets among
the children: the securely attached, who were upset when their moms left but greeted
them eagerly upon their return and who were comforted by their mother’s embrace;
the avoidantly attached, who seemed more aloof from their mothers but who sometimes
attacked them – even though these children were also upset when their mothers
left the room, they showed no interest in her upon her return, and the ambivalently
attached, who were the most anxious, and who, unlike the avoidant children, were
clingy and demanding at home, and who, like the other children, were upset when their
mothers left the room but were inconsolable in their grief upon the mothers’ return.
The mothers of “securely attached children” were far more likely to hold them longer
and attend to their needs. They were more emotion ally engaged and more consistently
attentive. In contrast, the mothers of the ambivalent children were more arbitrary
and unpredictable in their responsiveness, while the mothers of the avoidant children
were more rejecting in their behavior.74
Ainsworth’s studies poured cold water over the long-dominant belief that babies
should not be overly cuddled or picked up and given too much attention, lest they
become too clingy and dependent and fail to develop a sense of independence and
autonomy. Quite the contrary. The children who were the most securely attached
and who had been provided an ample amount of care, attention, and affection were
the most likely to separate from their mothers and play and explore the world around
them, while the least securely attached were the most likely to cling or avoid others
altogether, isolate themselves, and fail to develop a sense of independence. Ainsworth
emphasized that it was not the amount of time mothers held their babies that made
them more secure but, rather, the way they held them. They showed much more
tender ness and affection and were careful never to be rough in han dling their child.