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112-476: In this procedure of the Strange Situation, the child is observed playing for 21 minutes while caregivers and strangers enter and leave the room, recreating the flow of the familiar and unfamiliar presence in most children's lives. The situation varies in stressfulness and the child's responses are observed. The child experiences the following situations: Four aspects of the child's behavior are observed: On

224-505: A "gold standard" measure of attachment. With respect to the ecological validity of the Strange Situation, a meta-analysis of 2,000 infant-parent dyads, including several from studies with non-Western language and/or cultural bases found the global distribution of attachment categorizations to be A (21%), B (65%), and C (14%) This global distribution was generally consistent with Ainsworth et al.'s (1978) original attachment classification distributions. However, controversy has been raised over

336-411: A 'conditional behavioral strategy'. Whilst it might seem odd or maladaptive at first sight for a child to turn away from their caregiver when anxious, Main argued from an evolutionary perspective that avoidance could be regarded as a strategy to achieve the protective proximity enjoined by the attachment system - but which responds to the context of a caregiver who would rebuff them and be less available if

448-495: A caregiver: Peculiar maltreatment effects – that is, the irrational return of the abused to the abusing object – were first noted by Darwin (1972) in his voyage to the Galapagos; they were presented along with an explanation of the mechanism. He physically assaulted a Galapagos sea-lizard, as he stood on a promontory, and each time tossed it seaward. Although "possessed of perfect powers to swim away" from him, it returned each time to

560-579: A carer may be unpredictable, including distractibility, substance misuse, domestic violence or psychological illness. This inconsistency is very confusing for the baby. Her crying, anger or clinginess does not always produce the desired response and she cannot predict when or how her carer will react. This baby learns that her negative emotions when exaggerated are more likely to get results so she becomes affectively organised, trusting and prioritising her feelings over her thoughts. Consequently, tears become wildly exaggerated, sadness inconsolable and expressed anger

672-521: A categorical classification scheme, continuous measures of attachment security have been developed which have demonstrated adequate psychometric properties. These have been used either individually or in conjunction with discrete attachment classifications in many published reports [see Richters et al., 1998; Van IJzendoorn et al., 1990).] The original Richter’s et al. (1998) scale is strongly related to secure versus insecure classifications, correctly predicting about 90% of cases. Readers further interested in

784-499: A causal pathway to disorganized infant attachment has captured the imagination of clinicians and social workers, and has sometimes led to the misuse of the concept of disorganized/disoriented attachment in screening for maltreatment. However, Main and Hesse have stated that they intended their emphasis on frightening or frightened caregiver behavior as "one highly specific and sufficient, but not necessary, pathway to D attachment status." Main and Hesse do not assume that fear in relation to

896-583: A child's developmental pathway and hence their state of mind with respect to attachment. A range of clinical applications of the AAI have also been proposed and developed. For example, the AAI has been applied to diagnosis, treatment, and the evaluation of therapeutic outcomes. Mary Main has more than 40 published journal articles and book chapters and has over 25,000 google scholar citations (as of January 2015). Selected publications are below: Patricia McKinsey Crittenden Patricia McKinsey Crittenden (born 1945)

1008-412: A cognitive capacity to maintain relationships when the older person is not present, separation may not provide the same stress for them. Modified procedures based on the Strange Situation have been developed for older preschool children (see Belsky et al., 1994; Greenberg et al., 1990) but it is much more dubious whether the same approach can be used in middle childhood. Also, despite its manifest strengths,

1120-416: A conditional strategy for maintaining the availability of the caregiver by preemptively taking control of the interaction. Ainsworth herself was the first to find difficulties in fitting all infant behavior into the three classifications used in her Baltimore study. Ainsworth and colleagues sometimes observed "tense movements such as hunching the shoulders, putting the hands behind the neck and tensely cocking

1232-419: A death or abuse in a way that is clearly not possible (e.g. describing themselves as killing a person with a thought). Other speakers exhibited lapses in discourse, suddenly moving into speech that was excessively detailed, eulogistic in style or that involved prolonged and unacknowledged silences. AAI transcripts involving definitive examples of such lapses are classified 'unresolved/disorganized'. In common with

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1344-488: A degree of proximity in the face of a frightening or unfathomable parent'. However, 'the presumption that many indices of “disorganisation” are aspects of organised patterns does not preclude acceptance of the notion of disorganisation, especially in cases where the complexity and dangerousness of the threat are beyond children's capacity for response'. Main and Hesse found that most of the mothers of these children had suffered major losses or other trauma shortly before or after

1456-485: A different sample, and work on the scale for avoidant infant behavior. Insecure-avoidance is coded using a 1–7 scale for 'avoidance', which Mary Ainsworth and Mary Main worked on together. Whereas infants classified as secure would seek their caregiver on reunion, show their distress, and receive comfort, 'avoidance' was a measure of the extent to which an infant kept their attention away from their caregiver and avoided showing their distress. Main conceptualised avoidance as

1568-561: A dismissing or preoccupied attachment state of mind. Unresolved responses to the AAI have been found associated with frightening, frightened or dissociative parental behaviour but it has also been found that only a small part of the association between unresolved states of mind and disorganized infant attachment can be explained by the mediation of anomalous parental behavior, indicating that other as yet unknown factors must also be involved. Some longitudinal studies have also found associations between attachment security in infancy, as assessed in

1680-583: A disruption or flooding of the attachment system (e.g. by fear). Infant behaviours in the Strange Situation Protocol coded as disorganised/disoriented include overt displays of fear; contradictory behaviours or affects occurring simultaneously or sequentially; stereotypic, asymmetric, misdirected or jerky movements; or freezing and apparent dissociation. However, despite initial symptoms of disorganized/disoriented behaviors, Lyons-Ruth widely "recognized that 52% of disorganized infants continue to approach

1792-533: A few cultural differences in these rates of "global" attachment classification distributions. In particular, two studies diverged from the global distributions of attachment classifications noted above. One study was conducted in North Germany in which more avoidant (A) infants were found than global norms would suggest, and the other in Sapporo , Japan where more resistant (C) infants were found. Of these two studies,

1904-431: A haven of safety in times of alarm, and use of these individuals as a secure base for exploration. A collaborator of Bowlby's, Mary Ainsworth , developed a standardised laboratory observation procedure named the ' Strange Situation ' in which an infant would undergo two brief separations and reunions from their caregiver as well as contact with a stranger. In its novelty and its separations, the Strange Situation confronted

2016-595: A letter to Behavioral and Brain Science , 1977, the ground in evolutionary theory upon which Main's later ideas emerged is already clear. In this text, she draws from Tinbergen the important distinction between 'proximal' and 'ultimate' causation, noting that immense confusion about attachment arises when these levels of analysis are mistaken for one another. In inquiring about the proximate cause of behavior, an attachment researcher may ask "What made him show attachment behavior toward it at this particular moment?" In inquiring about

2128-462: A markedly different attachment style. When she cries, this baby may be consistently ignored, handled roughly or even physically abused. She will soon withhold such emotional expression because this increases her distress. She learns, ‘When I feel bad, no one helps, and when I cry I feel worse.’ Since this child is growing up in a predictable environment, she learns behavioural consequences, recognising that thinking – in particular, about cause and effect –

2240-528: A new infant attachment classification, 'disorganized/disoriented' (D), for the Ainsworth Strange Situation procedure based on a review of discrepant infant behaviors in the Strange Situation. This review included consideration of tapes of Strange Situations from various research groups including the Grossmanns, Mary J. O’Connor, Elizabeth Carlson, Leila Beckwith and Susan Spieker. Michael Rutter,

2352-544: A paradox for an infant. Research has supported this proposed association between frightening and frightened parental behavior and the infant's classification as D in the Strange Situation. This includes work by Main's students, such as Mary True (in Uganda) and Kazuko Behrens (in Japan). These ideas have been further examined by colleagues such as Marinus van IJzendoorn and Giovanni Liotti. The image of parental frightening behavior as

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2464-552: A person without a secure attachment in the present to any living persons – could be found to have a secure-autonomous state of mind with respect to attachment. In their research with their Berkeley sample in the early 1980s, Main and colleagues also found that the three classifications of adult discourse they had identified correlated with the Ainsworth classifications of infant Strange Situation behavior. Secure-autonomous adult responses were associated with secure infant behavior towards

2576-492: A predictably abusive or demanding parent. From puberty onwards, the ‘A’ strategy may also incorporate promiscuity (to meet needs for comfort without risking closeness) or isolation and self-reliance (to avoid risk of being hurt). " Development of the ‘C’ Strategy – Unpredictability with Variable Attunement " The ‘C’ pattern develops when the baby has a carer who is unpredictable and inconsistently attuned. Her carer sometimes responds well and sometimes not. There are many reasons why

2688-449: A prominent commentator on attachment research, has described the discovery of the disorganized/disoriented attachment classification as one of the five great advances to the field of psychology contributed by research in attachment. In general, disorganized behaviors occur only briefly, before the infant then enters back into one of the Ainsworth A, B or C attachment patterns. As such, infants coded as disorganized/disoriented are also given

2800-420: A result, ‘a given pathway may continue straight or may branch in ways that may lead to other pathways’ . Crittenden suggests that one developmental pathway, particularly in the context of danger, is likely to be towards pathology. Whilst Ainsworth had discovered a universal distinction in human emotion regulation between Secure (B), Avoidance (A) and Ambivalence/Resistance (C), in her later work Crittenden develops

2912-465: A risk factor for later development. For example, this classification in infancy has been found associated with school-age externalising problem behavior, indices of dissociation in adolescence and development of post-traumatic stress symptoms following trauma exposure. Behaviors associated with disorganization have been found to undergo transformation from the age of 2 and typically develop into various forms of well-organised controlling behavior toward

3024-736: A secondary A, B or C classification. The discrepant behaviors are most often exhibited on reunion, but are found in other episodes of the procedure as well. Main and Solomon developed a set of thematic headings for the various forms of disorganized/disoriented behavior. Infant behaviors coded as disorganized/disoriented include sequential display of contradictory behavior patterns (Index I); simultaneous display of contradictory behavior patterns (II); undirected, misdirected, incomplete, and interrupted movements and expressions (III); stereotypies, asymmetrical movements, mistimed movements, and anomalous postures (IV); freezing, stilling, and slowed movements and expressions (V); direct indices of apprehension regarding

3136-455: A secure haven. For Crittenden, Secure (B) infants utilise both kinds of information with little distortion: they respond to the caregiver's cues, and can communicate their distress, but also gain comfort when this is available. They can balance their knowledge of causal contingencies and their knowledge of their feelings. By contrast, Crittenden proposes that both kinds of information can be split off from consciousness or behavioural expression as

3248-456: A temper tantrum. Her strategy becomes acting out to gain her carer's attention. This confuses her carer, who is unaware that their inconsistency worsens the child's behaviour. Moreover, the child learns that to get her needs met she must not only first get her caregiver's attention, she then must hold it. This is the essence of the ‘C’ pattern, which is a twofold strategy: first, exaggerate my feelings of sadness, fear or anger, and then keep changing

3360-452: A transcript where the speaker's state of mind appears to shift mid-interview from dismissing to preoccupied, and a transcript where the speaker presents different states of mind when describing different attachment figures. Cannot classify interviews are rare in samples drawn from low-risk contexts. Main and colleagues have developed a scoring and classification system for assessing AAI transcripts. Transcripts are not only allocated to one of

3472-414: A type C strategy of tantrums in aiming to maintain the availability of an attachment figure whose inconsistent availability has led the child to distrust or distort causal information about their apparent behaviour. This may lead their attachment figure to get a clearer grasp on their needs and the appropriate response to their attachment behaviours. Experiencing more reliable and predictable information about

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3584-568: A ‘strategy’ to maintain the availability of an attachment figure. The term ‘strategy’ is used by Crittenden, not in ‘the narrow sense of a cognitive plan, that is, a response to an articulated problem preceded by a conscious analysis of behavioural alternatives’, but as a transformation of information regarding danger that occurs without conscious thought. Crittenden theorised that infants using an Avoidant strategy split off emotional information about distress. Splitting off emotional information allows an infant facing insensitive caregiving to simplify

3696-519: Is an American psychologist known for her work in the development of attachment theory and science, her work in the field of developmental psychopathology , and for creation of the Dynamic-Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation (DMM). Compared to other work in attachment, the DMM emphasizes the organized self-protective function of attachment strategies (rather than disorganization) and

3808-415: Is consistently unresponsive to their needs. Firstly, avoidant behaviour allows the infant to maintain a conditional proximity with the caregiver: close enough to maintain protection, but distant enough to avoid rebuff. Secondly, the cognitive processes organising avoidant behaviour could help direct attention away from the unfulfilled desire for closeness with the caregiver – avoiding a situation in which

3920-443: Is critical to survival. This child becomes cognitively organised, and prioritises her thoughts over her feelings knowing that thinking protects her and displaying negative emotions endangers her. She will come to distrust her own emotions – even those which arise when there is perceived threat or danger. However, this child's emotions – particularly those which are survival oriented (fear, anger and need for comfort) still boil away under

4032-404: Is given, this bolsters the sense of security and also, assuming the caregiver's assistance is helpful, educates the child in how to cope with the same problem in the future. Therefore, secure attachment can be seen as the most adaptive attachment style for learning and making use of resources in a non-threatening environment. According to attachment researchers, a child becomes securely attached when

4144-451: Is not well adapted to the present. By ‘trauma’, Crittenden refers to the psychological experience of emotionally or physically threatening circumstances that cannot be subjected to effective information processing. This information-processing perspective emphasises that children are especially vulnerable to trauma: they are ‘less able to understand’ the meaning of experiences of danger than adults and ‘less able to store, retrieve, and integrate’

4256-461: Is this likely to provide boundary problems, but also it is not at all obvious that discrete categories best represent the concepts that are inherent in attachment security. It seems much more likely that infants vary in their degree of security and there is need for a measurement system that can quantify individual variation. Other researchers as well have raised concerns about the strange situation's construct validity and questioned its terminology as

4368-460: The AAI has been conducted before the birth of the first child. That patterns of adult discourse correlate with infant behavior in the Strange Situation is a surprising and rather remarkable finding. It is important to note that prediction of different patterns of infant attachment security from the AAI is not based upon the actual attachment history of the parent, but on the way in which the parent recounts that history. Main has explained that "while

4480-434: The AAI transcripts of parents of children classified disorganized in their attachment behavior, and found that these parents exhibited characteristic 'slips' or 'lapses' in their discourse when discussing potentially traumatic experiences of loss or abuse. Some speakers exhibited lapses in reasoning, for example, making incompatible statements (e.g. describing a person as both dead and alive) or describing themselves as causal in

4592-1193: The Adult Attachment Interview Protocol is available. In research conducted in the early 1980s with parents from a Berkeley sample, Main and colleagues found that transcribed responses to the AAI could be placed into one of three categories, named 'secure-autonomous', 'dismissing' and 'preoccupied'. Interviews categorised as secure-autonomous are characterised by their coherent and collaborative nature. The interviewees appear to be balanced and objective in their descriptions and evaluations of relationships and overall seem to value attachment. Interviews categorised as dismissing are characterised by inconsistent descriptions and evaluations of relationships. The interviewees may claim to have had positive attachment relationships and experiences but provide unconvincing or contradictory evidence to support this, or acknowledge negative experiences but insist these experiences have had little effect or only made them stronger. Interviews categorised as preoccupied are characterised by angry, vague, confused, or fearful fixation on particular attachment relationships or experiences. Unlike

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4704-499: The Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) intervention. In VIPP, the intervener makes short film clips of the caregiver interacting with their child, and brings these clips for discussion with the caregiver, across 6-8 sessions. The intervener helps the caregiver consider the child's behaviours, their meanings, and how the child responds to the caregiver's own behaviors. The intervention highlights positive caregiver behaviors, allowing

4816-460: The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in 1977, Main interacted with various biologists, evolutionary theorists and ethologists, including Richard Dawkins and Robert Hinde, who influenced her thinking about conflict behaviors. She also helped Karin and Klaus Grossman with their Bielefeld longitudinal study, including encouraging them to analyse the role of fathers in infants' attachment development. In

4928-520: The Japanese findings have sparked the most controversy as to the meaning of individual differences in attachment behavior as originally identified by Ainsworth et al. (1978). In a study conducted in Sapporo, Behrens, et al., 2007. found attachment distributions consistent with global norms using the six-year Main & Cassidy scoring system for attachment classification. In addition to these findings supporting

5040-494: The Strange Situation which assesses an infant's attachment security to a particular person, the Adult Attachment Interview does not assess attachment security with respect to any specific past or current relationship, but instead an individual's overall state of mind with respect to attachment. To illustrate the difference, Main has described how an individual who has no living family and no current romantic partner – so

5152-456: The Strange Situation, and in young adulthood, as assessed by the AAI. In other studies however, no longitudinal association has been found. The evidence on the longitudinal stability of attachment security is therefore currently inconclusive. Main, like Bowlby before her, has stressed that attachment "security is in no way fixed or fully determined in infancy." She has highlighted that a variety of favourable and unfavourable experiences may alter

5264-452: The Study of Attachment. Her most well known work is Raising Parents: Attachment, Representation, and Treatment (2nd edition, 2016, Routledge). The Strange Situation Procedure was first used by Ainsworth and Wittig (1969) to assess individual differences in the responses of 56 middle-class non-clinical infants aged 11 months to the departure of a caregiver. Infants classified as Secure (type B) used

5376-612: The University of Virginia under the supervision of Mary Ainsworth. She has served on various University faculties internationally, and published five books and over 100 research journal articles. She is the founder of the Family Relations Institute and currently serves as its lead instructor and Director of Research and Publication, and serves as a member of the board of directors for the International Association for

5488-489: The absence of maltreatment (e.g. in divorce proceedings) have also been found to predict infant disorganized attachment behavior. Out-of-home caregiving is not associated with disorganized attachment unless this is extremely extensive. Researchers have found that over 60 hours per week of day-care predicts disorganized attachment in the infant independently of the caregiver's behavior during the time they do interact. Though it may be of interest to clinicians and social workers,

5600-494: The addition be regarded as "open-ended, in the sense that subcategories may be distinguished", as she worried that the D classification might be too encompassing and might treat too many different forms of behaviour as if they were the same thing. Indeed, the D classification puts together infants who use a somewhat disrupted secure (B) strategy with those who seem hopeless and show little attachment behaviour; it also puts together infants who run to hide when they see their caregiver in

5712-423: The advantages of adaptation to dangerous circumstances (rather than security). The DMM describes self-protective strategies and patterns of information processing in greater detail than any other attachment-informed model. Crittenden developed an interlocking set of scientific assessments of attachment across the lifespan. The DMM is usable in research, forensic and clinical settings. Crittenden obtained her Ph.D. at

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5824-410: The apparently unruffled behaviour of the avoidant infants is in fact a mask for distress, a hypothesis later evidenced through studies of the heart rate of avoidant infants. Ainsworth's narrative records showed that infants avoided the caregiver in the stressful Strange Situation Procedure when they had a history of experiencing rebuff of attachment behaviour. The child's needs are frequently not met and

5936-509: The approach to classifying infant disorganized attachment, adults classified as unresolved are also assigned a best-fitting alternative classification. Unresolved/disorganized adult responses have been found associated with disorganized infant behavior towards the speaker. A 'Cannot Classify' category has also been delineated by Hesse and Main which is used to describe interviews in which no single predominant attachment state of mind can be identified. Examples of cannot classify cases would include

6048-462: The attachment system has been flooded (e.g. by fear, or anger). Crittenden also argues that some behaviour classified as Disorganized/disoriented can be regarded as more 'emergency' versions of the avoidant and/or ambivalent/resistant strategies, and function to maintain the protective availability of the caregiver to some degree. Sroufe et al. have agreed that 'even disorganised attachment behaviour (simultaneous approach-avoidance; freezing, etc.) enables

6160-426: The attachment system: either a conflict between simultaneous dispositions to physically approach and to flee the caregiver, or seeming disorientation to the environment. Other researchers have suggested that the dysregulation of negative affects can lead to disorganized behavior, even without a specific paradoxical injunction. However, it is important to note that Main and Solomon did not intend to suggest that all of

6272-414: The availability of their attachment figure, the toddler then no longer needs to use coercive behaviours with the goal of maintaining their caregiver’s availability. Not only with time can relationships change (e.g. within the family system), but new relationships occur throughout development, and may be the basis for a change of attachment pattern if a relationship is formed with this figure, or if they cause

6384-407: The basis of their behaviors, the children were categorized into three groups, with a fourth added later. Each of these groups reflects a different kind of attachment relationship with the caregiver. A child who is securely attached to its parent will explore and play freely while the caregiver is present, using them as a "secure base" from which to explore. The child will engage with the stranger when

6496-435: The behaviors used as indices of disorganization/disorientation – some kind of disruption at the level of the attachment system – necessarily mean the same thing in the same way for infant attachment or infant mental health. As Lyons-Ruth et al. have recently observed, "to date, few hypotheses have been advanced regarding the mechanisms underlying this striking difference among infants who display disorganized behavior". After

6608-561: The birth of the infant and had reacted by becoming severely depressed. In fact, 56% of mothers who had lost a parent by death before they completed high school subsequently had children with disorganized attachments. Subsequently studies, whilst emphasising the potential importance of unresolved loss, have qualified these findings. For example, Solomon and George found that unresolved loss in the mother tended to be associated with disorganised attachment in their infant primarily when they had also experienced an unresolved trauma in their life prior to

6720-403: The caregiver as a safe base from which to explore, protested at their departure but sought the caregiver upon his or her return. Infants classified as Anxious-Avoidant (A) did not exhibit distress on separation, and ignored the caregiver on their return. Separation of an infant from her caregiver was theorised by Bowlby (1960) to necessarily evoke anxiety, as a reaction hard-wired by evolution since

6832-443: The caregiver departs or returns. The child will not explore very much regardless of who is there. Infants classified as anxious-avoidant (A) represented a puzzle in the early 1980s. They did not exhibit distress on separation, and either ignored the caregiver on their return (A1 subtype) or showed some tendency to approach together with some tendency to ignore or turn away from the caregiver (A2 subtype). Ainsworth and Bell theorised that

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6944-434: The caregiver is always the proximate cause of disorganized/disoriented attachment behavior. This account has been supported by research findings which show that a range of factors can predict this behavior besides abuse and neglect. For example, unresolved loss, parental experiences of helplessness, a parent's ongoing experience of an anxiety disorder, multiple forms of social and economic disadvantage and major separation in

7056-411: The caregiver is available and able to meet the needs of the child in a responsive and appropriate manner. Others have pointed out that there are also other determinants of the child's attachment, and that the behavior of the parent may in turn be influenced by the child's behavior. A child with the anxious-avoidant insecure attachment pattern will avoid or ignore the caregiver, showing little emotion when

7168-401: The caregiver is present, and may be visibly upset when the caregiver departs but happy to see the caregiver on their return. The child feels confident that the caregiver is available, and will be responsive to their attachment needs and communications. Securely attached children are best able to explore when they have the knowledge of a secure base to return to in times of need. When assistance

7280-423: The caregiver to build on their own experience and serve as a role model for themselves. A meta-analysis of the first twenty-five randomised control trials of VIPP-SD found that the intervention led to more sensitive caregiver behaviour and less disorganized and more secure attachment relationships. Researchers found no indication of a decrease in effect size stemming from length of follow-up, suggesting that effects of

7392-509: The caregiver, seek comfort, and cease their distress without clear ambivalent or avoidant behavior." There is "rapidly growing interest in disorganized attachment" from clinicians and policy-makers as well as researchers. Yet the Disorganized/disoriented attachment (D) classification has been criticised by some for being too encompassing. In 1990, Ainsworth put in print her blessing for the new "D" classification, though she urged that

7504-480: The categorical versus continuous nature of attachment classifications (and the debate surrounding this issue) should consult the paper by Fraley and Spieker and the rejoinders in the same issue by many prominent attachment researchers including J. Cassidy , A. Sroufe, E. Waters & T. Beauchaine, and M. Cummings. Mary Main Mary Main (1943 - January 6, 2023) was an American psychologist notable for her work in

7616-519: The child comes to believe that communication of needs has no influence on the caregiver. Ainsworth's student Mary Main theorised that avoidant behaviour in the Strange Situation Procedure should be regarded as "a conditional strategy, which paradoxically permits whatever proximity is possible under conditions of maternal rejection" by de-emphasising attachment needs. Main proposed that avoidance has two functions for an infant whose caregiver

7728-521: The child is overwhelmed with emotion ('disorganised distress'), and therefore unable to maintain control of themselves and achieve even conditional proximity. Children classified as Anxious-Ambivalent/Resistant (C) showed distress even before separation, and were clingy and difficult to comfort on the caregiver's return. They showed either signs of resentment in response to the absence (C1 subtype), or signs of helpless passivity (C2 subtype). Hans et al. have expressed concern that "ambivalent attachment remains

7840-411: The complexity of the situation with the neurological means at their disposal: they "avoid" expressing negative emotions when they are anxious, and in doing so avoid antagonising or alienating their attachment figure. By contrast, infants using an Ambivalent/Resistant strategy split off temporally-sequenced knowledge about how and why the attachment figure is available. If such information is ignored, then

7952-693: The content of an individual's life history cannot change, it can be told or reconstructed in many differing ways". An individual who describes extremely negative childhood attachment experiences could be classified as having a secure-autonomous state of mind if they describe these experiences in a coherent and apparently objective way. This is termed discontinuous ('earned') security. Main has also emphasised that attachment states of mind should not be viewed as fixed and unalterable: "these… categorical placements… must be understood to reference only current, and potentially changeable, states of mind with respect to attachment." In later work, Main, DeMoss and Hesse reviewed

8064-523: The effect of keeping the attachment figure locked in an irresolvable struggle, as the child continually switches between anger/aggression and appeasement/comfort seeking to maintain the carer's attention. From puberty onwards, the ‘C’ strategy may develop into aggressive strategies that are focused on revenge and punishing the other person, and/or seeking to be rescued by the other person." Yet Crittenden also emphasises that development and time may lead away from pathology. A toddler may have come to depend upon

8176-434: The field of attachment. A Professor at the University of California Berkeley, Main is particularly known for her introduction of the 'disorganized' infant attachment classification and for development of the Adult Attachment Interview and coding system for assessing states of mind regarding attachment. This work has been described as 'revolutionary' and Main has been described as having 'unprecedented resonance and influence' in

8288-401: The field of psychology. John Bowlby originally proposed the concept of the 'attachment behavioral system', an orientation and set of dispositions which evolved because it provided protection from predation and other risks to survival. The system has three components in early childhood: the monitoring and maintaining of proximity to an attachment figure or figures, flight to these individuals as

8400-561: The first doctoral students of Mary Ainsworth's at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, exploring the relationship between attachment and infant play in her doctoral research. Main found that infants who were securely attached to their mothers engaged in more exploration and interactive play. Important aspects of Main's early work also included microanalysis of infant-mother interaction using descriptive language rather than count data, replicating her teacher Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation on

8512-443: The five major classifications described above, but also assigned scores on a number of different scales and assigned to one or more of 12 sub-classifications. The AAI has been applied in both research and clinically. Research has found different AAI response patterns to be associated with different types of parental behavior. For example, secure-autonomous parents have been found to be more responsive to their infants than parents with

8624-406: The global distributions of attachment classifications in Sapporo, Behrens et al. also discuss the Japanese concept of amae and its relevance to questions concerning whether the insecure-resistant (C) style of interaction may be engendered in Japanese infants as a result of the cultural practice of amae . Regarding the issue of whether the breadth of infant attachment functioning can be captured by

8736-522: The head, and so on. It was our clear impression that such tension movements signified stress, both because they tended to occur chiefly in the separation episodes and because they tended to precede crying. Indeed, our hypothesis is that they occur when a child is attempting to control crying, for they tend to vanish if and when crying breaks through." Such observations also appeared in the doctoral theses of Ainsworth's students. Patricia Crittenden , for example, noted that one abused infant in her doctoral sample

8848-444: The idea of A and C as dimensions. She identifies progressive subtypes of each, running from A1-A8 and C1-C8. The higher numbers represent splits in information about emotions or causality applied more regularly and insistently. Wilcox and Baim offer a good description of these two dimensions: " Development of the ‘A’ Strategy – Predictability with Lack of Attunement " If the baby’s care is predictable but not attuned, she will develop

8960-412: The infant becomes focused on pre-empting the unknown availability of the caregiver, and seeking to keep the attention of their caregiver through clingy or aggressive behaviour, or alternating combinations of the two. Ambivalent/Resistant behaviour may increase the availability of an attachment figure who otherwise displays inconsistent or misleading responses to the infant's attachment behaviours, suggesting

9072-468: The infant cannot survive without the caregiver. Hence the apparently unruffled behaviour of the type A infants was understood by Ainsworth as a mask for distress, a point later evidenced through studies of heart-rate (Sroufe & Waters 1977). Infants classified as Anxious-Ambivalent/Resistant (C), showed distress on separation, and were clingy and difficult to comfort on the caregiver's return. A set of protocols for classifying infants into one of these groups

9184-563: The infant made a direct appeal for contact and comfort. Following completion of her dissertation, Main took up a faculty position in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. She has since remained at Berkeley, though she has also held visiting scholar positions at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Bielefeld (Germany) and the University of Leiden (Netherlands). During her year with Karin and Klaus Grossmann at

9296-427: The infant seek protection from the attachment figure when alarmed: "an infant who is frightened by the attachment figure is presented with a paradoxical problem – namely, an attachment figure who is at once the source of and the solution to its alarm." A parent who frightens the child with abusive behavior, or who themselves is frightened when the child seeks comfort because of past trauma, could be supposed to cause such

9408-405: The infant with two natural cues for danger, and allowed observers to see the articulation and balance between the infant's capacities to explore, affiliate with the stranger, and seek and find comfort from their caregiver. Individual differences in infant responses to the situation were found and three patterns were identified: secure, insecure-avoidant, and insecure-ambivalent. Mary Main was among

9520-418: The initial presentation of protocols for coding D Strange Situation behavior in infants by Main and Solomon, researchers have explored the caregiving behavior associated with the classification. Together with Erik Hesse, in 1990 Main proposed that disorganized attachment behavior can be explained by a contradiction between the attachment system and another behavioral tendency. As the attachment system demands that

9632-467: The intervention group than the control group, suggesting this intervention is effective. Mary Main is also co-author of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). This semi-structured interview consists of 20 questions and takes about one hour to administer. During the interview, participants are asked to describe early childhood experiences with primary attachment figures and evaluate the impact of these experiences on their development. An illustrative copy of

9744-408: The intervention remain stable over time. The ABC intervention is similar to VIPP, though with the intervener making more in-the-moment comments to the caregiver seeking to encourage nurturing and responsive care and - following Mary Main's theory - reduce alarming caregiver behavior. Results of randomized clinical trials have again found higher attachment security and lower attachment disorganization in

9856-420: The level of mechanism, and it is essentially identical to Bowlby's. Severely maltreating mothers cannot be common in any species, and perhaps this account of "maltreatment effects" on the proximate level is sufficient. On the other hand, it is at least conceivable that some biologically-based strategy has been developed to deal with maltreating mothers." In 1986 Mary Main, together with Judith Solomon, introduced

9968-571: The loss. Michael Rutter describes the procedure in the following terms: It is by no means free of limitations (see Lamb, Thompson, Gardener, Charnov & Estes, 1984). To begin with, it is very dependent on brief separations and reunions having the same meaning for all children. This may be a major constraint when applying the procedure in cultures, such as that in Japan (see Miyake et al., 1985), where infants are rarely separated from their mothers in ordinary circumstances. Also, because older children have

10080-489: The meanings they do receive. Though termed 'insecure', Crittenden councils that the Avoidant (A) and Ambivalent/Resistant (C) strategies should not be regarded as in themselves disordered or problematic, so long as they are not misapplied over time through too general an application to situations where they are inappropriate. She emphasises that a strategy may well change over time as the child matures and circumstances change. As

10192-473: The most poorly understood of Ainsworth's attachment types". In particular, the relationship between ambivalent/resistant (C) and disorganisation (D) is still to be clarified. However, researchers agree that the Anxious-Ambivalent/Resistant strategy is a response to unpredictably responsive caregiving, and that the displays of anger or helplessness towards the caregiver on reunion can be regarded as

10304-405: The one hand, the activation of the attachment system when an infant is anxious appeared to be an innate psycho-physiological mechanism. On the other hand, this finding implied that the quality of the attachment behaviour elicited by this anxiety differed in systematic ways as a function of the infant's caregiving environment. A second surprising finding that confronted Ainsworth's students, however,

10416-429: The parent (VI); direct indices of disorganization or disorientation (VII). Like the Ainsworth classifications, 'disorganized/disoriented attachment' with one caregiver little predicts the classification with another caregiver. This implies that the classification is tapping a quality of the relationship, and not merely the child's temperament. A classification of disorganized/disoriented attachment has been found to be

10528-520: The parent. Some children are overly solicitous and protective toward the parent (classified by Main and Cassidy as controlling-caregiving) while others are harshly directive or rudely humiliating toward the parent (classified controlling-punitive). A meta-analysis of 4 samples involving 223 children found a significant association between disorganization and school age controlling attachment behavior. Main conceptualised disorganization/disorientation as representing some form of contradiction or disruption of

10640-407: The person to rethink how and whether they seek comfort. Such a new relationship may be with a clinician or other professional, so long as this encounter is not too fleeting. For instance, in work with families experiencing complex difficulties, Crittenden emphasises that ‘observing videotaped parent-child interactions with the parent and discussing these observations from the parent’s perspective can be

10752-431: The point on which he stood. "Perhaps this singular piece of apparent stupidity may be accounted for by the circumstance that this reptile has no enemy whatever on shore, whereas at sea it must often fall prey to the numerous sharks. Hence, probably, urged by a fixed and hereditary instinct that the shore is its place of safety, whatever the emergency may be, it there takes refuge". This is an "ultimate" account made sheerly at

10864-423: The potential for danger, such as anger or fear. Crittenden terms this ‘affective information’. In childhood this information would include emotions provoked by the unexplained absence of an attachment figure. 2. Causal or other sequentially ordered knowledge about the potential for safety or danger. In childhood this would include knowledge regarding the behaviours that indicate an attachment figure's availability as

10976-455: The problem. When the ‘C’ pattern is firmly established, typically by toddlerhood, both carer and child can descend into misery together. As with the ‘A’ strategy, a child employing a ‘C’ strategy will, as she develops, have the potential to become more subtle and complex in using the strategy. Typically, in childhood, aggressive outbursts will be counterpoised with displays of helplessness or coy behaviour that disarms potential retaliation. This has

11088-485: The procedure is based on just 20 minutes of behavior. It can be scarcely expected to tap all the relevant qualities of a child's attachment relationships. Q-sort procedures based on much longer naturalistic observations in the home, and interviews with the mothers have developed in order to extend the data base (see Vaughn & Waters, 1990). A further constraint is that the coding procedure results in discrete categories rather than continuously distributed dimensions. Not only

11200-399: The same classification as those who show an avoidant (A) strategy on the first reunion and then an ambivalent-resistant (C) strategy on the second reunion. Perhaps responding to such concerns, George and Solomon have divided among indices of Disorganized/disoriented attachment (D) in the Strange Situation, treating some of the behaviours as a "strategy of desperation" and others as evidence that

11312-452: The service of maintaining the availability of their caregiver in the Strange Situation Procedure. For instance, instead of an attachment pattern, one abused infant showed 'stress-related stereotypic headcocking throughout the strange situation. This pervasive behaviour, however, was the only clue to the extent of her stress’. This is a point Crittenden has returned to in her later work. She has emphasised that trauma may result in behaviour which

11424-404: The situation changes, the persistent exclusion of the same forms of information may become maladaptive’. This was an important foundation for Crittenden's ideas. Her first study, supervised by Ainsworth, was of 73 infants and toddlers. Most of this sample had experienced severe maltreatment. Like Ainsworth's previous doctoral students, Crittenden found that ‘not all infants can be placed easily into

11536-458: The speaker, dismissing responses with insecure-avoidant infant behavior towards the speaker and preoccupied responses with insecure-ambivalent infant behavior towards the speaker. How a parent spoke about their own attachment history was therefore found to be associated with their infant's attachment behavior towards them in the Strange Situation, and subsequent research has replicated this finding. The association has even been found in research where

11648-430: The surface, and may periodically burst through in sudden episodes of aggression, distress or comfort seeking (which can include sexualised behaviour). As she grows, she becomes more neurobiologically capable of distancing herself from her felt emotions. In toddlerhood, she may develop a caretaking strategy to gain proximity to a psychologically unavailable parent or she may develop a compulsively compliant strategy to appease

11760-481: The three categories described above’; she proposed that the Avoidant (A) and Ambivalent/Resistant (C) responses can be regarded as excluding ‘some classes of information’ relevant to ‘the activation of the attachment system’. Crittenden worked from ‘a basic premise of ethology – that universal behaviours often serve functions that promote survival’. She proposed that the basic components of human experience of danger are two kinds of information: 1. Emotions provoked by

11872-403: The ultimate cause of behavior, an attachment researcher may ask "What is attachment behavior good for – how does it affect survival and reproduction?" In her attention to attachment as an evolutionary phenomenon, from early in her career Main was already reflecting that a conflict might arise between an infant's experience of aversive parenting and the attachment injunction to seek protection from

11984-418: The unreliability of protection and safety. In her study, Crittenden noted that the infants who had experienced both abuse and neglect in her sample tended to ‘show an A/C pattern as do a few who are only abused and also a few who only neglected’ Yet Crittenden also observed some infants who did not fit well into an A, B, C or A/C classification; they did not appear able to effectively manage their behaviour in

12096-620: The variety of reasons why non-maltreating parenting may be associated with infant disorganized/disoriented attachment is an important reason why it is not appropriate to use disorganized attachment as a screening tool for abuse. An additional issue for attempts at home screening of disorganized attachment is Main's finding that some infants classified as insecure-avoidant in the strange situation may show disorganized-type behaviors at home. Interventions that reduce disorganization have been developed, for example, Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP) and

12208-417: Was added by Ainsworth's graduate student Mary Main . In the Strange Situation, the attachment system is expected to be activated by the departure and return of the caregiver. If the behaviour of the infant does not appear to the observer to be coordinated in a smooth way across episodes to achieve either proximity or some relative proximity with the caregiver, then it is considered "disorganised" as it indicates

12320-412: Was classed as secure (B) by her undergraduate coders because her strange situation behavior was "without either avoidance or ambivalence, she did show stress-related stereotypic headcocking throughout the strange situation. This pervasive behavior, however, was the only clue to the extent of her stress." Drawing on records of behaviors discrepant with the A, B and C classifications, a fourth classification

12432-674: Was established by Ainsworth's influential Patterns of Attachment (Ainsworth et al. 1978). Crittenden was a doctoral student of Mary Ainsworth in the early 1980s. Two surprising findings faced Ainsworth's doctoral students. The first surprising finding was that Ainsworth's ABC classification of infant behaviour in the Strange Situation Procedure appeared to account for the overwhelming majority of middle-class infants. Crittenden (1995: 368) and other students of Ainsworth were therefore brought to ask: ‘Why are there only three patterns of attachment when mothers are highly varied?’. The fact that these three patterns appeared so widely suggested that, on

12544-508: Was that not all infants could be classified using Ainsworth's 1978 protocols for classifying infant behaviour in the Strange Situation. This was especially the case with children from maltreatment samples, but it also occurred in samples of infants from middle-class homes. The founder of attachment theory, John Bowlby , had argued that ‘given certain adverse circumstances during childhood, the selective exclusion of information of certain sorts may be adaptive. Yet, when during adolescence and adult

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