Mary Ainsworth

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Lore & Background

Mary Dinsmore Salter was born in Glendale, Ohio on December 1, 1913, the eldest of three daughters. Her father had a master's degree in history and worked at a manufacturing firm; her mother was a nurse. In 1918, the family moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where Salter spent the rest of her childhood. She began reading by age three and decided to become a psychologist at age 15 after reading William McDougall's book. She began classes at the University of Toronto at age 16, earned her bachelor's degree in 1935, her master's in 1936, and her PhD in 1939. Her dissertation was titled 'An Evaluation of Adjustment Based on the Concept of Security' and stated that 'where family security is lacking, the individual is handicapped by the lack of a secure base from which to work.'

After graduation, she taught at the University of Toronto before joining the Canadian Women's Army Corps in 1942, where she reached the rank of major in 1945. She married Leonard Ainsworth in 1950 and moved to London, where she joined John Bowlby's research team at the Tavistock Clinic. In 1954, she left to do research in Africa, carrying out a longitudinal field study of mother-infant interaction in Uganda. She later settled at the University of Virginia in 1975, remaining there until 1984, then became professor emeritus and stayed active until 1992. She died on March 21, 1999, at age 85 due to a stroke.

Reader's Guide

Mary Ainsworth's significance lies in her creation of the strange situation procedure, the first validated scientific method to assess attachment, first applied in 1963. From this research she described three primary patterns of attachment—labeled A, B, and C—which remain a foundation for all major attachment theories. Her work, developed over 40 years with John Bowlby, became known as the Ainsworth-Bowlby model, or the ABC model of attachment. With the help of others, nine sub-patterns were described in the ABC model by the time of her death. A 2002 Review of General Psychology survey ranked Ainsworth as the 97th most cited psychologist of the 20th century, and many of her studies are considered 'cornerstones' of modern-day attachment theory. Her legacy includes the G. Stanley Hall Award from APA for developmental psychology in 1984, the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Child Development in 1985, and the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association in 1989. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992.

Did You Know?

• Ainsworth began reading by the age of three and decided to become a psychologist at age 15 after reading William McDougall's book.
• She was one of only five students admitted into the honors course in psychology at the University of Toronto at age 16.
• Her PhD dissertation stated that 'where family security is lacking, the individual is handicapped by the lack of a secure base from which to work.'
• While working at Johns Hopkins, Ainsworth had to wait two years for an associate professor position even though her qualifications surpassed the job description, and women had to eat in separate dining rooms than men.
• She learned the local language in Uganda to the extent that she could carry out simple conversation, developing an appreciation of the culture.