Mary Ainsworth Essay Example

Mary Ainsworth Essay Example Mary Ainsworth Essay Mary Ainsworth Essay Mary Ainsworth a Prominent Woman of Psychology PSY/310 October 30, 2010 Mary Ainsworth a Prominent Woman of Psychology Mary D. Salter- Ainsworth was born in Glendale, Ohio in December of 1913. Her parents were both academics at Dickenson College. Her father majored in history, while Mary’s mother focused on teaching and nursing. According to her biography, Mary and her two sisters grew up in a very â€Å"close-knit family† (Ainsworth, 1983). The importance of education was definitely impressed upon the girls at an early age, and weekly trips to the library were a regular event. In 1918, when Mary was just five years old, Mary’s father received a job in Toronto and moved his entire family to Canada. As a teenager, Mary read William McDougall’s book, Character and the Conduct of Life. This insightful book spurred the idea in Mary that one could look into one’s self for explanation, and she became enthralled with the study of psychology. At the age of sixteen Mary enrolled into the honors psychology program at the University of Toronto. Mary would go onto earning her Masters and PhD in developmental psychology, all from the University of Toronto. Mary taught at the university for three years before enlisting in the Canadian Army in 1945, where she eventually became a Major. Mary spent four years in the Army working for the personnel placement department. Ainsworth would get her first taste of clinical psychology there, which changed her perspective of it and would also change her carrier direction post WWII. After her four year military tour, Ainsworth went back to Toronto to resume teaching psychology. Ainsworth wanted to figure out a way of splitting up personality psychology with a professor that already had the position, and was turned onto the assessment of personality. Not confident in her own knowledge of the subject material, Ainsworth attended a summer course on Rorschach technique. Ainsworth immersed herself deeply into projective and paper pencil tests, in order to comfortably instruct her knew courses, and this is how Ainsworth became involved in clinical psychology. Mary would again attend courses on Rorschach technique and eventually write a manual and co-author a book on the technique, with Bruno Klopfer. In 1950 Mary met Leonard Ainsworth a fellow academic at the University of Toronto, and would soon be engaged to be married. Finished with his masters and not yet completed with his Doctorate, this meant Leonard would be a student in the same depart Mary held a chair position in. Mary felt that this would be a difficult situation for the both of them, but Leonard received news that he was accepted to the University College in London and they made the move. Both Mary and Leonard had difficulties locating work in London and eventually a Military friend of Mary’s would turn her onto a job listing for a research position at Tavistock Clinic. This is where Ainsworth would begin her research on early development, and meet Dr. John Bowlby, a psychologist researching in that field. Bowlby had already begun his work in developing his attachment theory, and needed help with observation and experimentation. Ainsworth and Bowlby would begin a long fruitful journey together exploring the realm of attachment syndromes. In 1954 Mary’s husband John finished his Ph. D. and received an appointment to East African Institute of Social Research in Kampala, Uganda. Not excited about the move Mary followed her husband to Africa and began her own studies there. She developed a short- term longitudinal, naturalistic study of mother and child interaction. Mary was unable to secure funding for the testing prior to leaving London, but found Dr. Audrey Richards, an anthropologist in Kampala, was more than willing to fund her experiments. Mary states in her biography, that she was convinced that it was far easier to be objective when observing situations outside of a familiar culture. She would later recant that statement and discuss that it was much easier to do such within her own culture (Ainsworth 1983). At the end of Leonard’s two year study in Africa, both the doctors were looking for positions again in either Canada or America. Jobs were still a little difficult to find and Leonard wound up locating a job in Baltimore as a forensic psychologist. Shortly thereafter the Dean at John Hopkins contacted Mary about a position as a clinical-type instructor, which John Hopkins’ psychology department at that point was primarily an experimental type setting. Ainsworth also found herself working at Sheppard and Pratt Hospital as clinical diagnostician. She really liked the work at the hospital, despite remarks that it was a position below her abilities. In 1960 Leonard and Mary were divorced and Mary fell into a slight bout of depression. She began to receive psychoanalytic therapy, which led to another discovery of interest. Ainsworth began to immerse herself into the psychoanalysis realm of psychology, researching Freud’s work among others. Ainsworth was quoted in saying that, â€Å"I believe that this was the most important positive influence on my career, despite the fact that I had already been very fortunate in both mentors and turns of fortune. Certainly analysis helped me to become very much more at peace with myself and very much more productive† (Ainsworth 1983). Ainsworth emerged with a new found respect for the analytical discipline of psychology, and wanted to continue her research in mother-infant interactions, that she began in Africa. The work load between John Hopkins and Sheppard-Pratt hospital was too immense for Ainsworth to really complete any research and she opted to discontinue her work at the hospital and focus on her mother-infant interaction research. John Hopkins faculty was on board with this change and very supportive, after a short issue with gender discrimination. Ainsworth’s research utilized both non-interactive observations within the home and special lab environments. Ainsworth set up her in-home observations at three week intervals from three to 54 weeks after birth and each visit lasted four hours. This gave Ainsworth a huge amount of data on each mother-infant pair, about 72 hours of observation time each. The long frequent visits also allowed the pair to enter into their normal day-to-day routines. Another key benefit from long frequent visits was that if there were any abnormal behavior, due to any reason that could be factored into the equation and averaged out. Another research method Ainsworth used was her specially setup rooms that had toys to keep children occupied and chairs that gave the room a living room feel. The experiment was setup so that Ainsworth could monitor children’s reactions when the mother left and then returned again. This was carried out in a series of patterns. From watching the children’s reactions she made several discoveries. She noticed that depending on the level of interaction the mother had with their child was directly correlated with the child’s reactions one while mother was absent and two upon the mothers return. The mothers’ that were more in touch with their infants cues, produced children that were secure-attached. Secure-Attachment is where a child is secure to explore the room even in the presence of a stranger, but upon the departure of their mother, the child becomes agitated and confused. When the mother returns the child feels comfortable to explore the new room again. Another category that Ainsworth discovered is anxious-resistant insecure attachment. Anxious-resistant children often are anxious around strangers even with the mother present. If the mother leaves the child becomes extremely distraught and even resents attention upon the caregivers return. The third stage Ainsworth noticed was anxious-avoidant insecure attachment, this child set would not care who was present mother or stranger. The child displayed emotional detachment, and represents a disengaged relationship with their caregiver. A fourth stage was later added by Ainsworth’s colleague, Mary Main. This stage was dubbed disorganized-disoriented attachment, and children that fell into this category often had mothers that fell into a depression for one reason or another. The child’s reaction upon the caregiver leaving was to cry a little, but upon return, the child would freeze and fall to the floor. When both caregiver and stranger are present the child would exhibit some confusion, and be slightly upset. With these categories set by the â€Å"Strange Situation† experiments many people have been able to further develop the relationship between mother and child. Huge amounts of tedious delicate research went into Ainsworth’s studies and some say we have not seen such thoroughness sense. Before her death in 1999, Mary Ainsworth received many awards and accommodations from the APA and educational institutions. Ainsworth was awarded the G. Stanley Hall award by APA in 1984 for developmental psychology, and also received another award for professional contribution to knowledge, by the APA in 1987. The APA granted her more recognition in 1989 for distinguished scientific contributions. In 1998 one year before she passed the American Psychological Foundation awarded her with the gold medal for Scientific Achievement. Mary Ainsworth was granted Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia from the years 1984 to 1999. References Stony Brook University. (2010). Psychology Department. Retrieved from  http://psychology. psy. sunysb. edu/psychology/ Bretherton, I. (2010).