Books / Psychodynamic & attachment
Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation
By Mary D. Salter Ainsworth, Mary C. Blehar, Everett Waters and Sally Wall. This 1978 monograph reports a longitudinal study of infant attachment and the Strange Situation procedure.
Book details
Author of listed edition: Mary D. Salter Ainsworth, Mary C. Blehar, Everett Waters and Sally Wall
Edition: First published 1978 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; Psychology Press Classic Edition (2015, ISBN 9781848726826) checked
Publisher: Psychology Press / Routledge (originally Lawrence Erlbaum Associates)
Edition year: 2015
First published: 1978
Language and origin: English (United States)
ISBN: 9781848726826
Form and genre: Clinical & Theoretical Monograph
Level: Advanced
Historical era: 1960–1979 · Humanistic, Cognitive & Systemic Turn
Covers: The Strange Situation laboratory procedure; Baltimore home-observation data, maternal sensitivity and Group A; B and C infant attachment classifications
APA 7th reference: Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (2015). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation (Classic ed.). Psychology Press. (Original work published 1978)
What it is & historical context
Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation is an empirical monograph by Mary D. Salter Ainsworth, Mary C. Blehar, Everett Waters and Sally Wall, first published in 1978 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. This entry checked the Psychology Press Classic Edition (2015, ISBN 9781848726826) published by Routledge.
By translating Bowlby’s attachment theory into an observable, replicable assessment paradigm, Ainsworth and her colleagues made attachment security empirically testable and laid the foundation for later research on disorganised attachment (Mary Main) and adult attachment interviews.
Core clinical themes & arguments
The book reports the methodology and findings of Ainsworth’s Baltimore longitudinal study, comparing intensive home observations during the first year of life with infants’ responses to brief separations and reunions in the twenty-minute Strange Situation laboratory procedure. It defines the three primary attachment classifications (Groups A, B and C) and their sub-classifications. This entry relies on publisher and catalogue records rather than a full text reading.
Questions for critical reading
Why did reunion behaviour prove more informative than separation distress alone in classifying infant attachment? What are the cultural and ecological boundaries of applying a brief laboratory separation paradigm across diverse child-rearing communities?
Who it may suit
Developmental researchers, child and family clinicians, and students of attachment-informed psychotherapy who want the primary empirical source behind attachment classifications.
Scope & clinical limits
The original Baltimore sample was small and culturally specific, and the 1978 classification preceded the formalisation of the Group D (disorganised/disoriented) category by Main and Solomon. Laboratory classifications of infant behaviour are research constructs, not clinical diagnoses of adult personality or parenting adequacy.
Paired academic and clinical scholarship
Paired work: A Secure Base: Parent-Child Attachment and Healthy Human Development (John Bowlby, 1988)
Reference: Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development. Routledge.
Publisher record checked; integrates Ainsworth’s empirical classifications into clinical attachment theory.
Source-mapped claims and evidence notes
Claim 1: First published in 1978 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; reissued as a Psychology Press Classic Edition in 2015 (ISBN 9781848726826). (Routledge product page and Open Library work record) [Source 1: Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (2015). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation (Psychology Press Classic ed.). Routledge. (Original work published 1978).]
Claim 2: Documents the Strange Situation procedure and links first-year home observations of caregiver sensitivity to Group A (avoidant), Group B (secure) and Group C (resistant/ambivalent) infant patterns. (Routledge publisher description) [Source 1: Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (2015). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation (Psychology Press Classic ed.). Routledge. (Original work published 1978).]
Sources and inspection notes
Supports: Pending verification: Authors, title, 1978 original publication, 2015 classic edition, ISBN 9781848726826 and description of the Strange Situation study.
Supports: Pending verification: 1978 Lawrence Erlbaum first edition metadata and co-author credits.
CiNii Research. Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation.
Supports: Library catalogue records the 2015 Classic Edition and ISBN 9781848726826.