Where family security is lacking, the individual is handicapped by the lack of a secure base from which to work.

Mary Ainsworth

Psychologists

Mary Ainsworth

American-Canadian developmental psychologist (1913-1999) who empirically grounded attachment theory. Her 1965 Strange Situation defined the secure/avoidant/resistant typology; Patterns of Attachment (1978) is a classic.

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Source: An Evaluation of Adjustment Based on the Concept of Security (doctoral dissertation, University of Toronto)Verified

Mary Ainsworth's Other Quotes

It is a pity that one cannot require field work in another society of every aspiring investigator of child development.

An attachment may be defined as an affectional tie that one person forms to another specific person, binding them together in space and enduring over time.

The infant uses the mother as a secure base from which to explore.

Related Quotes

All of us, from cradle to grave, are happiest when life is organized as a series of excursions, long or short, from the secure base provided by our attachment figures.

-- John Bowlby

The infant uses the mother as a secure base from which to explore.

-- Mary Ainsworth