Facts about Attachment Theories (Bowlby & Ainsworth)
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Secure attachment in Ainsworth's research was the most common pattern, found in roughly 60 to 65 percent of American infants studied.
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The Strange Situation procedure, conducted with infants aged 12 to 18 months, measures attachment security by observing responses to brief separations from and reunions with a caregiver.
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Bowlby's concept of the 'internal working model' describes how early attachment experiences form mental representations that shape future relationships throughout life.
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A fourth attachment pattern, disorganized attachment, was identified by Mary Main and Judith Solomon in 1986, expanding Ainsworth's original classification system.
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John Bowlby drew on ethology, control systems theory, and psychoanalysis to propose that attachment is an evolved behavioral system promoting infant survival.
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Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation procedure identified three initial attachment patterns in infants: secure, anxious-avoidant, and anxious-ambivalent.