Mary Ainsworth
| Mary Ainsworth | |
|---|---|
| Born | Mary Dinsmore Salter December 1, 1913 Glendale, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | March 21, 1999 (aged 85) Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S. |
| Fields | Psychoanalysis |
| Alma mater | University of Toronto |
| Doctoral advisor | William E. Blatz |
| Known for | Strange situation |
| Influences |
William McDougall John Bowlby |
| Spouse | Leonard Ainsworth (m. 1950; div. 1960) |
Mary Dinsmore Ainsworth (/ˈeɪnswɜːrθ/; née Salter; December 1, 1913 – March 21, 1999) was an American-Canadian developmental psychologist known for her work in the development of attachment theory. She designed the strange situation procedure to observe early emotional attachment between a child and its primary caregiver.
A 2002 Review of General Psychology survey ranked Ainsworth as the 97th most cited psychologist of the 20th century. Many of Ainsworth's studies are "cornerstones" of modern-day attachment theory.
Mary Dinsmore Salter was born in Glendale, Ohio on December 1, 1913, the eldest of three daughters born to Mary and Charles Salter. Her father, who possessed a master's degree in history, worked at a manufacturing firm in Cincinnati and her mother, who was trained as a nurse, was a homemaker. Both her parents were graduates of Dickinson College who placed "high value on a good liberal arts education" and expected their children to have excellent academic achievements. In 1918, her father's manufacturing firm transferred him and the family moved to Toronto, Canada, where Salter would spend the rest of her childhood.
Salter was a precocious child who thirsted for knowledge. She began reading by the age of three, and the family would once a week visit the local library where her mother would select appropriate books for her level. She was close with her father, who assumed the duties of tucking her in at night and singing to her, but did not have a warm relationship with her mother; Salter later stated that their relationship was marked by her mother's jealousy and interference with the bond she had with her father. Salter excelled in school, and decided to become a psychologist after reading William McDougall's book Character and the Conduct of Life (1926) at the age of 15.
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