Mary Main (February 7, 1943 – January 6, 2023) was an American psychologist notable for her work in the field of attachment. A professor at the University of California Berkeley, Main is particularly known for her introduction of the 'disorganized' infant attachment classification and for development of the Adult Attachment Interview and coding system for assessing states of mind regarding attachment. This work has been described as 'revolutionary'University of Gothenburg (2007). Honorary doctorate for Mary Main. Available at: http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/attachment/pdf/Mary_Main_honorary_degree.pdf and Main has been described as having 'unprecedented resonance and influence' in the field of psychology.University of Haifa (2011). Honorary doctorate awarded to Prof. Mary Main. Available at:
Early work
John Bowlby originally proposed the concept of the 'attachment behavioral system', an orientation and set of dispositions which evolved because it provided protection from predation and other risks to survival. The system has three components in early childhood: the monitoring and maintaining of proximity to an attachment figure or figures, flight to these individuals as a haven of safety in times of alarm, and use of these individuals as a secure base for exploration. A collaborator of Bowlby's, Mary Ainsworth, developed a standardised laboratory observation procedure named the 'Strange Situation' in which an infant would undergo two brief separations and reunions from their caregiver as well as contact with a stranger.
In its novelty and its separations, the Strange Situation confronted the infant with two natural cues for danger, and allowed observers to see the articulation and balance between the infant's capacities to explore, affiliate with the stranger, and seek and find comfort from their caregiver. Individual differences in infant responses to the situation were found and three patterns were identified: secure, insecure-avoidant, and insecure-ambivalent.Main, M. (2000). The organized categories of infant, child, and adult attachment: Flexible vs. inflexible attention under attachment-related stress, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 48(4), 1055-1096, p.1093.
Mary Main was among the first doctoral students of Mary Ainsworth's at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, exploring the relationship between attachment and infant play in her doctoral research. Main found that infants who were securely attached to their mothers engaged in more exploration and interactive play. Important aspects of Main's early work also included microanalysis of infant-mother interaction using descriptive language rather than count data,Brazelton, T., Kozlowski, B., & Main, M. (1974). The origins of reciprocity. In: M. Lewis & L.A. Rosenblum (Eds.), The effects of the infant on its caregiver (pp. 49-76). New York: Wiley-Interscience. replicating her teacher Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation on a different sample,Main, M., & Weston, D. (1981). The quality of the toddler's relationship to mother and to father: Related to conflict behavior and the readiness to establish new relationships. Child Development, 52(3): 932-940 and work on the scale for avoidant infant behavior.
Insecure-avoidance is coded using a 1–7 scale for 'avoidance', which Mary Ainsworth and Mary Main worked on together. Whereas infants classified as secure would seek their caregiver on reunion, show their distress, and receive comfort, 'avoidance' was a measure of the extent to which an infant kept their attention away from their caregiver and avoided showing their distress. Main conceptualised avoidance as a 'conditional behavioral strategy'. Whilst it might seem odd or maladaptive at first sight for a child to turn away from their caregiver when anxious, Main argued from an evolutionary perspective that avoidance could be regarded as a strategy to achieve the protective proximity enjoined by the attachment system - but which responds to the context of a caregiver who would rebuff them and be less available if the infant made a direct appeal for contact and comfort.Main, M. (1977). The ultimate causation of some infant attachment phenomena. Behavioral and Brain Science, 2: 640-643.
Following completion of her dissertation, Main took up a faculty position in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. She has since remained at Berkeley, though she has also held visiting scholar positions at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Bielefeld (Germany) and the University of Leiden (Netherlands). During her year with Karin and Klaus Grossmann at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in 1977, Main interacted with various biologists, evolutionary theorists and ethologists, including Richard Dawkins and Robert Hinde, who influenced her thinking about conflict behaviors. She also helped Karin and Klaus Grossman with their Bielefeld longitudinal study, including encouraging them to analyse the role of fathers in infants' attachment development. Grossmann, K., Grossmann, K. E., & Kindler, H. (2005). Early care and the roots of attachment and partnership representation in the Bielefeld and Regensburg longitudinal studies. In K. E. Grossmann, K. Grossmann, & E. Waters (Eds.), Attachment from infancy to adulthood: The major longitudinal studies (pp.98–136). New York: Guilford Press.
In a letter to Behavioral and Brain Science, 1977, the ground in evolutionary theory upon which Main's later ideas emerged is already clear. In this text, she draws from Tinbergen the important distinction between 'proximal' and 'ultimate' causation, noting that immense confusion about attachment arises when these levels of analysis are mistaken for one another. In inquiring about the proximate cause of behavior, an attachment researcher may ask "What made him show attachment behavior toward it at this particular moment?" In inquiring about the ultimate cause of behavior, an attachment researcher may ask "What is attachment behavior good for – how does it affect survival and reproduction?"Main, M. (1977). The ultimate causation of some infant attachment phenomena. Behavioral and Brain Science, 2: 640-643. In her attention to attachment as an evolutionary phenomenon, from early in her career Main was already reflecting that a conflict might arise between an infant's experience of aversive parenting and the attachment injunction to seek protection from a caregiver:
Disorganized attachment
In 1986 Mary Main, together with Judith Solomon, introduced a new infant attachment classification, 'disorganized/disoriented' (D), for the Ainsworth Strange Situation procedureMain, M., & Solomon, J. (1986). Discovery of a new, insecure-disorganized/disoriented attachment pattern. In M. Yogman & T. B. Brazelton (Eds.), Affective development in infancy (pp. 95–124). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. based on a review of discrepant infant behaviors in the Strange Situation. This review included consideration of tapes of Strange Situations from various research groups including the Grossmanns, Mary J. O’Connor, Elizabeth Carlson, Leila Beckwith and Susan Spieker.Duschinsky, R. (2021) Cornerstones of Attachment Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Michael Rutter, a prominent commentator on attachment research, has described the discovery of the disorganized/disoriented attachment classification as one of the five great advances to the field of psychology contributed by research in attachment.Rutter, M., Kreppner, J., & Sonuga-Barke, E. (2009). Emmanuel Miller Lecture: Attachment insecurity, disinhibited attachment, and attachment disorders: Where do the research findings leave the concepts? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 50(5), 529-543.
In general, disorganized behaviors occur only briefly, before the infant then enters back into one of the Ainsworth A, B or C attachment patterns. As such, infants coded as disorganized/disoriented are also given a secondary A, B or C classification.Lyons-Ruth, K., & Jacobvitz, D. (2008). Attachment disorganization: Genetic factors, parenting contexts, and developmental transformation from infancy to adulthood. In J. Cassidy & P.R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research and clinical applications (2nd ed., pp.666-697). New York: McGraw-Hill. The discrepant behaviors are most often exhibited on reunion, but are found in other episodes of the procedure as well.
Main and Solomon developed a set of thematic headings for the various forms of disorganized/disoriented behavior. Infant behaviors coded as disorganized/disoriented include sequential display of contradictory behavior patterns (Index I); simultaneous display of contradictory behavior patterns (II); undirected, misdirected, incomplete, and interrupted movements and expressions (III); stereotypies, asymmetrical movements, mistimed movements, and anomalous postures (IV); freezing, stilling, and slowed movements and expressions (V); direct indices of apprehension regarding the parent (VI); direct indices of disorganization or disorientation (VII).Main, M., & Solomon, J. (1990). Procedures for identifying infants as disorganized/disoriented during the Ainsworth Strange Situation. In M.T. Greenberg, D. Cicchetti & E.M. Cummings (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years: Theory, research and intervention (pp. 121-160). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Like the Ainsworth classifications, 'disorganized/disoriented attachment' with one caregiver little predicts the classification with another caregiver. This implies that the classification is tapping a quality of the relationship, and not merely the child's temperament.van IJzendoorn, M. H., Schuengel, C., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (1999). Disorganized attachment in early childhood: Meta-analysis of precursors, concomitants, and sequelae, Development and Psychopathology, 11, 225–249.