Final answer:
Mary Ainsworth's Attachment Theory research identified three primary styles of attachment: secure, avoidant, and resistant, later adding a fourth style, disorganized. It considers how infants use their caregiver as a secure base from which to explore the environment. Critics argue for the role of factors like temperament and culture in influencing attachment behaviors.
Step-by-step explanation:
Attachment Theory, initially developed by John Bowlby, describes the dynamics of long-term relationships between humans. Its most important tenet is the development of a close emotional bond between a child and their caregiver, which is considered essential for the child's normal social and emotional development. Mary Ainsworth, a student of Bowlby, expanded upon his theory by assessing the nature of attachment between infants and their caregivers through an observational study known as the Strange Situation.
Ainsworth and her colleague Bell identified three primary styles of attachment: secure, avoidant, and resistant, with a fourth style, disorganized attachment, being described later by Main and Solomon. Secure attachment is characterized by the infant showing distress when the caregiver leaves and being comforted when the caregiver returns, using them as a secure base from which to explore the world. Avoidant children do not seek much contact with their caregiver after separation or upon reunion. Resistant children become very distressed when a caregiver leaves and exhibit ambivalent behavior upon their return, seeking and then resisting contact. Disorganized attachment is marked by a lack of coherent strategy for dealing with the stress of the Strange Situation.
Some criticisms of Ainsworth's findings highlight that a child's temperament may influence attachment, and that there are cultural variations in attachment behaviors not accounted for in her research. In sum, while Ainsworth's Attachment Theory has proven central to understanding child development, it must be considered within wider contexts including genetic, temperamental, and cultural factors.