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Mary Main is a researcher at University of California, Berkeley.
Together with Judith Solomon, Main identified and empiricized a fourth attachment style in children, namely an insecure disorganized attachment classification. In the Strange Situation, the attachment system is expected to be activated by the departure and return of the caregiver. If the behaviour of the infant does not appear to the observer to be coordinated in a smooth way across episodes to achieve either proximity or some relative proximity with the caregiver, then it is considered 'disorganised' as it indicates a disruption or flooding of the attachment system. Infant behaviours in the Strange Situation Protocol coded as disorganised/disoriented include overt displays of fear; contradictory behaviours or affects occurring simultaneously or sequentially; stereotypic, asymmetric, misdirected or jerky movements; or freezing and apparent dissociation. However, Lyons-Ruth has qualified that '52% of disorganized infants continue to approach the caregiver, seek comfort, and cease their distress without clear ambivalent or avoidant behavior'.
There is a growing body of research on the links between abnormal parenting, disorganized attachment and risks for later psychopathologies. Abuse is associated with disorganized attachment; yet a parent’s ongoing experience of an anxiety-disorder or multiple forms of social and economic disadvantage have also been found to predict disorganised attachment in the infant - which is why it is not appropriate to use disorganised attachment as a screening tool for abuse. The disorganized style is a risk factor for a range of psychological disorders although it is not in itself considered an attachment disorder under the current classification. For example, longitudinal research by Sroufe, Egeland and Carlson has found that a classification of disorganised/disoriented attachment in infancy has a .36 association with dissociative symptoms in adolescence.
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