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This method of reporting the information available on health status surveys is potentially a more informative way of identifying and classifying the health needs of subgroups in the population than is available from global scores or multiple scale scores. The reliability and validity of this taxonomy of health profile-types for the purposes of planning and evaluating health services must be demonstrated. That is the purpose of the accompanying study.

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Mary Ainsworth's pioneering work has changed conceptions of infant-mother relationships, and by extension, conceptions of human relationships more generally. As John Bowlby's major collaborator in the development of attachment theory, she is commonly credited with providing supporting empirical evidence for the theory while Bowlby is regarded as creating its basic framework. This view is too simple. Ainsworth's innovative approach to studying the development of relationships not only made it possible to put some of Bowlby's ideas to empirical test, but her insights expanded the theory itself in fundamental ways. Among her major contributions are the concept of the attachment figure as a secure base from which an infant can explore the world, the identification of patterns of infant-mother attachment as indicators of relationship quality, and the concept of parental sensitive responsiveness to infant signals as precursor to secure attachment. Without this work, attachment theory and research would not have attained the importance they currently hold in developmental and social psychology.That Ainsworth and Bowlby became collaborators was due to a series of fortunate coincidences, although their thinking about personality development had developed along congenial lines before they met. Their first encounter took place when both were in mid-life-after both of their professional careers had been interrupted by military service during the Second World War, but their most creative and original contributions still lay ahead. Biographical SketchMary Dinsmore Salter, born on December 1, 1913, in Glendale Ohio, was the eldest daughter of. Charles and Mary Salter. She grew up in Toronto, Canada, where her father was transferred by his company in 1918. Mary had fond memories of her father, who was the parent who tucked the children into bed at night and sang to them. Her relationship with her mother was less warm. She was a precocious child with a strong desire for learning, who learned to read at the age of 3. Her interest in psychology was sparked by William McDougall's (Chapter 6, this volume) Character and the Conduct of Life (McDougall, 1927), which she discovered during her final year in high school."It had not previously occurred to me that one might look within oneself for some explanation of how one felt and behaved, rather than feeling entirely at the mercy of external forces. What a vista that opened up" (Ainsworth, 1983, p. 202).