Attachment Theory

John Bowlby did research on attachment. It goes along with some of the theories of development and the first stage in which the importance lies on the caregiver’s consistency. This comes from the caretaker being nurturing. Children have different types of attachment as observed by Bowlby and Ainsworth in the ‘Strange Situation’:

-          Securely attached infant will engage with the stranger when mom is around, but not when mom leaves, will be upset when mom leaves & will calm when mom returns. 

-          Anxious resistant (or ambivalent) infant will be very upset when mom leaves, not particularly interested in the stranger even when mom is around & will be ambivalent when mom returns. 

-          Anxious avoidant infant will avoid or ignore the mom altogether & won’t show much change regardless of who is in the room with him or her

-          Disorganized style, that was for infants whose behavior defied classification due to being unpredictable, or displaying stereotyped behavior, like rocking or hitting themselves

Attachment is important to be formed in the early years as it then helps humans be more sociable and understand how to interact with others throughout their lives. Parenting styles tend to lead to one of the above reactions. Sensitive and consistent parents lead to securely attached infants. Dismissing or often even rejecting parents tend to lead to the anxious avoidant infant

                It was common in earlier years that behaviorlists believed that infants attached to whomever fed them. Harry Harlow also did some research on attachment involving separating young monkeys from their parents and putting them in a cage with two mothers – one a terry mother and one a wire mother. He would alternate which one had the food thinking that human survival would dictate a baby to go where the food is. However, the monkeys often wanted the terry mother – prob due to the softness of the mother – over the wire mother regardless of who had the food and who didn’t. If the monkeys were scared, they wanted the terry mother indicating that the terry mother soothed them more. He also did some research on rearing monkeys in isolation. Most died and those that did survive were unable to interact with other monkeys when older – indicating that attachment is important in social skills.

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory:  John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmental Psychology, 28, 759-775.

McLeod, S. A. (2009). Attachment Theory. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/attachment.html  on January 15, 2013.