Attachment Between An Infant And A Caregiver

Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson (1964) also formulated a theory of attachment based on their longitudinal study of 60 babies in Glasgow looking at the gradual development of attachments; they visited them monthly for the first year of their lives and returned again at 18 months. (Bailey et al. 2008). Similar to Bowlby’s research, Schaffer and Emerson also formulated four key stages of attachment and produced

John Bowlby developed his Attachment Theory to examine and explore the contextual relationships between a child and their caregiver and their behavioral repercussions. He describes it is “a way of conceptualizing the propensity of human beings to make strong affectional bonds to particular others and of explaining the many forms of emotional distress and personality disturbance, including anxiety, anger, depression, and emotional detachment, to which unwilling separation and loss give rise” (Bowlby, 1979, p. 127). An infant’s attachment to their primary caregiver establishes a sense of security, through protection, so the infant is able to explore the world with confidence and without threat and risk. During a child’s

Attachment is a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another across time and space (Bowlby, 1969). Likewise, attachment theory is a psychological model that seeks to illustrate the dynamics of both long term and short- term interpersonal relationships (Waters, E.; Corcoran, D.; Anafarta, M. 2005). Additionally, attachment theory address how people respond within relationships when hurt, separated from loved ones, or when they perceive a threat (Waters et al., 2005). Attachment theory is the combined work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth (Bretherton, I. 1992, p. 1). The theory predominantly draws on the ideas from doctrines such as, ethology, cybernetics, information processing and developmental psychology (Bretherton, I. 1992, p. 1). It is considered that attachment theory has revolutionized the way society thinks about the relationship between the mother and her child and the importance of

John Bowlby (1907-1990) developed the Theory of Attachment, influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud’s 1926 theory of cupboard love, which suggested that babies form attachments with those who meet their physiological needs, for example; feeding and security. His theory has influenced practice in settings globally and has also influenced other theories and experiments. Bowlby “took a distinctly evolutionary perspective on early attachment. He argued that because newborn infants are completely helpless, they are genetically programmed to form an attachment with their mothers in order to ensure survival”. Collins et al (2012, p274-p275)

The formal origin of attachment theory can be traced to the publication of two papers in 1958 “The Nature of the Child’s Tie to his Mother” by Bowlby in

By admitting infants diagnosed with neonatal hypoglycemia (low blood glucose levels in infants) into the Kennestone Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), infants are not in close proximity of their mothers. In addition to interrupting breast feeding, this disturbance in the mother-infant bonding creates separation anxiety for the infants leading them to being anxious-resistant or avoidant (insecure attachment patterns where infants are extremely distressed or unaffected by the separation respectively) in the strange situation, which is “a laboratory paradigm for studying infant-parent attachment” (Fraley, 2010).  Obtaining an insecure attachment pattern, instead of a secure attachment pattern (infants who seek for parental attention), impacts “multiple domains, such as emotional processing and executive functions” (Escobar et al., 2013, pg. 1).  In addition, insecure attachments correlate with “reduced attention to angry faces, which can reflect a failure to notice threatening stimuli” (Escobar et al., 2013).  Avoidance of disturbances between the mother-infant bond aids in

In chapter 3, the theory of attachment proposed by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth is explored. First, Bowlby’s theory of attachment was influenced by the ethological theorist, Darwin, Lorenz, and Tinbergen, who were previously mentioned in the chapter. Bowlby emphasized that behaviors found in animals, such as seeking close proximity from mothers to reduce the chance of becoming a prey, can also be found in toddlers. For example, Bowlby defined that actions such as following, crying out, and clinging found in children are displayed in order to keep close distance to parents is called attachment behaviors. Bowlby incorporates imprinting and instincts, which are ethological terms, to explain different phases of attachment. As the child develops through time, the attachment of child and parent deepens their

Attachment theory has had some very powerful theorists that have come up with these ideologies. In 1969, John Bowlby was the first theorist to develop the attachment theory. It is a theory developed to explain the emotional ties that children had with their parents or caregivers. It was believed that a child’s attachment style with a caregiver was developed throughout childhood and influenced how an individual interacts with society. It also gave an indication on what their parenting styles might be like, although this was not always a concrete indication. Bowlby’s theory provided the basis on which Mary Ainsworth also worked on and developed. In the 1970’s Ainsworth developed and conducted the “strange situation” experiment, which proved

The theory of attachment was first proposed by a British psychoanalyst John Bowlby (1907-1990) who described it as a ‘lasting psychological connectedness between human beings’ (1988). According to psychologist Mary Anisworth attachment “may be defined as an affectional tie that one person or animal forms between himself and another specific one-a tie that binds them together in space and endures over time: Attachment is a bond that develops between an infant and their main caregiver usually the mother. Researchers Bowlby, Anisworth, Main and Solomon suggested that this attachment between infant and caregiver may have influence throughout their lives.

Attachment Theory, made known by John Bowlby, is a theory dissecting the behaviourisms of humans and animals with others and the reasoning behind them. Bowlby created three main types of attachment one may experience with another. The first type of attachment is secure attachment. This attachment entails that the mother and the child have a healthy emotional bond. For this to happen, the mother and or father comfort the baby by means of “bodily centric and verbal communication” (Boyd, 2013).

Attachment theory originally started with the work of John Bowlby. Bowlby’s interest was in linking the relationship between a mother and her young child with the development of their personality later in life. He constructed the basic principles of attachment theory using concepts from ethology, cybernetics, information processing, developmental psychology, and psychoanalysis. Bowlby’s work completely changed the way people thought about the importance of a mother’s bond to their child and the implications that disruption to the bond would bring (Bretherton, 1992).

The concept of infant-mother attachment is as important to the child as the birth itself. The effect this relationship has on a child shall affect that child for its entire life. A secure attachment to the mother or a primary caregiver is imperative for a child’s development. Ainsworth’s study shows that a mother is responsive to her infant’s behavioral cues which will develop into a strong infant-mother attachment. This will result in a child who can easily, without stress, be separated from his mother and without any anxiety. Of course the study shows a child with a weak infant-mother relationship will lead to mistrust, anxiety, and will never really be that close with the mother. Without the

John Bowlby’s attachment theory established that an infant’s earliest relationship with their primary caregiver or mother shaped their later development and characterized their human life, “from the cradle to the grave” (Bowlby, 1979, p. 129). The attachment style that an infant develops with their parent later reflects on their self-esteem, well-being and the romantic relationships that they form. Bowlby’s attachment theory had extensive research done by Mary Ainsworth, who studied the mother-infant interactions specifically regarding the theme of an infant’s exploration of their surrounding and the separation from their mother in an experiment called the strange situation. Ainsworth defined the four attachment styles: secure,

Attachment theory is the work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth joined together. “Ainsworth worked with Bowlby, extending his ideas by looking at different types of atatchments as well as considering issues such as sensitive parenting”. Bowlby proposed the theory of attachment in a series of publications from the 1940 to the 1980s. “Attachment theory is rooted in the ethological notion that a newborn child is biologically programmed to seek proximity with caregivers, and this proximity-seeking behavior is naturally-selected”

The focus of attachment theory looks into how biological, neuropsychological, cognitive, and social factors highly affect child attachment and development. Bowlby started his clinical observations in the 1960s while working with maladjusted boys. There were two particular cases that strongly impacted his development of the theory. These two cases has one thing in common which was distressing relationships with their mothers. Bowlby believed that this was due to the early disruption in the child infant relationship. For an infant attachment appears to be more about the parent or mother’s proximity to the infant then their needs for sustenance. The proximity allows the child to