The Importance of Child Bond to His Mother

However, Rutter’s Romanian orphan study suggests that mothers are not special in the way Bolby believed. Infants displayed a range of attachment behaviour towards attachment figures other than their mothers and there isn’t any particular attachment behaviour that was exclusive to their mom. Schaffer and Emerson as well, found multiple attachments are the norm, in fact 39% of children had their main attachment to someone else than the main carer. These two findings undermine Bowlby’s theory.

Freudian theory in the same way also creates a great conflict between mother and daughter. While the mother-son relationship allows the mother to reach fulfillment by giving birth to a son to on whom she can project her ambitions, the mother-daughter relationship never reaches a resolve. Freud states that tensions start with a denial of love when the mother chooses to stop breast feeding the daughter. These tensions grow further when the daughter gains an understanding of genital dominance and holds hostility for the mother because she denied her a penis. This changes her father into her object of love and her mother into her greatest rival. Freud pits the women as rivals, which undermines the mother-daughter relationship and leaves the feminine bond completely fractured.

If the mother is not available for that special attachment then the infant could attach to a mother-substitute, this attachment relationship is the prototype for all future relationships. Forming this special attachment is believed to build up an internal working model or to help them template for their future relationships. The internal working model can be changed as the infant develops new types of relationships to others, contact and attachments with a variety of people can lead to a fully developed internal working model. The internal working model is the vital part of forming

This is his Maternal deprivation hypothesis, which stated the belief that if an infant was unable to build a “warm, intimate, continuous relationship with its mother”, it would then result in having difficulties building relationships with other people and also the risk of behavioural disorders. This hypothesis says that relationships that are discontinuous or where there are separations

Harlow gathered 16 rhesus monkeys, placing some with a cloth covered monkey that did not produce food, and some with a wired monkey that dispensed food. With this presence, it was found that the newborns didn’t die as they had the cloth to cuddle. It was found that the monkeys would rather cuddle the cloth covered monkey rather than the wired one which produced food, just to establish a sense of contact comfort, which was much more important for the attachment of the monkeys. Harlow also followed monkeys which had been deprived of a ‘real’ mother at birth and found the wire mother reared monkeys were dysfunctional but those with the cloth covered one didn’t develop normal social

Harry Harlow 's research on monkey 's support 's Bowlby 's theory of attachment as he investigated ‘the nature of human love and affection ' (Cherry, 2016) through monkeys. This shows Harlow 's experiments demonstrated the importance of early attachments, emotional bonds and how attachment increases a healthy development. Harlow 's experiment consisted of ‘two wired surrogate mothers and an infant monkey separated from their mother hours after birth. One of the wired monkeys had a soft terrycloth around it and the other one only had food attached with to it. ' (Cherry, 2016) This was set up to find out which wired monkey the baby monkeys would be attached to more. Harlow 's study showed that ‘the

This then led to his ‘Maternal Deprivation’ theory, investigated by Mary Ainsworth (1913-1999), which is when a relationship is broken or fails to be formed. It researched the effects of short term deprivation and how the child reacts to being left with a stranger in a room in an experiment to also split attachment into 3 different types; secure attachment, avoidant attachment and Ambivalent attachment. which suggests that “any conditions that threaten to separate mother and child activate instinctive attachment behaviours and feelings of insecurity and fear”, Collins et al (2012, p275)

There are similarities in the work of both Harlow and Ainsworth on attachment. Firstly, both of them used studies demonstrating attachment beyond Bowlby’s idea of ‘cupboard love’ (Custance 2010), with Harlow’s experiment in the 1950’s giving an example of the power and strength of attachment with the monkeys sometimes returning to an abusive

Despite work that has criticised this, mothers today still are kept together with their baby directly after birth. Klaus and Kennell's research would suggest that early attachment does have positive consequences. However, research is not conclusive in deciding whether attachments do form in this ‘critical period' or not.

Harry Harlow’s thorough research on the connection between maternal comfort and rhesus monkeys provides information and knowledge to the reader as an insight into our social and emotional development. In this article, Harlow uses experimental observation of mental and emotional associations of the affectionate ties between the child and the mother. As Harlow says, this is “an instinct incapable of analysis”.

The central theme of attachment theory is that mothers who are available and responsive to their infant's needs establish a sense

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

There are a number of influences that contribute to the formation of attachments and the differences among individuals. One influence on attachment is the amount of time a caregiver spends with an infant. The amount of time can be affected by the age, health, and social status of the mother. For example, a younger, teenage mother, may return to school in order to complete their education. Returning to school can preoccupy a mother and create a disconnect when an infant’s distress and behaviors are not attended to or ignored. Another example of how the amount of time spent with an infant can be affected is a single-mother or a mother who returns to work within the sensitive time of an infant’s development. Similar to the younger mother example,

By responding with care and comfort, this enables for an “attachment bond” to form between the infant and caregiver, most commonly the mother (White et al., 2013). Following on from Bowlby’s theory, Mary Ainsworth investigated the theory of attachment through observing the reactions of infants when their mothers left them alone with strangers. The investigation was named as the “Ainsworth’s strange situation assessment” (White et al., 2013). It was discovered through this investigation that infants who had secure attachments with their mothers were upset when separated and were easily soothed when the mother returns. This investigation implies that infants with secure attachment to their mothers show signs of normal social development.

Experimental data suggest that the past experiences of the mother are a major determinant in molding her care-giving role. Children use adults, especially loved and powerful adults, as models for their own behaviour. Children development literature, states that the powerful process of imitation or modelling socially inclines children. Kennell and Klaus explain that unless adults consciously and painstakingly reexamine these learned behaviours, they will unconsciously repeat them when they become parents (Kennell and Klaus 11). Thus the way a woman was raised, which includes the practices of her culture and the individual idiosyncrasies of her own mother's child raising practices greatly influences her behaviour toward her own infant. Bob Brazelton in The Early Mother-Infant Adjustment says that, "It may seem to many that attachment to a small baby will come naturally and to make too much of it could be a mistake... but there are many, many women who have a difficult time making this adjustment...(Brazelton 10). He points out that we must understand the ingredients of attachment in order to help, because each mother-child dyad is unique and has individual needs of it's own (Brazelton 12).