What Is John Bowlby's Theory Of Attachment

Perhaps the most influential explanation of attachment was presented by John Bowlby who began developing his ideas in the 1940s. Bowlby was commissioned by the World Health Organisation to investigate whether young children were likely to be harmed if they are separated from their mothers in the early years. (Hayes, 1996). Bowlby (1951) reported that infants possesses an innate need to attach to one main attachment figure (this was usually the mother). According to Hayes (1996), this is a special relationship which is qualitatively different from the relationship they form with any other kind of person. He described this as the process of monotropy; however, Bowlby did not deny that babies formed lots of attachments. (Bailey et al. 2008).

Kate Murphy’s 2017 article, “Yes, It’s Your Parents’ Fault”, seems to point blame on parents for adults’ behavior in relationships. Murphy’s claim however is grounded in research on a theory first devised in 1958 by British psychoanalyst John Bowlby, known as the attachment theory. This theory has garnered more and more attention and credibility as it continues to give psychologists, neuroscientists, sociologists, and other researchers insight on human connections and information from explaining how we function in relationships to its practical applications in therapeutic and clinical settings. The underlying assumption of Bowlby’s attachment theory is that the quality of a baby’s early attachments and relationships describes and influences

The pioneering methodology put forwarded by Mary Ainsworth not only paved way for empirical testing various ideas of Bowlby but it also helped in expanding the Ethological Theory of Attachment. Other than that, the innovative methodology of Ainsworth is now responsible for the new directions this theory is taking. Ainsworth has been successful in contributing the concept of the attachment figure as a sheltered foundation with the support of which an infant becomes able to explore the world. Moreover, she has also created the notion of maternal sensitivity to infant signals and the role of this sensitivity in further nurturing the infant-mother attachment patterns (Bretherton, 1992).

Bowlby’s attachment theory has greatly influenced practice. His theory of attachment explains the importance of having a figure that the child shares a strong bond with. Having an attachment can significantly support a child’s development as Barbara Woods suggests that “his theory of attachment proposed that attachment is innate in both infants and mothers, and that the formation of this attachment is crucial for the infants development” Wood, B (2001, p.53). Bowlby believed that forming an attachment will help a child develop in all areas e.g. emotionally, physical and mentally. However if they did not form an attachment in the sensitive period, the child may have issues or problems in their cognitive, emotional and social development.

The term ‘attachment’ is used by psychologists who study the child’s early relationships. An attachment is a unique emotional bond normal between a child and an adult. A theorist called John Bowlby (1970-90) had a relation to the attachment theory. In 1950s John identified that when children and

One of the key theorists of attachment is John Bowlby and his ‘Attachment theory". Bowlby believed ‘the attachment of a caregiver is an inherited mechanism to

This essay will compare and contrast the work of psychologists Harry Harlow and Mary Ainsworth. To compare and contrast will be to emphasise the similarities and differences of both Harlow and Ainsworth’s work on understanding attachment, to which they have both made great contribution. Attachment refers to the mutually affectionate developing bond between a mother and any other caregiver (Custance 2010). It is a bond in which the infant sees the caregiver as a protective and security figure. Failing to form any type of attachment during the earliest years of childhood is thought to lead to social and emotional developmental issues that can carry on well into adult life (Custance 2010). Attachment theory was formulated by psychoanalyst

Bowlby believed that babes had have built in social releasers that help form attachment, for example, crying and smiling. These would stimulate responses in caregivers. Bowlby also suggested that the infant would form only one primary attachment, and that this attachment would act as a secure base for exploring the world. This theory was also backed up by Mary Ainsworth ‘The Strange Situation’, Eysenck (2000). Another conclusion in Bowlbys attachment theory was that there was a sensitive period; a period were imprinting was important. This would affect attachment and have lifelong consequences. He

John Bowlby created the theory of attachment, this is where he believed that the earliest bonds formed by babies with their parents/care gives have a tremendous impact of their relationships/attachments towards people in their continuous life. Also Bowlby believe that the attachment bond is to keep the infants close to their mother, this is to improve the child’s chances in survival. What is attachment? This is a strong affectionate tie with special people which young babies will make in the early stage of their life e.g. an attachment towards their mum and dad.

After the death of my husband, I have watched my children grapple with grief. At times it seems as if they are in a tug-of-war with God. Losing a loved one has always been a part of life and eventually everyone will go through a time when they will have to grapple with grief. The death of a father at any age can be devastating, but when children lose their father at a young age their feelings of security disappear. If children lose their attachment to their father they are left wondering if they can even trust to put that attachment somewhere else due to the fear of losing it again. Children grieve differently than adults.

John Bowlby had worked with residential school children as a volunteer early on in his career and had determined that the children who suffered the most from anger outbursts, aggressivity, and whom her termed “affectionless” were also the children who had suffered the most maternal deprivation (). Bowlby advanced that the loss of the mother figure was extremely distressing and damaging and could influence adults' behavior years later. Hence, where psychoanalysis had been concerned “solely with the imaginings of the childish mind, the fantasied pleasures and the dreaded retributions” (Fonagy), Bowlby showed that humans do not develop in a void or as “individual monads” but as members of interacting systems. Bowlby developed his theory on attachment for several decades, and at a time where any dealings with childhood trauma were still rigorously influenced by Freudian psychoanalysis through the likes of psychoanalysts such Anna Freud or Melanie Klein. Even Winnicott was “revulsed” upon reading Bowlby's papers (siegel). It certainly was a bitter pill to swallow for psychoanalysts who had been repeating since Freud that the newborn was a little tyrant fighting for oral gratification at the mother's breast and merely clinging on to fulfil sexual instinctual needs. Bowlby's work was thus eschewed for a considerable time, despite his involvement with the World Health Organisation and the considerable empirical weight that was added to his findings by Mary Ainsworth's studies in

Bowlby stated attachment was not shaped solely from the child’s acceptance, but the behaviour of another significant other, usually the mother or caregiver who had a crucial role in the child’s growth. The growth and development of the child is reliant on four stages of process from birth, Bowlby stated these stages were where the child would bind to the mother or vice versa, he proposed one to two months old in which the infant shows attachment to the mother by crying, sucking. The second stage up to six months old the child has the focus on a mother figures and attaches to the one he or she has more contact with. The third stage up to aged two named the secure base, where the child has its focus on the where the main caregiver is when their welfare is under threat. The stage up over the age of two is concerned on the child learning a behaviour and how this affects the relationship with their mothers or attachments, this will be the grounding for subsequent relationships

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).

The child’s relationship with his parents is an attachment while as the parents’ is more of an affectional bond. Emotions such as love, grief and sadness due to separation are all part of attachment. Many psychologists talked about attachment. But the strongest theory in the study of parent and child relationships is the attachment theory which was first mastered by John Bowlby and later developed by Mary Ainsworth.

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,