Attachment Theory

History of Attachment Theory

John Bowlby graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1928, having received a rigorous base in scientific training and an introduction to the emerging field of developmental psychology. Immediately following, he did volunteer work at a school that housed maladjusted children. Based on that experience, Bowlby went to medical school to become a child psychiatrist and later trained as a psychoanalyst. After World War II, Bowlby was commissioned by the World [Page 81]Health Organization to write a report about the emotional health of homeless children in Europe. Through this effort, Bowlby was exposed to many excellent researchers and theorists throughout the world. His collaboration with them allowed him to draw on the concepts of ethology, cybernetics, developmental psychology, information processing, and psychoanalysis for his development of attachment theory.

In his attachment trilogy—Attachment (1969), Separation (1973), and Loss (1980)—Bowlby rejected the psychoanalytic notion that children's emotional problems were the result of their internal conflicts. Instead, he focused upon the important relationship between the child and principal caregiver (assumed to be the mother), suggesting that it played a significant role in the manner in which children expressed themselves in relationships.

Mary Ainsworth was also exposed to psychoanalytic theories, but not to the extent of Bowlby. Still, they propelled her in the same theoretical direction as Bowlby. Ten years after her university training, Ainsworth began her collaboration with Bowlby and joined him at his clinic. Very familiar with his ideas about motherinfant attachment, but not entirely convinced of them, she later traveled to Uganda to do a naturalistic study of toddlers' separation responses during weaning. As soon as she began this work, she was struck by the pertinence of Bowlby's ideas and reformulated her study to examine the larger concept of infant-mother attachment. After returning to Baltimore, she engaged in another important naturalistic observation of mothers and their infants. This work led to the development of the Strange Situation, an observational method for determining types of relationships between attachment figures and children. In this study she observed three types of attachment patterns—secure, avoidant, and resistant. Later, Mary Main and Judith Solomon identified a fourth pattern—disorganized attachment.

What is Attachment Theory?

Attachment is a biologically based system of behavior that exists between the attachment figure (usually the parent) and child in order to ensure the child's proximity to the attachment figure. Children develop attachment relationships with all of their significant caregivers. The attachment relationship is both dyadic and reciprocal. Thus, the child exhibits attachment behaviors, such as crying, that in turn elicit the attachment figure's caregiving behaviors. The direction of effect is from the attachment figure to child, and as such, the sensitivity the attachment figure displays toward the infant subtly shapes the infant's response and even the infant's temperament. The knowledge that an attachment figure is available and responsive gives infants a strong and pervasive sense of security. As infants internalize this sense of security, they become more capable of separating from their attachment figures. A central component of attachment theory is its concept of the attachment figure as a secure base from which children can venture out, knowing that upon their return they will be welcomed, nurtured, and soothed.

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