A summary of attachment theory.

Have a little read: ... A summary of attachment theory. Copyright 1999, R. F. Bettler, Jr. Attachment theory derives from work of Bowlby in his three volume examination of the mother-child bonding. His notions derive from evolutionary principles and cybernetics. Babies have evolved certain behaviors because they increased survival: orienting towards the caregiver, distress over separation from the caregiver, searching for the caregiver. Human parents have evolved to respond to certain features of the baby, e.g., physiological arousal at the baby's cries, attraction to neonate facial features, etc. Bowlby felt that from his/her early experiences with caregivers, the child created a mental model of how relationships operate. Throughout life, then, the child, even into adulthood, will expect love relationships to echo the relationship he/she formed with important caregivers. If those early relationships were warm and caring, then the child would grow up expecting that other relationships would be warm and caring. If the early relationships were cold and neglectful, or even abusive, then the person would grow up expecting the same from other adult relationships. Note that this is similar to the Freudian notion of identification: The child incorporates aspects of the caregiver's personality into his/her own. One of Bowlby's students, Mary Ainsworth studied the bonding between mothers and children in a variety of cultures. She devised what's called the strange situation paradigm, and with it noticed that mother-child relationships fell into three general types. In these experiments the child, usually about 18 months old, would be with the mother in a room. When mother was nearby, the child would explore objects in the surroundings, occasionally check that mother was nearby, then explore some more. If mother left, babies often reacted with distress and exploration behavior ceased. When mother returned, Ainsworth noted several sorts of reactions on the part of the baby. Differences among these reactions formed the basis of Ainsworth's three attachment styles. The majority of babies (55 to 60%) exhibited what Ainsworth called a Secure attachment style. They were more active and curious, they interacted well with strangers. They became very distressed when they mother left, but were very happy when she returned. Another group of babies exhibited what Ainsworth called an Avoidant style (about 25%). These interacted more coolly with their mother, exhibited less distress at her departure and were cool to her upon her return. Finally, Ainsworth's Anxious-Ambivalent style (15-20% of babies), were distressed at mother's leaving and angrier with her on her return.