Attachment Between Infant and Caregiver
An enduring emotional bond that leads the infant to experience pleasure, joy, safety, and comfort in the caregiver's company, and distress when temporarily separated.
Many developmental psychologists view attachment, the special relationship between infant and caregiver, as an important building block for later relationships and adult personality. Because of its central importance to theories of social and emotional development, the scientific study of attachment has remained in the forefront of developmental psychology for the past several decades, beginning with the pioneering work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth.
The Contribution of John Bowlby
Modern attachment theory was developed by John Bowlby as a variant of object-relations theory, itself a variant of Freud's theory that the infant's tie to the mother is the cornerstone of adult personality. While it is true that Bowlby's theory is sometimes referred to. as an ethological theory of attachment, Bowlby was not an ethologist, but rather a psychoanalytically trained clinician who integrated a number of approaches, including systems theory and evolutionary theory in formulating modern attachment theory.
Prior to the general acceptance of Bowlby's attachment theory, psychologists viewed attachment as a secondary drive, derived from primary drives like hunger. It was thought that the infant became attached to the mother because she supplied food, and thus became the object of the infant's attachment through association with feeding and the reduction of other primary needs.
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