The Meeting of Psychoanalytic Theory
Attachment Theory
Beginnings Out of the meeting of psychoanalytic theory, World War II, and ethology was born what we now know as attachment theory. Because John Bowlby, a British psychoanalyst was “uneasy about the reliability of our observations, the obscurity of any of our hypotheses and, above all, the absence of any tradition which demands that hypotheses be tested (1979, p. 36), he sought to bring greater scientific discipline into his field. Bowlby was already working with maladapted and delinquent children but his interest in this population was increased by wartime events involving separation of young children from familiar people such as the evacuation of children from London to keep them safe from air raids. Bowlby was further influenced by the work of ethologists like Harlow, Tinbergen, and Lorenz. Lorenz had already observed and described imprinting behavior among many animal species during critical time periods, thus showing that social bond formation need not be linked to feeding. Harlow’s work showed that separation had a profoundly negative effect on infant moneys’ psychological well-being. All this plus his growing interest in the link between maternal deprivation and later personality development eventually led Bowlby to formulate his tenets of attachment theory. His views were initially ignored or condemned by his peers, but ultimately became,
“The dominant approach to understanding early social development, and has given rise to a great surge of empirical research into the formation of children’s close relationships” (Shaffer, 2007).
The Theory Attachment theory believes that the earliest bonds formed by children with their caregivers have a tremendous impact that continues throughout life. According to Bowlby, infants develop attachments to caregivers--primarily mothers--in order to ensure infant survival. Attachment is a special emotional relationship that involves an exchange of comfort, care, and pleasure. Bowlby describes it
Beginnings Out of the meeting of psychoanalytic theory, World War II, and ethology was born what we now know as attachment theory. Because John Bowlby, a British psychoanalyst was “uneasy about the reliability of our observations, the obscurity of any of our hypotheses and, above all, the absence of any tradition which demands that hypotheses be tested (1979, p. 36), he sought to bring greater scientific discipline into his field. Bowlby was already working with maladapted and delinquent children but his interest in this population was increased by wartime events involving separation of young children from familiar people such as the evacuation of children from London to keep them safe from air raids. Bowlby was further influenced by the work of ethologists like Harlow, Tinbergen, and Lorenz. Lorenz had already observed and described imprinting behavior among many animal species during critical time periods, thus showing that social bond formation need not be linked to feeding. Harlow’s work showed that separation had a profoundly negative effect on infant moneys’ psychological well-being. All this plus his growing interest in the link between maternal deprivation and later personality development eventually led Bowlby to formulate his tenets of attachment theory. His views were initially ignored or condemned by his peers, but ultimately became,
“The dominant approach to understanding early social development, and has given rise to a great surge of empirical research into the formation of children’s close relationships” (Shaffer, 2007).
The Theory Attachment theory believes that the earliest bonds formed by children with their caregivers have a tremendous impact that continues throughout life. According to Bowlby, infants develop attachments to caregivers--primarily mothers--in order to ensure infant survival. Attachment is a special emotional relationship that involves an exchange of comfort, care, and pleasure. Bowlby describes it
References: Ainsworth, Mary D., Bowlby, J. (1991). An Ethological Approach to Personality Development. American Psychologist, 46(4), 333-341. Bowlby, J. (1951). Maternal care and mental health. World Health Organization Monograph Bowlby, J Bowlby. J, (1979). The Making and Breaking of Affectional Bonds. New York, NY:Routledge. Bowlby, J. (1988). A Secure Base: Parent--Child Attachment and Healthy Human Development. New York, NY: Basic Books. Cox, S. (2006). Bridging Attachment Theory and Attachment Parenting with Feminist Methods of Inquiry. Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering, 8 (1,2) 83-95. Matas, L., Arend, R. & Sroufe, A. (1978). Continuity of Adaptation in the Second Year: The Relationship Between Quality of Attachment and Later Competence. Child Development, 49, 547-556. Schaffer R. (2007). Introducing Child Psychology. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 83–121. van IJzendoorn, M. & Kroonenberg, P. (1988). Cross-cultural patterns of Attachment: A Meta-Analysis of the Strange Situation. Child Development, 59, 147-156.