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Attachment Theory

 * Attachment theory

is about the love that grows between a baby and the people who take care of the baby. It is also about how that love has such a large impact on the way the baby acts as it progresses through life and meets new people. Attachment theory is also about how teenagers and adults may interact with one another. Generally, the people who take care of a baby are the baby's mother and father. If the mother or the father comes when the baby cries and treats the baby with tenderness, the baby learns that the parents will take care of him or her. If the mother or the father smile at the baby, talk to the baby, sing to the baby, and hold the baby even when it is not crying, the baby learns that the parents will always be there. When a baby has learned that it is loved and that it will be taken care of if it cries, it usually grows up to be a person who expects other people to be nice. When a child feels loved and cared for and thinks other people will be nice, that child is said to be securely attached.

John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth are two important founders of the attachment theory. Bowlby suggested that the care and love a baby recieves from its parents has an impact on the rest of the child's life.[1] He called this idea the internal working model. The internal working model is how the baby or child precieves itself, its parents, and surrounding people. A child who has been raised with love and affection, he or she will grow up with a positive internal working model. The child will not be afraid to try to make friends with new people because he or she will expect others to treat them as their parents did. Children who have a positive internal working model are also likely to be kind to other people.

Bowlby wrote that the attachment process in people was like the closeness that exists between mother and baby gorillas, chimpanzees and monkeys. In people, Bowlby believed that attachment developed gradually, in four steps. Mary Ainsworth researched how mothers treated their babies in different cities and countries. She saw that mothers and babies interacted similarly, even when families lives led very different lifestyles.[2] Ainsworth made a way to test how the attachment relationship between a mother and her young child. She called it "The Strange Situation."[3] References[change]

Jump up ↑ Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and loss. Vol. 1: Attachment (2nd Ed.). New York: Basic Books (new printing, 1999, with a foreword by Allan N. Schore; originally published in 1969). Jump up ↑ Ainsworth, M., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of Attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Jump up ↑ Ainsworth, M. D. S., & Bell, S. M. (1970). Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illustrated by the behavior of one-year-olds in a strange situation. Child development, 49-67. Further Reading[change]

Hrdy S. (2009). Mothers and Others. Smith, H. J. (2006). Parenting for Primates. Navigation menu Nicole ChippendaleTalkMy settingsWatchlistMy changesLog outPageTalkReadChangeView historyWatch