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Attachment theory From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Nuvola apps edu miscellaneous CH4.svg This article is being edited by students as part of a class project. Please assume good faith. If there are any problems, you are encouraged to contact an administrator. More information might be found on the projects page. Notice for readers and editors[show]

Attachment theory was meant to describe specific patterns of behavior in terms of dependency and over-dependency for not only infants and young children, but for adolescents and adults. It is also about how that love changes the way the baby acts as it grows bigger and meets new people. Attachment theory is even about how teen-agers and adults may treat each other.

Most of the time, 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 it. 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 love it. 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.

Two people were important in thinking about and writing about attachment theory, John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth.

Bowlby wrote that the care and love a baby gets from its parents cause it to form an important idea.[1] He called this idea the internal working model. The internal working model is how the baby or child thinks about itself, its parents, and other people. When parents have taken loving care of a baby and child, it grows up with a positive internal working model. This child will think that it is lovable, because it was loved. It will think that the parents are good, because they were caring. And the child will not be afraid to try to make friends with new people, because it will expect people to be nice. Children who have a positive internal working model are also likely to be kind to other people. Bowlby believed that a positive internal working model would help people make friends.

John Bowlby
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.

According to Bowlby, one of the important features of attachment theory is that attachment behavior occurs through a control system in the human's central nervous system. This control system works much like the physiological systems in a human's body that helps maintains body temperature. However, attachment control system helps a person's relationship with their attached figure through effective communication methods and certain limits of distance and accessibility.

Mary Ainsworth
Mary Ainsworth saw how mothers treated their babies in different cities and countries. She saw that many ways mothers and babies acted were the same, even when families lives were very different.[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]

Mary Ainsworth describes three related terms that describe the infant and mother relationship

Object Relations
Object Relations concept originates from psychoanalytic instinct theory. The first "object" in the infant's life is his mother. Many psychoanalysts view that object relations begins in the first year of life and the relationship between an infant and a mother depends on communication.

Dependency
The term "dependency" has been used by some psychoanalysts to characterize the infant's preobjectal relations, it is especially linked to social learning theories. Dependency describes a state of hopelessness and it means certain behaviors seek contact with people in close range and also help attention and approval. Dependence also describes immaturity.

Attachment
"Attachment" refers to an affectional tie that one person (or animal) forms to another specific individual. Attachment happens at all ages and it does not imply attachments occur at all ages and do not necessarily imply immaturity or helplessness. To be sure, the first tie is most likely to be formed to the mother, but this may soon be supplemented by attachments to a handful of other specific persons. Once formed, whether to the mother or to some other person, an attachment tends to endure.

Further Reading

Hrdy S. (2009). Mothers and Others. Smith, H. J. (2006). Parenting for Primates.