Attachment

1. Attachment behavior is an instinctive survival mechanism

The function of attachment behaviour is protection from predators.

Evolutionary adaptation: Attachment behavior in humans and other primates evolved as a survival mechanism to protect vulnerable infants from predators. This instinctive behavior ensures that infants maintain proximity to their caregivers, who provide safety and protection. The attachment system is activated by perceived threats or separation from the caregiver, leading to behaviors such as crying, clinging, and following.

Biological basis: Attachment is not learned through feeding or other rewards, but is an innate behavioral system with its own motivation and function. This contradicts earlier theories of secondary drive or dependency. Instead, attachment is seen as a primary need, similar to other instinctive behaviors like feeding or mating. The attachment system interacts with other behavioral systems, such as exploration and caregiving, to create a balance between safety and independence.

2. The development of attachment follows distinct phases

Attachment behaviour is regarded as a class of social behaviour of an importance equivalent to that of mating behaviour and parental behaviour.

Four phases: Bowlby identified four phases in the development of attachment:

1. Pre-attachment (0-2 months): Limited discrimination of caregivers
2. Attachment-in-the-making (2-7 months): Preference for familiar caregivers
3. Clear-cut attachment (7-24 months): Specific attachment and separation anxiety
4. Goal-corrected partnership (24+ months): More sophisticated interactions

Progression: These phases reflect the increasing sophistication of the infant's cognitive and emotional capabilities. As infants develop, they become better able to recognize and discriminate between caregivers, form specific attachments, and eventually engage in more complex, goal-oriented interactions with their attachment figures.

3. Infants are born with innate biases towards social interaction

Careful probing with improved techniques almost always yields evidence of keener sensitivity than had been suspected.

Sensory preferences: From birth, infants show preferences for human faces, voices, and touch. They can discriminate their mother's voice and smell within days of birth. These innate biases facilitate social bonding and the development of attachment relationships.

Early capacities: Research has revealed that newborns have sophisticated perceptual and learning abilities:

• Visual preference for face-like patterns
• Auditory preference for human voices, especially female
• Ability to imitate facial expressions
• Capacity for cross-modal perception (e.g., matching voices to faces)

These early capacities demonstrate that infants are primed for social interaction and relationship formation from the start, contradicting earlier views of infants as passive or undifferentiated.

4. Smiling and babbling are powerful social releasers

The smile of a human infant is so endearing and has so strong an effect on his parents that it is no surprise to find that it has engaged the attention of a great many workers from Darwin (1872) onwards.

Social signals: Smiling and babbling emerge around 4-6 weeks of age and serve as powerful social releasers, eliciting caregiving responses from adults. These behaviors are not learned but are part of the infant's innate behavioral repertoire.

Development:

• Smiling progresses from reflexive to social smiling
• Babbling evolves into more complex vocalizations
• Both behaviors become increasingly selective and discriminating over time

These behaviors create positive feedback loops in parent-child interactions, reinforcing attachment bonds and promoting social development. They demonstrate the infant's active role in shaping their social environment and relationships.

5. Attachment behavior is goal-corrected and proximity-seeking

Attachment behaviour is regarded as what occurs when certain behavioural systems are activated.

Goal-corrected systems: As infants develop, their attachment behavior becomes increasingly sophisticated and goal-oriented. They use a variety of behaviors (crying, following, clinging) to achieve and maintain proximity to their attachment figure.

Proximity maintenance: The primary goal of the attachment system is to maintain proximity to the caregiver. This is achieved through:

• Signaling behaviors (crying, smiling)
• Approach behaviors (crawling, walking)
• Clinging and following
• Active monitoring of caregiver's location

The specific behaviors used may change with development, but the underlying goal of proximity maintenance remains constant. This goal-corrected nature of attachment behavior allows for flexibility in achieving attachment goals across different contexts and developmental stages.

6. Mother-child interaction is a dynamic, reciprocal process

Interaction between a couple runs smoothly, each party manifests intense pleasure in the other's company, and especially in the other's expressions of affection.

Mutual influence: Attachment is not simply a one-way process of the child becoming attached to the caregiver. Instead, it involves a complex, bi-directional interaction where both child and caregiver influence each other's behavior and emotional states.

Synchrony and attunement: Healthy attachment relationships are characterized by:

• Mutual responsiveness
• Emotional attunement
• Synchronized interactions
• Repair of mismatches or disruptions

This reciprocal process shapes the development of both the child's attachment patterns and the caregiver's parenting style. It emphasizes the active role of both partners in the attachment relationship and highlights the importance of sensitive, responsive caregiving in fostering secure attachment.

7. Attachment patterns persist and influence relationships throughout life

Attachment behaviour in adult life is a straightforward continuation of attachment behaviour in childhood.

Internal working models: Early attachment experiences lead to the formation of internal working models – mental representations of the self, others, and relationships. These models guide expectations and behaviors in future relationships.

Continuity and change: While attachment patterns show some stability across the lifespan, they can be modified by:

• Significant life experiences
• New relationships
• Therapeutic interventions
• Conscious reflection and effort

Understanding the persistence of attachment patterns helps explain how early experiences shape later social and emotional functioning, including adult romantic relationships, parenting, and mental health.

8. Environmental factors shape the development of attachment

Not only do the actual patterns of attachment and sexual behaviour differ but the periods of the life-cycle when they are most active differ greatly also.

Sensitive periods: While attachment has a strong biological basis, its development is significantly influenced by environmental factors, particularly during sensitive periods in early life.

Key environmental influences:

• Quality of caregiving (sensitivity, responsiveness)
• Consistency and stability of care
• Cultural practices and beliefs
• Stressful life events or trauma
• Socioeconomic factors

These environmental factors interact with the child's innate tendencies to shape the specific pattern of attachment that develops. This highlights the importance of providing supportive, nurturing environments for optimal attachment development.

9. Attachment theory integrates ethology, control systems, and psychoanalysis

The theory of attachment behaviour proposed represents a development of that advanced by me in 1958.

Interdisciplinary approach: Bowlby's attachment theory integrates insights from multiple disciplines:

• Ethology: Evolutionary perspective on behavior
• Control systems theory: Goal-directed behavior
• Psychoanalysis: Importance of early relationships

Synthesis: This integration allows for a more comprehensive understanding of attachment that:

• Acknowledges its biological roots
• Explains its adaptive function
• Accounts for individual differences
• Connects early experiences to later development

By bridging these different perspectives, attachment theory provides a powerful framework for understanding human relationships and development across the lifespan. It has had a profound impact on developmental psychology, clinical practice, and our understanding of human nature.

Last updated: August 11, 2024