This document discusses attachment theory and its key concepts. It begins by defining attachment as the emotional bond between children and caregivers, usually evidenced by infants seeking proximity to their mothers. John Bowlby is identified as the founder of attachment theory. His research in the 1950s emphasized the importance of the caregiver-child relationship for development. Mary Ainsworth further classified attachment styles in infants as secure, anxious-ambivalent, avoidant, and disorganized based on her Strange Situation experiments. Factors that promote secure attachment are identified as caregiver sensitivity and responsiveness to infant cues. Attachment disorders can result from maternal deprivation and lack of interaction with caregivers.

1. ATTATCHMENT
THEORY
Dr. Anuradha Patel
1st year resident
Department of
Psychiatry

2. WHAT IS
ATTACHMENT?
Attachment is defined as the emotional tone between
children
and their caregivers and is evidenced by infant’s seeking
and clinging to the care giving person usually the mother.
(SYNOPSIS 12th edition)

3. John Bowlby
 John Bowlby is considered as ‘Founder of attachment theory’. He
was a British psychoanalyst.
 He formed his idea about attachment in 1950s while consulting with
the WHO on homelessness in children during WW2.
 In his studies of infant-mother attachment and separation, he
pointed out that attachment a central motivational force and
 Mother-child attachment is an essential medium of human
interaction that had significant consequences for later development
and personality functioning.
 He stressed that essence of attachment is proximity (i.e., the
tendency of child to stay close to the mother or care giver).
 According to Bowlby, a basic sense of security and safety derived
from a continuous and close relationship with a caregiver.
(Synopsis 12th edition)

4. Continued……….
 Bowlby felt that without early proximity to the
mother or caregiver, the child does not develop a
secure base.
 He also believed that attachment behavior has a
Darwinian evolutionary basis that animals protects
their younger ones as governed by inborn
instinctual tendencies & attachment system called
imprinting.
 Attachment develops gradually, it results in infant’s
wanting to be with a preferred person who is
perceived as stronger, wiser, and able to reduce
anxiety or distress.
(Synopsis 12th edition)

5. Attachment & bonding
 Both are used synonymously but bonding concerns the mother’s
feelings for her infant and mother generally do not rely on their
infants as a source of security as is the case in attachment.
 Much research revealed that bonding occurs when there is skin-
to-skin contact between the two or other types of contact, such as
voice and eye contact are made.
 Although some researchers have proposed a critical period
immediately after birth during which skin-to-skin contact must
occur for bonding to be occur, this concept is disputed as
 Many mothers bonded & displayed excellent maternal care even
though they did not have skin-to-skin contact immediate
postpartum.

6. Harry Harlow’s Experiment

7.  He separated infant monkeys from their mothers a few hours after
birth, then arranged for the young animals to be raised by 2 kinds
of surrogate monkey mothers machines- one mother was made
out of bare wire mesh and other was a wire mesh covered with
soft terry cloth.
 He observed that monkeys who had a choice of mothers spent far
more time clinging to terry clothe surrogates even when their
physical nourishment came from bottles mounted on bare wire
mothers.
 This suggested that infant love was no simple response to the
satisfaction of physiological needs. Attachment was not primarily
about hunger or thirst.
 He opined that terry cloth mother provided reassurance & security
to the infant monkey as the infant cuddled against the cloth
mother for security.
(Classidy J; handbook of attachment )

8.  When the experimental subjects were frightened by
strange, loud objects such as teddy bear beating drums,
infant raised by terry cloth surrogate made bodily contact
with their mothers , rubbed against them, and eventually
calmed down.
 But this was not so the case with the wire mesh mother, as
the infant never went to the wire mesh mother but rolled on
the floor, clutched the floor, screamed and behaved
abnormally.
 Harlow hypothesized that infant monkey with terry cloth
benefitted from psychological resource- emotional
attachment, unavailable to the infant monkey with wire
mesh mother.
 He was able to show that physical contact, cuddling etc.
are equally important for attachment to develop.

10.  On further experiments with monkeys, Harlow and his
colleagues concluded that the impact of maternal
deprivation could be reversed in monkeys only if it had
lasted less than 90 days and estimated that the equivalent
for humans were 6 months.
 After these critical periods, no amount of exposure to
mothers or peers could alter the monkey’s abnormal
behavior and make up for the emotional damage that had
already occurred.
(Classidy J; handbook of attachment
)

11. Concept of attachment
 Bowlby set attachment theory with the assumption that in the
environment in which human species evolved, the survival of
infants would depend on their ability to maintain proximity to
adults motivated to protect, feed, care for and comfort them.
 Infants rely on signals to entice parents to approach or stay
near them.
 Primary signal is crying.
 The other signal indicators are hunger (the most common),
anger, and pain.
 The usefulness of these signals depends on their
effectiveness in eliciting response from parents.
(Classidy J; handbook of attachment)

12.  Over time, Bowlby proposed that infants come to focus their
proximity promoting signals on those who have responded
most regularly and consistently.
 Those people, typically parents, become attachment figures.
 The quality of attachment is more influential than amount of
time spent.
 Bowlby also suggested the quality of attachment is influenced
by experiences and repeated interactions between infant and
caregiver.
 The success of attachment bond depends on caregiver’s ability
to understand & respond to infant’s physical & emotional
needs.
 The most important tenet of attachment theory is that a young
child need to develop a relationship with at least one primary
caregiver for social and emotional development to occur
normally. (Classidy J; handbook of attachment)

13. Development of Attachment in early
years
 Some infants directs attachment behaviour (proximity
seeking) towards more than one attachment figures almost
as soon as they start to discriminate between caregivers.
 These figures are arranged hierarchically, with the principal
attachment figure on the top.
 Any stimuli that alarm children and causes fear (e.g., loud
noise, falling, cold blast of air) mobilize signal indicators that
cause mother to respond in a caring way.
 When the mother is close to child, the child experiences no
fear, the child gain a sense of security, the opposite of
anxiety.
(Classidy J; handbook of attachment)

14.  When the mother is unavailable to the infant, anxiety
develops in infant.
 Separation anxiety is the response of a child who is
isolated from its mother or caregiver. Most common at 10-
18 months of age & gradually disappear by the end of third
year. It is usually expressed with tearfulness or irritability.
 Stranger anxiety is an anxiety response to someone other
than caregiver appears at about 8 months.
(Classidy J; handbook of
attachment)

15. Phases of Attachment
 1)The Pre attachment stage (birth to 8 or 12 weeks) babies
orient to their mothers, follow them with their eyes over 180-
degree range, and turn toward and move rhythmically with their
mother's voice.
 2) Attachment in the making (8 to 12 weeks to 6 months)
infants become attached to one or more persons in the
environment.
 3) Clear-cut attachment ( 6 through 24 months) infants cry
and show other signs of distress when separated from the care-
taker or mother; this phase can occur as early as 3 months in
some infants. On being returned to the mother, the infant stops
crying and clings, as if to gain further assurance of the mother's
return. Sometimes, seeing the mother after a separation is
sufficient for crying to stop.
 4) In the fourth phase (25 months and beyond) the mother
figure is seen as independent, and a more complex relationship

16. Characteristics of Attachment
 1) Safe Heaven: When the Child feel threatened or
afraid he or she can return to care giver for comfort and
soothing
 2) Secure Base: the care giver provides a secure and
dependable base for the child to explore the world
 3) Proximity maintenance : the child strives to remain
near the caregiver thus keeping the child safe.
 4) Separation Distress: When separated from the
care giver, the child will become upset and distressed.
(Classidy J; handbook of

17. Mary Ainsworth
 Mary Ainsworth was a developmental psychologist.
 Her work on ‘strange situation’ revealed the profound effects
of quality & security of attachment behaviour. She observed
children between age of 12-18 months as they responded
to situation in which they were breifely left alone & then re-
united with their mothers.
 She pointed out types of attachment as
1) secure attachment
2) insecure attachment
Synopsis 12th edition & Classidy J; handbook of
attachment

18. Secure Attachment
 Most adaptive attachment style
 Children who are securely attached become visibly upset when
their caregiver leaves and happy when caregiver return.
 When frightened, will seek comfort from caregiver.
 Securely attached children are best able to explore the world ,
have the knowledge of secure base to return to in time of
needs.
 When assistance is given, this enhances the sense of security
 As adults, they tend to have trusting
 Having high self-esteem, enjoying intimate relationship, seeking
out social support, and able to share feelings with other people.
(Classidy J; handbook of attachment
)

19. Insecure-Ambivalent Attachment
 These children display considerable distress when separated from a
caregiver but do not seem reassured or comforted by return of the
caregiver.
 Children find exploratory play difficult.
 Cling to his/her inconsistent parent
 In some cases, child might passively reject parent by refusing comfort or
directly display aggression toward them.
 As adult, they often feel reluctant about becoming close to others and
worry that their partner does not reciprocate their feelings.
 This leads to frequent breakups, because relationship feels cold &
distant.
 These individual feel especially distraught after the end of a relationship.
(Classidy J; handbook of attachment

20. Insecure- Avoidant Attachment
 Tend to avoid parent/ caregiver
 Avoidance becomes pronounced after a period of absence
 These children might not reject attention from a parent but neither
do they seek their comfort or contact.
 Children with avoidant attachment show no preference between a
parent and a stranger.
 As adult, they tend to have difficulty with intimacy and close
relationships. These individuals do not invest much emotion in
relationship and display little distress when a relationship ends.
 They often avoid intimacy by using excuses.
 Failure to support partner during stressful time and inability to
share feelings with partner. (Classidy J; handbook of attachment)

21. Insecure – Disorganized
Attachment
 Children with disorganized attachment show a lack of clear
attachment behavior.
 Children with disorganized attachment may experience their
caregiver as frightening or frightened.
 Insecure- disorganized children have parents who are
emotionally absent with parental history of abuse in their
childhood.
 These children tend to behave in bizarre ways when
threatened.
 According to Ainsworth, it is a severe form of insecure

23. Factors Promoting Secure Attachment
 Secure attachment in children is associated with sensitive
caring.
 Caregiver sensitivity was 1st described by Mary Ainsworth as
mother’s ability to perceive and interpret the signals and
communications implicit in her infant’s behavior, and to
respond them appropriately.
 Thus mother’s sensitivity has 4 components:
1. her awareness of the signals
2. an accurate interpretation of them
3. an appropriate response to them
4. a prompt response to them
(Classidy J; handbook of attachment)

24. ATTACHMENT DISORDERS

25. Attachment disorders
 Attachment disorders characterized by biopsychosocial
profile that results from:
 Maternal deprivation
 Lack of care and interaction with Mother/Care giver due to
Maternal illness, death or Child himself is institutionalized
 These Negative Attachment experiences lead to:
 Failure to Thrive, Psychosocial Dwarfism, Separation Anxiety
Disorder, Avoidant Personality disorders, Depressive
Disorders, Delinquency, Academic Problems and Borderline
Intelligence
 The Damage depends on Time ,Type & Degree of Separation,
Level of security that child experienced before Separation.
(Synopsis 12th
edition)

26.  Bowlby described a predictable set and sequence of behavior
patterns in children who are separated from their mothers for long
periods (more than 3 months):
 1) Protest, in which the child protests the separation by crying,
calling out, and searching for the lost person;
 2) Despair, in which the child appears to lose hope that the
mother will return; and
 3)Detachment, in which the child emotionally separates himself
or herself from the mother.
 Bowlby believed that this sequence involves ambivalent feelings
toward the mother; the child both wants her and is angry with her
for her desertion.
(Synopsis 12th edition)

27. Anaclitic Depression
 Anaclitic depression, also known as hospitalism, was first
described by Rene Spitz in infants who had made normal
attachments but were then suddenly separated from their
mothers for varying times and placed in institutions or
hospitals. The children became depressed, withdrawn,
nonresponsive, and vulnerable to physical illness, but
they recovered when their mothers returned or when
surrogate mothering was available.
(Synopsis 12th edition)

28. CHILD MALTREATMENT
 Abused children often maintain their attachments to abusive
parents.
 When children are hungry, sick, or in pain, they too show
clinging
attachment behavior.
 Similarly, when children are rejected by their parents or are
afraid of them, their attachment may increase; some children
want to remain with an abusive parent.
 Nevertheless, when a choice must be made between a
punishing and a non-punishing figure, the non-punishing person
is the preferable choice, especially if the person is sensitive to
the child's needs.

29. Losing Attachment
 Persons reaction to death of parent or spouse
depends on their past and present attachment to the
lost figure.
 If there is absence of Grief reaction it shows persons
experience of Rejection and lack of closeness in
relationship.
 They present themselves as independent and
disinterested in closeness and attachment.
 On the contrary Severing of attachments can be
traumatic and leads to depression or even suicide.
(synopsis 12th

30. THANK YOU