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Attachment Theory In Psychology

Saul McLeod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul McLeod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

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Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

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Attachment theory is a lifespan model of human development emphasizing the central role of caregivers (attachment figures) who provide a sense of safety and security.

Attachment theory hypothesizes that early caregiver relationships establish social–emotional developmental foundations, but change remains possible across the lifespan due to interpersonal relationships during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

Attachment can be defined as a deep and enduring emotional bond between two people in which each seeks closeness and feels more secure when in the presence of the attachment figure. 

The initial and perhaps most crucial emotional bond forms between infants and their primary caregivers.

Distinct behaviors characterize attachment in children and adults, such as seeking closeness with the attachment figure when distressed or threatened (Bowlby, 1969).

John Bowlby

Attachment theory in psychology finds its roots in the pioneering work of John Bowlby (1958). During the 1930s, Bowlby was a psychiatrist at a Child Guidance Clinic in London, treating numerous emotionally troubled children.

His experiences there underscored the significance of a child’s relationship with their mother in shaping their social, emotional, and cognitive development.

It molded his understanding of the connection between early separations from the mother and subsequent maladjustment, leading him to develop his attachment theory.

The attachment bond isn’t coincidental. Its primary purpose is to ensure the survival of the vulnerable infant, requiring the constant presence of a caregiver (Bowlby, 1973, 1980).

Viewed from this lens, attachment emerges as an evolutionary concept. The behavior of seeking proximity is universally observed across cultures (Van Ijzendoorn & Sagi-Schwartz, 2008).

Bowlby (1988) contended that the drive for proximity arises from an interconnected set of behavioral systems that collectively shape behavior. These include the attachment, caregiving, and exploratory behavioral systems.

Attachment Behavioral System

The attachment behavioral system concerns the tendency of an individual to seek security during times of stress (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2003), which can be internal (i.e., hunger, fatigue, illness) or from external features of the environment, such as threatening stimuli (Bowlby, 1988). 

The more extreme the stress, the more intense the attachment system activation.  The attachment system is most readily activated during the first five years of life, a period characterized by high levels of vulnerability and dependence. 

Once the attachment system is activated, the infant is motivated to seek proximity to significant others (attachment figures) to protect themselves from physical or emotional harm (Bowlby, 1969). 

If this goal is achieved, the infant develops feelings of safety and security, and their attachment system becomes deactivated.  The infant will call upon a range of attachment behaviors with the goal of attaining proximity to the attachment figure. 

Bowlby (1988) suggests the attachment behavioral system remains important throughout life and will also motivate adults to seek proximity in times of stress during adulthood.

Caregiving System

The attachment figure is viewed as a ‘safe haven’, and their role is to correspondingly alter their level of responsiveness to deactivate the infant’s attachment system by promoting feelings of security. 

George and Solomon (1996) call this reciprocal response of the attachment figure to the infant’s attachment system the ‘caregiving’ system. 

Bowlby (1969) posits that the caregiving system exists to provide protection and support to others in need of assistance, through providing sensitive and responsive care. 

The caregiving system is activated when an individual expresses a need for support or their attachment system is activated, and is deactivated when the care recipient appears to be in a secure state (Shaver & Mikulincer, 2006). 

Once activated, the caregiver may utilize a variety of behavioral strategies intended to improve the other person’s well-being, re-establishing their felt security, and facilitating their coping efforts. 

Caregiving strategies include validating a person’s worries, providing physical closeness and affection, and communicating that a person is loved and valued (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007). 

In addition to attachment behaviors, the caregiving system can support exploratory behaviors (Feeney, 2004). 

The Importance of Early Emotional Bonds

• Attachment behavior in adults toward the child includes responding sensitively and appropriately to the child’s needs.  Such behavior appears universal across cultures.
• Attachments are most likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby’s signals, not the person they spent more time with. Schaffer and Emerson called this sensitive responsiveness.
• Reciprocity is the mutual, two-way interaction between an infant and caregiver, where both respond to each other’s signals, such as when a baby’s smile evokes a smile in return. This form of interactional synchrony is vital for a child’s development, establishing their foundational trust and shaping future relationships and learning.

Exploratory Behavioral System

When infants feel safe and secure, and their attachment system is deactivated, their energy can be devoted to what Bowlby (1969) refers to as the exploratory behavioral system. 

The exploratory behavioral system refers to behaviors that drive the organism to interact with the environment in a bid to inspect it, manipulate it, and master it (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007). 

According to Bowlby (1969), the exploratory system is activated by novelty and is terminated when a person exhibits a sense of competence and familiarity with their environment.   From this perspective, attachment figures can also be seen as a ‘secure base’ which infants use to explore their social world (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). 

The more assured the infant is in the availability of their attachment figure in times of stress, the more likely they will interact with others and their environment.  Thus attachment, far from interfering with exploration, is viewed as nurturing exploration. 

Caregivers who provide a secure base allow infants to become autonomous, inquisitive, and experimental.  Children who lack a secure base find their attachment system keeps overriding their attempts to be autonomous and to competently interact with their social environment. 

This, in turn, can impair and harm a child’s social, emotional, and cognitive development (Bowlby, 1980).  Of course, not all attachment figures become a secure base, and this function is based on the responsiveness of their caregiver towards the infant (Ainsworth & Wittig, 1969). 

Ainsworth et al. proposed the interconnecting between attachment and exploratory systems are adaptive as they ensure a balance between protection and exploration of the social and physical environment.

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Mary Ainsworth and her colleagues discovered three major patterns that infants attach to their primary caregivers (“mother figures”) from their Strange Situation Procedure (Ainsworth et al., 1978).

The study recruited four different samples of infants at around one year of age, and engaged them in the Strange Situation procedure, roughly described below:

An infant was put into an unfamiliar environment with his or her mother and was free to explore the environment; a stranger entered the room and gradually approached the infant; the mother then left the room, returning after the infant spent some time alone with the stranger.

Ainsworth and colleagues observed how comfortable each infant was physically farther away from the mother in an unfamiliar environment, how each infant interacted with the stranger, and how each infant greeted the mother upon her return.

Based on the observations, they sorted the infants into three groups: secure, anxious, and avoidant.

Attachment Styles

Attachment styles refer to the particular way in which an individual relates to other people. The style of attachment is formed at the very beginning of life, and once established, it is a style that stays with you and plays out today in how you relate in intimate relationships and in how you parent your children.

The concept involves one’s confidence in the availability of the attachment figure for use as a secure base from which one can freely explore the world when not in distress and a safe haven from which one can seek support, protection, and comfort in times of distress.

Secure Attachment

Bowlby (1988) described secure attachment as the capacity to connect well and securely in relationships with others while also having the capacity for autonomous action as situationally appropriate.

Secure attachment is characterized by trust, an adaptive response to being abandoned, and the belief that one is worthy of love.

An infant with a secure attachment is characterized as actively seeking and maintaining proximity with the mother, especially during the reunion episode. The infant may or may not be friendly with the stranger, but always shows more interest in interacting with the mother.

Additionally, during the same situation, the infant tended to be slightly distressed during separation from the mother, but the infant rarely cried.

Ainsworth and colleagues interpreted infants who were securely attached to their mothers, showed less anxiousness and more positive attitudes toward the relationship, and were likely because they believed in their mothers’ responsiveness towards their needs.

Anxious (Ambivalent) Attachment

Anxious attachment (also called ambivalent ) relationships are characterized by a concern that others will not reciprocate one’s desire for intimacy. This is

caused when an infant learns that their caregiver or parent is unreliable and does not consistently provide responsive care towards their needs.

An anxiously attached infant is characterized as being somewhat ambivalent (and resistant) to the mother. The infant often demonstrated signs of resisting interactions with the mother, especially during the strange situation reunion episode.

However, once contact with the mother was gained, the infant also showed strong intentions to maintain such contact. Overall, ambivalent infants often displayed maladaptive behaviors throughout the Strange Situation.

Ainsworth and colleagues found ambivalent infants to be anxious and unconfident about their mothers’ responsiveness, and their mothers were observed to lack “the fine sense of timing” in responding to the infants’ needs.

As adults, those with an anxious preoccupied attachment style are overly concerned with the uncertainty of a relationship. They hold a negative working model of self and a positive working model of others.

Avoidant Attachment

Children with avoidant attachment styles tend to avoid interaction with the caregiver, and show no distress during separation. This may be because the parent has ignored attempts to be intimate, and the child may internalize the belief that they cannot depend on this or any other relationship.

An infant with an avoidant attachment was characterized as displaying little to no tendency to seek proximity with the mother.

The infant often showed no distress during separation from the mother, interacted with the stranger similarly to how he or she would interact with the mother, and showed slight signs of avoidance (turning away, avoiding eye contact, etc.) when reunited with the mother.

Ainsworth and colleagues interpreted infants’ avoidance behaviors as a defensive mechanism against the mothers’ own rejecting behaviors, such as being uncomfortable with physical contact or being more easily angered by the infants.

Disorganized (Fearful) Attachment

Main and Solomon (1986) discovered that a sizable proportion of infants did not fit into secure, anxious, or avoidant, based on their behaviors in the Strange Situation experiment. They categorized these infants as having a disorganized attachment type .

Disorganized attachment is classified by children who display sequences of behaviors that lack readily observable goals or intentions, including obviously contradictory behaviors or stilling/freezing of movements.

Main and Solomon found that the parents of disorganized infants often had unresolved attachment-related traumas, which caused the parents to display either frightened or frightening behaviors, resulting in the disorganized infants being confused or forcing them to rely on someone they were afraid of at the same time.

Stages of Attachment

Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson (1964) investigated if attachment develops through a series of stages by studying 60 babies at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of life (this is known as a longitudinal study).

The children were all studied in their own homes, and a regular pattern was identified in the development of attachment.

The babies were visited monthly for approximately one year, their interactions with their carers were observed, and carers were interviewed.

A diary was kept by the mother to examine the evidence for the development of attachment. Three measures were recorded:

• Stranger Anxiety – response to arrival of a stranger. • Separation Anxiety – distress level when separated from carer, degree of comfort needed on return. • Social Referencing – degree that child looks at carer to check how they should respond to something new (secure base).

They discovered that baby’s attachments develop in the following sequence:

Asocial (0 – 6 weeks)

Very young infants are asocial in that many kinds of stimuli, both social and non-social, produce a favorable reaction, such as a smile.

Indiscriminate Attachments (6 weeks to 7 months)

Infants indiscriminately enjoy human company; most babies respond equally to any caregiver. They get upset when an individual ceases to interact with them.

From 3 months, infants smile more at familiar faces and can be easily comfortable by a regular caregiver.

Specific Attachment (7 – 9 months)

Special preference for a single attachment figure.  The baby looks to particular people for security, comfort, and protection.  It shows fear of strangers (stranger fear) and unhappiness when separated from a special person ( separation anxiety ).

Some babies show stranger fear and separation anxiety much more frequently and intensely than others; nevertheless, they are seen as evidence that the baby has formed an attachment.  This usually develops at one year of age.

Multiple Attachment (10 months and onwards)

Many of the babies from the Schaffer and Emerson study had multiple attachments by 10 months old, including attachments to mothers, fathers, grandparents, siblings, and neighbors.

The baby becomes increasingly independent and forms several attachments. By 18 months, the majority of infants have formed multiple attachments.

The multiple attachments formed by most infants vary in their strength and importance to the infant. Attachments are often structured in a hierarchy, whereby an infant may have formed three attachments, but one may be stronger than the other two, and one may be the weakest.

The results of the study indicated that attachments were most likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby’s signals, not the person they spent more time with.  Schaffer and Emerson called this sensitive responsiveness.

Intensely attached infants had mothers who responded quickly to their demands and, interacted with their child. Infants who were weakly attached had mothers who failed to interact.

The Lasting Impact of Early Attachment

According to Bowlby’s theory (1988), when we form our primary attachment, we also make a mental representation of what a relationship is (internal working model), which we then use for all other relationships in the future i.e., friendships, working, and romantic relationships.

The different attachment styles may be viewed as internal working models of “relationships” that evolved from event experiences (Main, Kaplan, & Cassidy, 1985).

This would suggest that early interactions with caregivers could not only shape how an infant understood and behaved in relationships (as exemplified by infant attachment styles), but that such impact could be carried forward into adult attachment .

According to Bowlby (1969) later relationships are likely to be a continuation of early attachment styles (secure and insecure) because the behavior of the infant’s primary attachment figure promotes an internal working model of relationships which leads the infant to expect the same in later relationships.

In other words, there will be continuity between early attachment experiences and later relationships. This is known as the continuity hypothesis.

In humans, attachment does not conclude in infancy, or even childhood, but instead is active throughout the lifespan, with individuals gaining comfort from both physical and mental representations of significant others (Bowlby, 1969).

It is through an individual’s internal working model that childhood patterns of attachment are carried forward across the life cycle into adolescence and adulthood.

The notion of security is still important; however, the growing emergence of autonomy is also significant as the attachment system in adults is less likely to be activated due to them being able to tolerate higher levels of distress compared to children.

During adulthood, new attachment bonds are formed which may become a significant source of support during periods of distress, or during periods of goal achievement and exploration.

Researchers have proposed that working models are interconnected within a complex hierarchical structure (Bowlby, 1980; Bretherton, 1985, 1990; Collins & Read, 1994; Main, Kaplan, & Cassidy, 1985).

For example, the highest level model comprises beliefs and expectations across all types of relationship, and lower level models hold general rules about specific relations, such as romantic or parental, underpinned by models specific to events within a relationship with a single person.

The existence of multiple mental models is supported by evidence which demonstrates considerable within-person variability in the expectations and beliefs that people hold about the self and others (Baldwin & Fehr, 1995).

Furthermore, although specific models of attachment relationships are positively associated with more overarching general working models, the correlations are small to moderate (less than .40), indicating that they comprised distinct beliefs regarding the self and significant others (Cozzarelli, Hoekstra, & Bylsma, 2000).

Likely, general mental models indicate a typical appraisal of the self and others across relationships, and relationship-specific beliefs about the self and one’s partner would plausibly represent only a part of these generalized beliefs.

Key Takeaways

• Attachment is defined as a “lasting psychological connectedness between human beings” (Bowlby, 1969, p. 194), and may be considered interchangeable with concepts such as “affectional bond” and “emotional bond.”
• Attachment is characterized by specific behaviors in children, such as seeking proximity to the attachment figure when upset or threatened (Bowlby, 1969).
• Attachment theory explains how the parent-child relationship emerges and influences subsequent development.
• A person’s first attachment is often established with the primary caregiver during infancy. However, it must be noted that attachment is not unique to infant-caregiver relationships but may also be present in other social relationships.
• Attachments of various kinds are formed through the repeated act of “attachment behaviors” or “attachment transactions,” a continuing process of seeking and maintaining a certain level of proximity to another specified individual (Bowlby, 1969).
• Because caregivers vary in sensitivity and responsiveness, not all infants attach to caregivers in the same way.

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, 41 , 49-67.

Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1973). The development of infant-mother attachment. In B. Cardwell & H. Ricciuti (Eds.), Review of child development research (Vol. 3, pp. 1-94) Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation . Lawrence Erlbaum.

Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1991). Attachments and other affectional bonds across the life cycle. In C . M. Parkes, J. Stevenson-Hinde, & P. Marris (Eds.), Attachment across the life cycle (pp. 33-51). London: Routledge.

Ainsworth. M. D. S., & Wittig, B. A. (1969) Attachment and exploratory behaviour of one-year-olds in a strange situation. In: B. M. Foss (Ed.) Determinants of infant behaviour , IV. London: Methuen, p. 111-136.

Bowlby, J. (1958). The nature of the childs tie to his mother. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 39 , 350-371.

Bowlby J. (1969). Attachment. Attachment and loss:   Vol. 1. Loss. New York: Basic Books.

Bowlby, J., and Robertson, J. (1952). A two-year-old goes to the hospital. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 46, 425–427.

Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss, Vol. 2: Separation . New York: Basic Books.

Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss, Vol. 3: Loss, sadness and depression . New York: Basic Books.

Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent–child attachment and healthy human development . New York: Basic Books.

Dollard, J. & Miller, N.E. (1950). Personality and psychotherapy . New York: McGraw-Hill.

Feeney, B. C. (2004). A secure base: responsive support of goal strivings and exploration in adult intimate relationships.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87 (5), 631.

George, C., & Solomon, J. (1996). Representational models of relationships: Links between caregiving and attachment.  Infant Mental Health Journal, 17 (3), 198-216.

Harlow, H. F. & Zimmermann, R. R. (1958). The development of affective responsiveness in infant monkeys. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 102, 501 -509.

Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2003). The attachment behavioral system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 35 , 53-152.

Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2007).  Attachment in adulthood: Structure, dynamics,  and change . New York: Guilford Press.

Prior, V., & Glaser, D. (2006). Understanding attachment and attachment disorders: Theory, evidence and practice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Schaffer, H. R., & Emerson, P. E. (1964). The development of social attachments in infancy. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 1-77.

Shaver, P. R., & Mikulincer, M. (2006). Attachment theory, individual psychodynamics, and relationship functioning.  The Cambridge handbook of personal relationships , 251-271.

Van Ijzendoorn, M. H., & Sagi-Schwartz, A. (2008). Cross-cultural patterns of attachment: Universal and contextual dimensions. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (Eds) Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research and Clinical Applications (pp. 880-905). New York: Guildford Press.

What is attachment theory in relationships?

Attachment theory is a psychological theory developed by British psychologist John Bowlby that explains how humans form emotional bonds with others, particularly in the context of close relationships.

The theory suggests that infants and young children have an innate drive to seek proximity to their primary caregivers for safety and security, and that the quality of these early attachments can have long-term effects on social and emotional development.

What are the 4 attachments in a relationship?

Attachment theory suggests that there are four types of attachments people can develop based on their early experiences with caregivers. These four types are secure, anxious-preoccupied, avoidant-dismissive, and disorganized.

People with secure attachments are comfortable with intimacy and have positive views of themselves and others. Those with anxious-preoccupied attachments worry about being rejected and may become overly clingy in relationships.

People with avoidant-dismissive attachments may avoid close relationships and prioritize independence. Those with disorganized attachments may have difficulty regulating their emotions and behavior in close relationships due to past trauma or abuse.

Attachment styles can change over time , but understanding one’s attachment style can provide insight into how one approaches relationships and areas for personal growth.

What do psychologists mean by attachment?

Attachment in psychology refers to the emotional bond between individuals, typically seen in relationships between parents and children. It’s a crucial part of social and emotional development and impacts future relationships. Attachment can be secure or insecure (avoidant, ambivalent, or disorganized).

Attachment Theory (Bowlby)

Summary: Attachment theory emphasizes the importance of a secure and trusting mother-infant bond on development and well-being.

Originator and key contributors:

• John Bowlby (1907-1990) British child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known for his theory on attachment
• Mary Ainsworth (1913-1999), American psychoanalyst known for the `strange situation`

Keywords: maternal deprivation, internal working model, strange situation, attachment styles

Attachment is described as a long lasting psychological connection with a meaningful person that causes pleasure while interacting and soothes in times of stress. The quality of attachment has a critical effect on development, and has been linked to various aspects of positive functioning, such as psychological well-being [1] .

Maternal Deprivation

Bowlby began his journey to attachment theory through research he conducted on child delinquents and hospitalized children. These studies led him to discuss the negative effects of maternal deprivation, the situation in which the mother was either non responsive or absent for long spans of time within the child’s first two years of life. Bowlby believed that children have an innate need to develop a close relationship with one main figure, usually the mother. When this does not occur, it has negative consequences on development, causing a decline in intelligence, depression, aggression, delinquency, and affectionless psychopathy (a situation in which one is not concerned about the feelings of others) [2] .

Bowlby’s theory on attachment

Following the above conclusions regarding maternal deprivation, Bowlby sought to develop a theory which would support and explain his results. He felt that existing theories on attachment from psychoanalytic and behavioral fields were detached from reality and not up to date, thus he began reading into and corresponding with current researchers in the fields of biology and ethology. One study which was particularly influential on attachment theory was conducted by Harlow & Zimmerman in 1959 [3] . In this study, monkeys were separated from their mothers and put into cages with “surrogate mothers”. One “mother” was made out of wire with an attached bottle, while the other was coated with cloth. The study’s results showed that monkeys chose the cloth mother over the wire mother, even though she did not offer food. These results stand in contrast to classic approaches to attachment which believed that the goal of attachment was the fulfillment of needs, particularly feeding. Bowlby developed his theory on the basis of these results, claiming attachment to be an intrinsic need for an emotional bond with one’s mother, extending beyond the need to be fed. He believed this to be an evolved need, where a strong emotional bond with one’s mother increases chances of survival.

Stages of attachment

Preattachment (newborn-6 weeks): Newborn infants know to act in such a way that attracts adults, such as crying, smiling, cooing, and making eye contact. Although not attached to their mothers yet, they are soothed by the presence of others.

Attachment in making (6 weeks- 6 to 8 months): Infants begins to develop a sense of trust in their mothers, in that they can depend on her in times of need. They are soothed more quickly by their mother, and smile more often next to her.

Clear cut attachment (6 to 8 months- 18 months to 2 years): Attachment is established. The infant prefers his mother over anyone else, and experiences separation anxiety when she leaves. The intensity of separation anxiety is influenced by the infant’s temperament and the way in which caregivers respond and soothe the infant.

Formation of reciprocal relationship (18 months- to years +): As language develops, separation anxiety declines. The infant can now understand when his mother is leaving and when she will be coming back. In addition, a sense of security has developed, in that even when his mother is not physically there, he knows she is always there for him. Bowlby called this sense of security an internal working model.

Attachment styles

Bowlby’s attachment theory was tested using the `strange situation`. Children’s responses to their mother’s presence and absence, and that of a stranger, were recorded [4] . These results served as the basis for the formulation of attachment styles.

Secure attachment – Children who have developed secure attachment feel secure and happy, and are eager to explore their surroundings. They know they could trust their mother to be there for them. Although distressed at their mother’s absence, they are assured she will return. The mother’s behavior is consistent and sensitive to the needs of her child.

Anxious avoidant insecure attachment : Children who have developed an anxious avoidant insecure attachment do not trust their mother to fulfill their needs. They act indifferent to their mother’s presence or absence, but are anxious inside. They are not explorative, and are emotionally distant. The mother’s behavior is disengaged from her child and emotionally distant.

Anxious resistant insecure (ambivalent) attachment – Children who have developed anxious resistant insecure attachment show a mixture of anger and helplessness towards their mother. They acts passively, and feel insecure. Experience has taught them that they cannot rely on their mother. The mother’s behavior is inconsistent. At times she is responsive and at times neglects her child.

Disorganized/disoriented attachment- Children who do not fit into the other categories are included in this fourth form of attachment. These children could act depressed, angry, passive, or apathetical. Their mothers could act in varying extremes, such as swaying between passivity and aggression or being scared and actually being scary.

For more information, please see:

• https://youtu.be/s14Q-_Bxc_U An excerpt from the documentary on hospitalized children which served as the basis for Bowlby’s ideas on maternal deprivation.
• A Secure Base: Parent-Child Attachment and Healthy Human Development  – one of the books written by Bowlby
• Bowlby, J. (2008). Attachment . Basic books.
• Bowlby, J. (1998). Attachment and loss (No. 3). Random House.
• Harlow, H. F., & Zimmerman, R. R. (1959). Affectional Response in the Infant Monke’. Science , 130 (3373), 421-431.
• Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. N. (2015). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation . Psychology Press.

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Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment

Last updated 22 Mar 2021

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Bowlby’s theory is sometimes referred to as an evolutionary theory. Evolutionary psychology suggests that human behaviour and phenomena can be explained through the process of natural selection. Traits which offered our ancestors a survival or reproductive advantage in our environment of evolutionary adaptation (EEA) would be passed on to offspring and as a result continue to exist and proliferate.

Bowlby (1969) suggests that attachment is a vital adaptive quality that has evolved to increase the chance of survival through proximity-seeking behaviour .

As babies are born in an early stage of development, they are highly dependent on the parent as they require constant care, which means that the infant would benefit from a biological mechanism that could keep the parent close to them. Attachment is mutually innate in both infants & adults, with infants using social releasers to promote interaction (eg. smiling/ eye contact encourage caregiver reactions). It is suggested that these need to be innate to ensure that infants can maintain close contact with their parents. Equally, parents need to be receptive to these innate cues that the infant displays in order for this to offer an adaptive advantage.

According to Bowlby, infants require a qualitatively unique relationship to develop an internal working model & emotional maturity – this special bond is known as a monotropic bond . This special bond helps to maintain proximity between the parent and infant and also offers the infant the opportunity to develop skills and an understanding of how to attach and bond to others.

Bowlby suggests that attachment takes place during a critical period. It is suggested that if a child does not form an attachment before the critical period (2.5 years) attachment will not occur. (Bowlby later proposed a sensitive period of up to 5 years.)

The Internal Working Model

(IWM) provides a template for future attachments. It allows individuals to predict, control & manipulate their environment. As a result, it plays a role in later development – this is known as the continuity hypothesis.

Evaluation of Bowlby

The need for monotropy appears to be universal

Ainsworth (1967) observed the Ganda tribe of Uganda. Infants form one primary attachment even when reared by multiple carers.

Fox (1977) research into Israeli communal farms has revealed child-rearing practices that are quite distinct from conventional Western ones. Fox reported that children spend a majority of the day with nurses called metapelets rather than their biological parents; in fact infants tend to spend approximately 3 hours a day with their biological mother. Observed infants appeared to still form a (special) monotropic bond with their mothers despite not seeing them for extended periods of time, which supports Bowlby, as he claimed that monotropy was a necessity that was innately programmed in infants. So it would seem that despite the cultural variations in child-rearing practises, the process of attachment appears to be universal.

The importance of monotropy is overemphasised

Thomas (1998) questions the benefits of monotropy & suggests it may be more beneficial having a network of attachments to support infants & their social/ emotional needs.

Parke (1981) found that qualitatively different attachments provide different benefits.

Similarly, Van Ijzendoorn, & Tavecchio (1987) argue that a stable network of adults can provide adequate or better care than a mother who has to meet all a child’s needs.

• Bowlby (1969)
• Types of attachment
• Disruption of attachment
• Cultural Variations in Attachment
• Explanations of Attachment: Learning Theory

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Anxious Attachment

How does it develop in childhood?

Avoidant Attachment

What are symptoms in adult relationships?

Disorganized Attachment

What is it like to date a disorganized adult?

Secure Attachment

The 5 conditions for secure attachment

What Is Attachment Theory?

Do you know your attachment style take our attachment quiz and find out now – fast, easy, free., in this page you’ll find:.

• The foundation of attachment theory
• The attachment classification system
• The stages of attachment
• The emotional skills we learn from attachment
• Relationships from an attachment perspective
• rief overview of our guidelines for attachment classification
• Influence on other fields and future directions

The History of Attachment Theory

Attachment theory owes its inception primarily to John Bowlby (1907-1990). Trained in psychoanalysis in the 1930s, Bowlby was not entirely satisfied with his studies. From his perspective, psychoanalysis focused too much on our internal world, and consequently ignored the environment we are immersed in [1].

During the early years of his career, Bowlby worked in a psychiatric hospital as he was also trained in developmental psychology and child psychiatry. In fact, it was in this hospital where he found the inspiration for his subsequent innovative work on attachment.

He observed that two children under his care displayed marked differences in behaviors. One child was notably distant and emotionless, while the other was constantly in his vicinity – so much so, that others started to refer to the child as Bowlby’s “shadow” [1].

Bowlby was later mentored by Melanie Klein, a highly influential name in the field, whom he later publicly disagreed with theoretically. The basis of this disagreement centered on Klein’s belief that children’s emotional problems arise solely from internal processes. In contrast to this belief, Bowlby postulated that children’s emotional problems actually arise from how they interact with their environment growing up [1].

A principal aspect of Bowlby’s later career was his focus on mother-child separation issues. He was strongly influenced by Konrad Lorenz’s work, which showed how attachment is instinctual. From Lorenz’s theory, Bowlby gleaned that a newborn baby does not solely need their mother for food, but instead desires the caregiver-child connection that builds between them [2]. Therefore, Bowlby sought to understand what would happen to children when this essential need was not met.

Bowlby’s Attachment Theory

In essence, Bowlby’s attachment theory posits that attachment bonds are innate [1]. When a child’s immediate need for a secure attachment bond is not met, the child feels threatened and will react accordingly, such as by crying or calling out for their caregiver. Moreover, if the need for a stable bond is not met consistently, the infant can develop social, emotional, and even cognitive problems.

This need for attachment has catalyzed our understanding of human nature, leading up to Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary’s claim that belongingness is an essential human need, much like shelter or water [3].

The Anxious-Avoidant Spectrum

From Bowlby’s initial observations of the children with two highly distinctive behaviors at the psychiatric hospital, a spectrum of attachment behaviors came to life. We can visualize this spectrum holding attachment anxiety on one side and attachment avoidance on the other.

Given certain triggers and subsequent behaviors, one can gravitate toward either side of the spectrum. For example, an anxious attacher who hasn’t heard from their partner for a couple of hours is likely to trigger anxious attachment behaviors such as texting or calling their partner incessantly. In this case, they have demonstrated to be most certainly on the anxious side of the spectrum.

However, as was to be soon discovered through research, this anxious-avoidant spectrum didn’t fully account for the behavioral differences observed in children. There was still some information missing. Let’s dive into how attachment theory developed further.

Ainsworth and Attachment Theory: The Strange Situation

Mary Ainsworth (1913-1999) – considered to be the second founder of the field of attachment – furthered the development of Bowlby’s theory. Ainsworth crucially contributed to attachment theory with the concept of a secure base [1]. In her view, a child needs an established secure base, or dependence, with their caregivers before venturing into the exploration of the world around them.

The Strange Situation is perhaps the most well-known of Ainsworth’s main contributions [4]. The study was designed to look at the association between attachment and infants’ exploration of their surroundings.

• Children between the ages of 12 and 18 months from a sample of 100 typical American families were observed in the Strange Situation.
• A small room was set up with a one-way glass window designed to covertly observe the actions of the child. The room was filled with toys, and at first, it was just the infant and their mother.
• The Strange Situation consisted of eight steps, each of which lasted approximately 3 minutes:
• Mother and infant alone.
• A stranger enters the room.
• The mother leaves the baby and stranger alone.
• The mother returns.
• The stranger leaves.
• The mother leaves and the child is left alone.
• The stranger returns.
• Mother returns and the stranger exits.

The aim of the Strange Situation was to observe the infant’s exploratory behavior with their mother, in her absence, as well as in the presence of a stranger. This was one of the main experiments to drive the establishment of an attachment classification system. It allowed for the distinction between a child’s ambivalent and dismissing behaviors upon reuniting with their mother [1,5].

The Attachment Classification System

From the Strange Situation, Ainsworth developed the Strange Situation Classification (SSC) , which is the cornerstone of how we categorize attachment styles today. Ainsworth distinguished three attachment styles:

Secure – the child displays distress when separated from the mother, but is easily soothed and returns their positive attitude quickly when reunited with them.

Resistant – the child displays intense distress when the mother leaves but resists contact with them when reunited.

Avoidant – the child displays no distress when separated from their mother, as well as no interest in the mother’s return.

Adding Disorganized Attachment

Ainsworth had several Ph.D. students working with her – one of whom became notorious for their significant contributions to attachment theory .

Namely, Mary Main observed a unique behavior in one infant: in a moment when the infant was frightened by thunder, they surprisingly ran towards the experimenter instead of their own mother.

Based on this interaction, Main decided to focus her research on identifying peculiar behaviors such as this, leading to the identification of the fourth element in the classification of attachment: the disorganized attachment style – which incorporated both resistant and dismissing behaviors [6,7,8].

The attachment spectrum (Figure 1) stemmed from both Bowlby’s and Ainsworth’s contributions to the theory.

The Stages of Attachment

In the 1960s, Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson identified that human social connections start at birth, and that the bond between an infant and caregiver only grows stronger over time. Furthermore, attachment styles also develop over time, and this was illustrated in the four stages that Schaffer and Emerson developed in 1964 [9].

Their study was conducted in such a way that babies were followed-up through interviews with their mothers, every 4 weeks throughout their first year after birth, and then one more time at 18 months. Their research resulted in the development of the following stages:

Asocial Stage 0-6 weeks. Babies don’t distinguish between humans, although there is a clear preference for humans over non-humans. The infants form attachment with anyone who comes their way.

Indiscriminate Stage 6 weeks – 6 months. The bonds with their caregivers start to grow stronger. Infants begin to distinguish people from one another, and they do not have a fear of strangers.

Specific Attachment Stage 7+ months. This is when separation anxiety becomes prevalent, particularly from their main caregivers or close adults. At this point, infants develop a feeling of distress when surrounded by strangers.

Multiple Attachments Stage 10+ months. Attachment with the infant’s primary caregiver grows even stronger. The infant is increasingly interested in creating bonds with others that are not their caregivers.

Learning Relationship Skills From Attachment

Our main attachment relationships , especially those in our earliest stages of life, have a unique influence on how we handle other relationships later on [10]. An important role that these attachment relationships have is to teach us healthy affect regulation.

Affect regulation, or emotion regulation, is the extent to which we can experience emotions and process these in a healthy way.

Emotion regulation is especially important when we encounter negative experiences. As infants, these negative experiences are a key opportunity to cultivate this skill. It is also in these moments that we learn how, or to what extent, we can rely on our caregivers to support us [11]. Thus, if we don’t feel protected or understood by our caregivers, this can teach us that they are not reliable sources of safety or love.

Moreover, we learn emotion regulation and relationship skills directly through our caregivers’ behaviors. Basically, we mirror our caregivers’ actions; for instance, if we notice that our cries bring about distress in our caregiver, we feel greater distress in return [12]. Thus, an infant develops a sense of self by assessing their impact on their surroundings. If their caregivers consistently react to the child negatively or neglect them in some way, the child will develop a distorted version of themselves and their capacity to interact with their environment [12].

Relationships Through the Lens of Attachment Theory

Today, attachment theory is regularly applied to a vast array of relationships, but this was not always the case. In the 1980s, Cindy Hazan and Philip Shaver introduced their views on attachment, arguing that its classification system could be applied to romantic relationships as well as the original caregiver-child format [10]. Their argument relied on the premise that relationships/love take many shapes and forms, and an attachment reaction typically follows.

With this perspective in mind, we can begin to see how attachment is not a static aspect of ourselves – it fluctuates depending on a specific relationship and situation. While we do have our first encounter with an attachment relationship at birth, with our caregivers, this is not the only relationship that will influence how we relate to others. From childhood onwards, the people closest to us all have an impactful role in our development.

What Is an Attachment Bond?

An attachment bond is one that we establish with the closest people in our lives, typically, our caregivers, close family, or intimate partners.

Therefore, not every relationship we have will have an attachment bond. Instead, these bonds form in the relationships with people that we need, such the ones that fulfill basic physical needs (e.g. food and shelter), or emotional needs (e.g. the need to belong).

Attachment bonds or attachment figures are the connections whose absence causes us the most suffering. For this reason, losing an attachment bond is a highly distressing experience, which is usually marked by anxiety and sadness.

However, loss can feel very different depending on the type of relationship and bond that was developed. On the flip side, reuniting with an attachment figure after some time apart can bring about immense happiness and joy, and even a sense of relief.

Our Classification of Attachment

From the inception of attachment theory onwards, vast amounts of research and studies have been conducted and published by renowned professionals. At The Attachment Project, we endeavor to keep abreast of this work and the most recent findings in the field, and use it to guide us in delivering scientifically and theoretically sound information.

Having said as much, and recognizing the evolution of attachment theory, we’ll leave you with a very brief overview of the classification of attachment as we understand it, entirely based on previous work and research:

Secure attachment is characteristic of people who easily trust others. These individuals are attuned to their own emotions and can easily attune to those of others. They are comfortable with intimacy and can easily communicate their thoughts and feelings. The secure attachment is characterized by the ability to:

• Handle conflict calmly
• Feel comfortable both in relationships and on your own
• Differentiate thoughts from feelings
• Maintain a balanced sense of self and confidence

The Conditions for Secure Attachment

Recently, a study designed to specifically examine secure attachment identified the conditions necessary to raise a securely attached child [13].

If these conditions are not met, an insecure attachment style is likely to develop. The five conditions for secure attachment are as follows:

• The child feels safe.
• The child feels seen and known.
• The child feels comfort, soothing, and reassurance.
• The child feels valued.
• The child feels supported to explore.

On the other hand, the following experiences can lead to an insecure attachment to form during childhood:

• Perceived inconsistency: The child feels incoherence in whether their needs are met. This inconsistency can be confusing for the child, who will feel that their caregiver(s) are ultimately unreliable.
• Felt rejection or neglect: Even though the caregiver(s) may not do so purposefully or knowingly, the child feels that their needs, particularly their emotional needs, are not being met. They may feel that they are not appreciated or understood for who they are.
• Sense of fear: A sense of fear can come from truly alarm-inducing situations, such as a traumatic event. However, a sense of fear also arise from seemingly simple situations that induce feelings of rejection, neglect, or that result in the sense of being unloved.

Anxious attachment (or preoccupied) can often be identified in people who essentially have an extra-sensitive nervous system. These individuals may struggle with hyperactivation of emotions, as well as hypervigilance for something going wrong. The scariest thing they can imagine is being abandoned by their loved ones.

Most likely, their attachment anxiety stems from an inconsistent parent who would be attentive at times yet misattuned at other times.

The main signs of anxious attachment are the following:

• Catastrophic thinking, such as picturing things going very wrong, very easily
• A positive view of others, but a negative view of themselves
• Putting great effort into relationships, to the extent of self-sacrifice
• Immense difficulty with receiving criticism and rejection

Avoidant attachment (or dismissive) is often present in individuals who tend to downplay their emotions or dismiss them completely. These people are typically highly independent and self-reliant, and their greatest fear is usually intimacy and vulnerability.

This attachment style tends to develop when caregivers were not emotionally attuned to their child or who were generally emotionally distant.

The main tell-tale signs of an avoidant attacher are:

• Difficulty seeking support and admitting they need help
• Extreme self-reliance and independence
• A tendency to have a positive self-view yet a negative or critical view of others
• Maintaining or increasing distance when others try to connect emotionally

Disorganized attachment (or fearful-avoidant) is typically identified in individuals who have experienced childhood trauma or abuse. [8]. The disorganized attachment style is characterized by demonstrating inconsistent behaviors and having a hard time trusting others.

This style develops in children whose caregivers were a source of perceived fear, instead of safety and connection.

Disorganized attachment can be identified from:

• Inconsistency and unpredictability
• Oscillating between avoidant and anxious behaviors
• Their caregiver, or their main source of safety as infants, was also their main source of fear
• Struggles with intimacy and building trust in others

The Attachment Style Quiz

You may have come across the Attachment Style Quiz on our website – it is our preferred method of individual assessment on attachment styles. The Experiences in Close Relationships – Relationship Structures (ECR-RS) Questionnaire, was originally developed by R. Chris Fraley and is scientifically tested and validated [14,15].

The quiz is free and easy to complete, and you can find out your attachment style in just 5 minutes. There are other assessment alternatives you may want to opt for, which we’ve outlined in our blog post on commonly used attachment style tests. One such recommended measurement is the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) , which must be conducted by a trained professional. If you want to further explore your attachment style, we suggest bringing the materials from our website (your quiz results and any relevant articles) to a mental health practitioner.

Discover your attachment style in just 5 minutes. Receive your report straight away. Totally free!

Influence and Future Directions

Attachment theory has influenced developmental psychopathology, especially the investigation of family relationships, and even the cross-cultural aspects of attachment [1].

At The Attachment Project, we seek to increase mental health awareness through informing our audience about the multiple influences of attachment on various areas of life.

For instance, there is a growing body of work on the association between organizational psychology and attachment theory psychology [20], and that line of research deals with how attachment impacts our behaviors and emotions in the workplace. Moreover, there are multiple links between attachment and a number of mental health concerns, such as eating disorders, addiction, ADHD, ASD, and issues with language development .

Another interesting connection is to be found between attachment and early maladaptive schemas. Maladaptive schemas are, in a nutshell, limiting beliefs that are formed based on repeated patterns of trauma in early childhood. Last but not least, attachment has a profound influence on many aspects of our personal relationships, such as jealousy, loneliness, and compassion.

We are eager to continue exploring the field, with the aim to help you, our readers, learn more about yourselves and gain the necessary insights to build the relationships and lives you truly want and deserve.

Curious to learn more about your attachment style?

Get your digital Attachment Style Workbook to gain a deeper understanding of…

• how your attachment style developed
• how it influences different aspects of your daily life, such as your self-image, romantic relationships, sexual life, friendships, career, and parenting skills
• how you can use the superpowers associated with your attachment style
• how you can begin cultivating a secure attachment

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John Bowlby

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• Miranda Goodman-Wilson 3  

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Introduction

John Bowlby is best known as the father of attachment theory. First developed in the 1950s, attachment theory was both shaped by and significantly influential on the study of animal behavior. This entry will describe Bowlby’s biography as it relates to the development of attachment theory, the major principles of and significant influences on his theory, and its applications to animal research.

Edward (John) Mostyn Bowlby (1907–1990) was born in London, England, to an upper-middle class family. As was characteristic of the time, he and his five siblings were raised primarily by a series of nannies and nursemaids. Bowlby only visited with his mother for an hour each day and with his father considerably less. His first nursemaid, Minnie, served as a mother substitute for him, and when she left the family when Bowlby was four-years-old, it served as a devastating loss. This would prove to be profoundly influential on his later research interests (Van Dijken 1998 ).

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Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation . Hillsdale: Erlbaum.

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Goodman-Wilson, M. (2022). John Bowlby. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55065-7_989

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Biography of Psychologist John Bowlby

The Founder of Attachment Theory

Erin Lester/Cultura Exclusive/Getty Images

• Bowlby's Early Life
• Bowlby's Attachment Theory
• Contributions to Psychology

John Bowlby (February 26, 1907-September 2, 1990) was a British psychologist and psychoanalyst who believed that early childhood attachments played a critical role in later development and mental functioning. His work, along with the work of psychologist Mary Ainsworth, contributed to the development of attachment theory.

Bowlby believed that children are born with a biologically programmed tendency to seek and remain close to attachment figures. This provides nurturance and comfort and aids in the child’s survival. Sticking close to a caregiver ensures that the child’s needs are met and that they are protected from environmental dangers.

At a Glance

John Bolwby was an influential psychologist who introduced attachment theory, or the idea that early bonds play a crucial role in functioning. His research on child development had an important impact on our understanding of human development and continues to influence modern-day psychology, education, child care, and parenting.

Bowlby's Early Life

Edward John Mostyn Bowlby was born in London to an upper-middle-class family. Believing that too much parental affection and attention would spoil a child, his parents spent only a small amount of time with him each day. At the age of seven, he was sent to boarding school, which he would later describe as a traumatic experience.

College Years

Bowlby went on to attend Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied psychology and spent time working with delinquent children. After graduating from Cambridge, Bowlby volunteered at two schools for maladjusted and delinquent children to gain experience and consider his career goals.

These experiences working with children inspired him to become a child psychiatrist .

Klein's Influence

He then studied medicine at University College Hospital and psychiatry at Maudsley Hospital. During this time, Bowlby also studied at the British Psychoanalytic Institute and was initially influenced by the work of Melanie Klein , a psychologist who created the play therapy technique.

He eventually became dissatisfied with Klein’s approach. He felt that it focused too much on children’s fantasies and not enough on environmental events, including the influence of parents and caregivers.

After becoming a psychoanalyst in 1937, he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II. In 1938, he married a woman named Ursula Longstaff, and together they had four children.

Once the war was over, Bowlby became Director of the Tavistock Clinic, and in 1950, he became a mental health consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Bowlby's Career and Theories

Bowlby’s early work with children led him to develop a strong interest in the subject of child development . He became particularly interested in how separation from caregivers impacted children. After studying the subject for some time, he began to develop his ideas on the importance of attachment on child development.

The WHO commissioned Bowlby to write a report on the mental health of homeless children in Europe. In 1951, the resulting work Maternal Care and Mental Health was published. In it, he wrote, "...the infant and young child should experience a warm, intimate and continuous relationship with his mother (or permanent mother substitute–one person who steadily ‘mothers’ him) in which both find satisfaction and enjoyment."

After the publication of the influential report, Bowlby continued to develop his attachment theory. Bowlby drew on various subjects, including cognitive science, developmental psychology , evolutionary biology, and ethology (the science of animal behavior).

His theory suggested that the earliest bonds formed by children with their caregivers have a tremendous impact that continues throughout life.

Bowlby as a Psychoanalyst

Bowlby had trained as a psychoanalyst and, much like Sigmund Freud , believed that the earliest experiences in life have a lasting impact on development. According to Bowlby, attachment also keeps the infant close to the mother, thus improving the child's chances of survival.

He suggested that both mothers and infants had evolved to develop an innate need for proximity. By maintaining this closeness, infants are more likely to receive the care and protection needed to ensure their survival.

Bowlby was also influenced by Konrad Lorenz, a zoologist and ethologist who demonstrated that attachment was innate and aided in survival. In Lorenz’s well-known 1935 study on imprinting , he showed that young geese would imprint on attachment figures in the environment within a certain critical period after hatching.

Lorenz even got newly-hatched geese to imprint on him and view him as a “mother” figure. This revealed that not only is attachment innate but that there is also a critical period during which the formation of attachment relationships is possible. Lorenz’s research found that an attachment was not likely to occur after a certain period (approximately 32 hours for geese).

In humans, Bowlby believed that the first two and a half years of a child's life were critical for the formation of attachment. If it did not happen during this period, he suggested it may be too late. However, he later expanded the timeline for this critical period up to the age of five.

The central theme of Bowlby’s attachment theory is that mothers who are available and responsive to their infant's needs establish a sense of security. The baby knows that the caregiver is dependable, which creates a secure base for the child to feel safe to explore the world.

Bowlby's Attachment Theory

Bowlby defined attachment as a “lasting psychological connectedness between human beings." His ethological theory of attachment suggests that infants have an innate need to form an attachment bond with a caregiver.

This is an evolved response that increases a child's chances of survival; babies are born with a number of behaviors, such as crying and cooing, and caregivers are biologically programmed to respond to these signals and attend to the baby's needs.

The Importance of the Attachment Bond

While mothers are often associated with this role as primary caregivers and attachment figures, Bowlby believed infants could form such bonds with others. The formation of the attachment bond offers comfort, security, and nourishment.

However, Bowlby noted that feeding was not the basis or purpose of this attachment, allowing bonds to be formed with fathers and other significant caregivers.

It is not food or nourishment that determines attachment. Instead it is the responsiveness of caregivers and the attention and care that children receive that determines their attachment patterns.

Stages of Attachment

Bowlby also suggested that attachment forms in a series of stages:

• During the first part of the pre-attachment phase , babies recognize their primary caregiver but do not yet have an attachment. Their crying and fussing draw the attention and care of the parent, which is rewarding to both the child and the caregiver. As this stage progresses through about three months, infants begin to recognize the parent more and develop a sense of trust.
• During the indiscriminate attachment phase , infants show a distinct preference for the primary caregivers and certain secondary caregivers in their lives.
• During the discriminate attachment period , children form a solid attachment to one individual and experience separation distress and anxiety when parted from that person.
• Finally, during the multiple attachment phases , children develop strong attachments to people beyond the primary caregivers.

How Attachment Influences Development

Bowlby believed that a child's earliest attachments with caregivers created a blueprint for all future relationships. These early attachments serve as a framework that helps children understand themselves, others, and their relationship with the world.

Bowlby suggested maternal deprivation disrupted the attachment process and could result in long-term emotional, social, and cognitive problems. 

This approach, known as monotropy, views attachment as a bond between the child and a single attachment figure. In Bowlby's view, this attachment figure was primarily the mother. Problems with this attachment, he suggested, led to lasting problems that could include mental health issues, lower intelligence , higher aggression, poor relationships, and lack of empathy for others.

Bowlby believed that the maternal bond was most critical for development. Later research, however, has disputed Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis.

While Bowby emphasized the existence of a single primary attachment figure, contemporary research has shown that children develop multiple attachments to other caregivers. Bowlby's belief that separation from the primary caregiver would negatively affect development, modern theorists recognize that quality matters more than quantity. 

Bowlby's Contributions to Psychology

Bowlby’s research on attachment and child development left a lasting impression on psychology, education, child care, and parenting. Researchers extended his research to develop clinical treatment techniques and prevention strategies.

His work also influenced other eminent psychologists, including his colleague Mary Ainsworth , who also made significant contributions to attachment theory by expanding on Bowlby's research to develop a method for observing a child's attachment to a caregiver.

In a 2002 survey of psychologists published in the Review of General Psychology , John Bowlby was ranked as the 49th most frequently cited psychologist of the 20th century.

Slade A, Holmes J. Attachment and psychotherapy . Curr Opin Psychol . 2019;25:152-156. doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.06.008

Schwartz J.  Cassandra’s Daughter: A History of Psychoanalysis . 1st American ed. Viking; 1999.

Sable P. Attachment, ethology and adult psychotherapy. Attach Hum Dev. 2004;6(1):3-19. doi:10.1080/14616730410001663498

Stevenson-hinde J. Attachment theory and John Bowlby: some reflections. Attach Hum Dev. 2007;9(4):337-342. doi:10.1080/14616730701711540

Barett H. Parents and children: facts and fallacies about attachment theory. J Fam Health Care. 2006;16(1):3-4. PMID: 16550805

Haggbloom SJ, Warnick R, Warnick JE, et al. The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century . Review of General Psychology . 2002;6(2):139-152. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139

• Bowlby, J. The Nature of the Childs Tie to His Mother. International Journal of Psychoanalysis. 1958; 39:  350-371.
• Bowlby J. Attachment. Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Loss. New York: Basic Books; 1969.
• Bretheron, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmental Psychology. 1992; 28:  759-775.
• Haggbloom, S. J., Warnick, J.E., Jones, V.K., Yarbrough, G.L., Russell, T.M., Borecky, C.M., McGahhey, R....Monte, E. The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century. Review of General Psychology. 2002; 6(2): 139–152. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139.
• Holmes, J. John Bowlby and Attachment Theory. London: Routledge; 1993.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Attachment Theory By Bowlby & Ainsworth

Attachment is the emotional connection formed between an infant and their primary caregiver, impacting the child’s comfort-seeking behavior when distressed. Attachment Theory, introduced by John Bowlby and expanded through Mary Ainsworth’s research, suggests that early attachments shape one’s self-perception, relationships, and behavior into adulthood. 

Ainsworth identified three initial attachment styles, secure, ambivalent, and avoidant, later expanded with the disorganized style by Main and Solomon. These styles, evident in childhood, influence adult relationship patterns. Understanding and addressing one’s attachment style can foster healthier relationships and personal growth.

Table of Contents

What is attachment?

Attachment in psychology is the emotional bond developed between an infant and the primary caretaker during the early years. Attachment is also the tendency of young children to seek comfort from the caregiver when frightened, worried, vulnerable, or distressed.

What is Attachment Theory?

Attachment Theory is a psychological theory and framework for understanding the importance of these early attachments in child development. The theory suggests that attachment is formed so that the child can remain close to the attachment figure. This proximity-seeking behavior is believed to arise through natural selection in evolution to maximize survival. 

According to this theory, early attachment experiences shape how children view themselves, others, and their relationships. If a child feels safe and supported, they use the attachment figure as a secure base to confidently explore the world. Whether a child forms a secure attachment will affect their development, perception of the world, and future relationships.

Who developed the Attachment Theory?

The Attachment Theory was proposed by British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby after studying the negative impact of maternal deprivation on young children. The first formal proposal of this theory was presented to the British Psychoanalytic Society in London in three papers: “The Nature of the Child’s Tie to His Mother” (1958), “Separation Anxiety” (1959), and “Grief and Mourning in Infancy and Early Childhood” (1960).

Mary Ainsworth conducted her landmark Baltimore Longitudinal Study in Ganda, Uganda, while working under Bowlby. She observed distinct patterns in mother-child interactions, leading her to categorize attachment into three types: secure, insecure, and not-yet attached. The insecure style was later divided into ambivalent and avoidant styles. Later,  researchers Main and Solomon added the disorganized attachment style as the fourth type in 1986, resulting in three insecure attachment styles.

Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver extrapolated the Attachment Theory in 1987, applying it to close relationships in adults and replacing the caregiver with the romantic partner as the attachment figure. Researchers noted that adult attachment models continue to guide and shape romantic relationship behavior throughout life. Hazan and Shaver proposed three adult attachment styles: secure, anxious-ambivalent, and avoidant.

A fourth attachment style was proposed by Kim Bartholomew in 1990 since there were two distinct forms of avoidant individuals. The resulting four-category attachment model is commonly used in research today.

What is the Bowlby-Ainsworth Attachment Theory?

The Bowlby-Ainworth Attachment Theory was named after John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth because they were the pioneers who jointly developed this theory. Many developmental psychologists and scientists continued to conduct studies on this topic and expanded the theory.

Why is the Attachment Theory important?

The Attachment Theory and related research contribute to understanding how parenting style affects a child’s personality development, future relationships, and outcomes in life.

Before the emergence of this theory, the prevailing psychoanalytic theory led by Freud held that a child developed a tie to their caregiver for feeding and dependency. The child’s feeding needs were the main factors shaping their attachment development. However, this behaviorism theory did not explain why a child would develop anxiety about becoming separated from their parents.

Bowlby’s attachment research proved that the parent-child bonds, not the feeding needs, were vital in forming secure attachments in children. Attachment styles are based on relationships, not on feeding alone. Bowlby’s findings demonstrated pervasive ill effects of institutional and hospital care on children, which behaviorism theorists could not explain.

What are attachment styles?

In children, attachment styles are the patterns of behavior infants develop to stay close to or draw attention from their caretakers. Different patterns of behavior develop based on the responsiveness of the caretakers.

In adults, attachment styles are the patterns of behavior they exhibit in close relationships when interacting with their romantic partners.

What are the categories of attachment styles?

There are two categories of attachment styles – secure and insecure.

A secure attachment forms when the primary caregiver is responsive to a child when they are in distress.

An insecure attachment forms when the primary caregiver is not responsive to a child when they are in need. The caregiver may ignore, reject, or cause fear in the child rather than provide them with comfort and security.

What are the types of attachment styles in children?

There are 4 types of attachment styles in children. Here is the list of attachment styles in children.

• Secure attachment
• Ambivalent attachment
• Avoidant attachment
• Disorganized attachment

Besides the secure attachment style, the remaining three attachment styles are insecure. 

In children, the sensitivity and responsiveness of the parent or primary caregiver cause children to form different attachment styles.

Secure attachment in children

A secure attachment is a healthy emotional bond in a child when their primary caretaker, usually a parent, is consistently sensitive and responsive to the child’s needs.

A securely attached child is comfortable relying on their parent to help regulate their emotions. They become visibly upset under distress, such as the parents leaving the room. When the caregivers return after a short departure, children are happy and easily comforted.

Secure children often develop strong self-esteem and healthy emotional regulation skills. They are comfortable expressing emotions and competent in social interactions. In a secure attachment, a child confidently explores the world, relying on their parent as a secure base.

Ambivalent attachment in children

An ambivalent attachment is an insecure attachment bond that develops in a child when their parent is inconsistent, preoccupied, or unresponsive to the child’s needs.

An ambivalently attached child shows anxiety and uncertainty in relying on their parent for emotional regulation. They exhibit intense distress when separated from their caregivers and may not be easily comforted upon their return, often showing clinginess or resistance.

Children with ambivalent attachment may struggle with low self-esteem and difficulties in emotional regulation. They are hesitant in expressing emotions and may face challenges in social interactions. These children display caution in exploring the world, exhibiting a lack of confidence in their parents as a secure base.

Avoidant attachment in children

An avoidant attachment is an insecure attachment bond that develops in a child when their parent is rejecting or punitive when the child is distressed. 

An avoidant child does not trust that they can count on their caretaker for help or comfort when needed. They appear indifferent to their parent’s presence, showing little distress when the parent leaves and avoiding contact upon their return. They learn to self-regulate their emotions, often suppressing their feelings of distress or need for comfort. 

Children with an avoidant attachment may develop a sense of independence that masks underlying emotional unavailability and difficulties in trusting others. They are reticent in expressing their emotions and may struggle with social relationships. These children often explore the world with an apparent self-reliance, maintaining a distance from their parents rather than using them as a secure base.

Disorganized attachment in children

A disorganized attachment is an insecure attachment that forms in a child when the parent is someone the child fears, often due to child abuse or maltreatment. When the caregiver is a source of both comfort and fear, the child experiences confusion and fear.

A disorganized child shows inconsistent and erratic behaviors towards their caregiver, showing a mixture of approach and avoidance without a coherent strategy for getting their needs met. They may display frozen postures, dazed expressions, or sudden movements under stress or upon the caregiver’s return. 

Children with disorganization struggle with emotional regulation, often displaying heightened fear or disorientation even in non-threatening situations. These children face significant challenges in developing self-esteem, trust in others, and healthy emotional expression. They are cautious and confused in social interactions. They may find it difficult to explore the world confidently, lacking a secure base in their caregivers to return to for comfort and safety.

What are the types of attachment styles in adults?

Adult attachment styles are associated with a person’s attachment history. Both early life attachment experiences and previous close relationships can influence attachment styles in adults.

There are 4 attachment styles in adults parallel to the child attachment styles.

• Secure attachment : Secure attachment in adults is a healthy emotional bond formed in an intimate relationship. A secure attachment style often results from consistent caregiving experienced in childhood or close relationships in adulthood. Securely attached individuals are comfortable with intimacy, able to seek and provide support when needed, and capable of managing their emotions effectively. They have a healthy sense of worthiness and trust that others will be supportive and reliable. Secure adults tend to form long-term interpersonal relationships that are healthy and adaptive.
• Anxious attachment : Anxious attachment in adults is an insecure emotional bond formed in intimate relationships. An anxious attachment style tends to be caused by inconsistent caregiving experienced in childhood or previous adult relationships. Anxiously attached adults crave closeness and intimacy yet fear abandonment and rejection. are highly sensitive to their partners’ responses and may seek excessive reassurance and support, finding it difficult to manage their emotions independently. They harbor a deep-seated fear that they are not worthy of love and have a pervasive worry that others will not be available or responsive to their needs. Adults with anxious attachment tend to experience intense and volatile interpersonal relationships characterized by a constant search for security and acceptance.
• Avoidant attachment : Avoidant attachment in adults is a form of insecure emotional bonding in intimate relationships. This attachment style usually arises from a history of caregivers who were rejecting, causing them to value independence and self-sufficiency over intimacy. Avoidantly attached individuals often maintain a distance from their partners, resisting closeness and emotional vulnerability due to a deep-seated fear of dependency and a belief that showing needs will lead to rejection. They manage their emotions through withdrawal and self-reliance, doubting the availability and supportiveness of others. Adults with avoidant attachment tend to engage in short-term relationships or exhibit a pattern of emotional detachment in longer relationships, struggling to form deep, meaningful connections.
• Fearful attachment : Fearful attachment in adults is a complex form of insecure emotional bonding characterized by a push-pull dynamic in intimate relationships. This style originates from a background of inconsistent or traumatic caregiving. Adults with fearful attachments deeply crave emotional closeness yet are intensely afraid of being hurt or abandoned. These individuals oscillate between desiring intimacy and fearing the vulnerability that comes with it, leading to behaviors that both seek and resist closeness. They are plagued by mistrust and anxiety about their worthiness of love, coupled with a strong fear that others will not be genuinely supportive or will ultimately cause them harm. Fearful people often experience tumultuous relationships, marked by high emotional turmoil and difficulty maintaining stable, trusting connections. This attachment style reflects a profound conflict between the need for attachment and the fear of intimacy.

How are attachment styles formed?

Attachment styles form through the complex interplay between the caregiver and the child. Here are the factors influencing the type of attachment styles formed.

• Responsiveness : A parent who practices responsive parenting and is sensitive to their child’s needs lays the foundation for secure attachment.
• Consistency : A predictable parent who responds to the child reliably creates confidence in the child.
• Emotional availability : An emotionally available parent attuned to the child’s distress signals helps the child develop emotional regulation.
• Temperament : A child’s innate temperament influences their reactions to experiences.
• Reciprocal influence : A flexible parent can adapt to the child’s unique needs, regardless of the child’s easy or challenging temperament.
• Trauma : Severe disruptions, such as abuse, or neglect can affect a child’s ability to trust and form healthy bonds.
• Stressors : Financial hardship, marital discord, or serious illness can disrupt the parent’s availability and responsiveness.
• Parent’s attachment history : A parent with insecure attachment may be preoccupied with their own attachment issues and not available to meet their child’s needs.
• Culture : How a culture values emotional expression or parenting practice can shape a parent’s responsiveness.

How are attachment styles assessed?

In children, the attachment styles are assessed in the Strange Situation. 

In adults, many methods have been created over the years to assess attachment styles. The two more well-known methods are the Adult Attachment Interview and the four-category model of adult attachment.

What is a Strange Situation?

The Strange Situation was initially developed by Mary Ainsworth in 1969 to observe children’s interactions and exploratory behaviors under low and high-stress conditions. 

The experiment consists of structured observation, lasting about 20 minutes and involving eight segments. It begins with a mother and her infant entering a specially designed-laboratory playroom. After they settle in, an unfamiliar woman joins them. The scenario unfolds with the mother leaving the room briefly, allowing the stranger to interact with the infant. The mother returns, followed by another separation where the infant is left alone. The experiment concludes with the stranger and then the mother re-entering the room.

Ainsworth discovered unexpected patterns of infant reunion behaviors, which led to the development of a classification system for analyzing attachment styles in children. This observational procedure became the most prevalent method to identify attachment styles in children between 10 and 30 months.

What is an adult attachment interview (AAI)?

The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), developed by George, Kapan, and Main in 1984, evaluates how individuals reflect on and discuss their childhood experiences. The interview, conducted by interviewers with in-depth training, focuses on the coherence of the individual’s narrative.

What is the four-category model of adult attachment?

The four-category model of adult attachment was created by Bartholomew using a mix of history interviews and self-reporting. The attachment is determined by a two-dimensional model representing the model of self and the model of others.

Early life interactions with caregivers form an internal working model that shapes a person’s view of themselves and others.

The model of self is the degree to which an individual has internalized the concept of self-worth and the likelihood of feeling anxious in romantic relationships. The self-model is associated with the degree of attachment anxiety and dependency experienced in close relationships. 

The model of others measures how often people expect others to be available and supportive and whether these people favor or avoid close relationships. The other model is linked to the degree of avoidance of others.

What is an internal working model?

An internal working model (IWM) is a representation formed based on interactions with primary caregivers. This model shapes a child’s world views and sets the expectations of interacting with others. These unconscious beliefs and expectations influence how people perceive and respond to others and situations.

A person’s internal working model guides whether they approach relationships with openness or suspicion. The model also affects a person’s security. An insecure IWM is linked to an increased risk of mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression.

What are attachment issues?

Attachment issues refer to difficulties forming and maintaining healthy emotional bonds with others, often rooted in early childhood experiences interacting with the parent or primary caregiver. This term is not a formal medical diagnosis.

Although the term “attachment issues” is often used in the context of adult attachments, children can also have attachment issues. In children, attachment issues are typically described by the type of insecure attachment.

Can attachment styles change?

Yes, a person’s attachment style can change due to neuroplasticity, which means our brains are constantly adapting. With new life experiences, our brains can change and form new neural pathways. Therefore, the attachment patterns laid down in childhood aren’t set in stone.

How to have a secure attachment style in adulthood?

New life experiences in adulthood can help you develop an earned secure attachment with a surrogate attachment figure.

• Commit to making changes : A 2019 study published in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy showed that those who succeeded in earning a secure attachment were intentional about changes. Deliberate efforts, initiative, and diligence can lead to growth and success.
• Develop secure relationships : Healthy relationships with partners, friends, or therapists who are sensitive and responsive to your emotional experiences can gradually provide a “corrective” experience. These people act as surrogate attachment figures, helping you build trust and reshape your internal working model.
• Overcome setbacks : The 2019 study highlights that overcoming insecurity involves patience and a readiness to navigate difficulties and setbacks in new relationships.
• Avoid and leave unhealthy relationships : Recognize patterns that don’t serve your well-being, assert boundaries, and decide to step away from relationships that perpetuate insecurity. Seek help to leave an abusive relationship if needed.
• Have self-compassion : A 2016 study by Grove City College revealed that having self-acceptance with an attitude of kindness toward the self was correlated with earning a security attachment in adulthood.
• Practice mindfulness : Use mindfulness, such as meditation or yoga, to enhance self-awareness to consciously respond to situations rather than reacting out of emotions.
• Be patient : Know that changing your attachment style is not a switch but a gradual process. Don’t give up, and keep working to achieve your goal.

What is Attachment Parenting?

Attachment Parenting (AP) is a term William Sears popularized in a 1993 book titled The Baby Book. The concept of parenting to foster a secure attachment dates back to 1960-1980s when Bowlby and Ainsworth developed the Attachment Theory.

At the heart of AP, parents learn to read the baby’s cues and respond appropriately to those cues. It is a child-centered approach to parenting. Parent’s responsiveness has been proven to be associated with secure attachment development. The AP method is, therefore, believed to result in attachment security.

However, research supporting the benefits of responsive parenting often lacks clarity on what constitutes responsiveness. The impact of AP-recommended practices like co-sleeping and breastfeeding on fostering secure attachment hasn’t been thoroughly studied.

How does a parent’s attachment style affect their parenting?

Secure attachment in parents is associated with authoritative parenting, while fearful attachment is linked to permissive parenting, according to a 2015 study by Bucharest University.

Another study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin in 2013 found an association between anxious and avoidant attachments with authoritarian and permissive parenting styles.

How can a parent overcome an insecure attachment with their infant?

To overcome an insecure attachment with their infant, a parent can change their parenting style and how they interact with their infant. Responding consistently to the child with attunement and empathy and attending to their needs can help them develop a secure attachment.

If the parent also has an insecure attachment style, they can work on understanding their childhood , change their parenting styles, and become more responsive to their child.

References For Attachment Theory

• 1. Fearon RMP, Roisman GI. Attachment theory: progress and future directions. Current Opinion in Psychology . Published online June 2017:131-136. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.03.002
• 2. Main M, Solomon J. Discovery of an insecure-disorganized/disoriented attachment pattern. In: Affective Development in Infancy . Ablex Publishing; 1986:95–124.
• 3. Bartholomew K. Avoidance of Intimacy: An Attachment Perspective. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships . Published online May 1990:147-178. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407590072001
• 4. Bretherton lnge. The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. A century of developmental psychology . Published online 1994:431-471. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/10155-029
• 5. Bowlby J. Attachment and loss: Retrospect and prospect. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry . Published online October 1982:664-678. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1982.tb01456.x
• 6. Feeney JA, Noller P. Attachment style as a predictor of adult romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology . Published online February 1990:281-291. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.58.2.281
• 7. Feeney JA, Noller P, Hanrahan M. Assessing adult attachment. In: Attachment in Adults: Clinical and Developmental Perspectives . Guilford Press; 1994:128–152.
• 8. van IJzendoorn MH. Adult attachment representations, parental responsiveness, and infant attachment: A meta-analysis on the predictive validity of the Adult Attachment Interview. Psychological Bulletin . Published online May 1995:387-403. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.387
• 9. Griffin DW, Bartholomew K. Models of the self and other: Fundamental dimensions underlying measures of adult attachment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology . Published online September 1994:430-445. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.3.430
• 10. Dansby Olufowote RA, Fife ST, Schleiden C, Whiting JB. How Can I Become More Secure?: A Grounded Theory of Earning Secure Attachment. J Marital Family Therapy . Published online October 2019:489-506. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jmft.12409
• 11. Homan KJ. Secure attachment and eudaimonic well-being in late adulthood: The mediating role of self-compassion. Aging & Mental Health . Published online November 16, 2016:363-370. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2016.1254597
• 12. Doinita NE, Maria ND. Attachment and Parenting Styles. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences . Published online August 2015:199-204. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.08.282
• 13. Millings A, Walsh J, Hepper E, O’Brien M. Good Partner, Good Parent. Pers Soc Psychol Bull . Published online December 6, 2012:170-180. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167212468333

Disclaimer: The content of this article is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider for medical concerns.

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John Bowlby

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• Spartacus Educational - Biography of John Bowlby

John Bowlby (born February 26, 1907, London , England—died September 2, 1990, Isle of Skye , Scotland) was a British developmental psychologist and psychiatrist best known as the originator of attachment theory , which posits an innate need in very young children to develop a close emotional bond with a caregiver. Bowlby explored the behavioral and psychological consequences of both strong and weak emotional bonds between mothers and their young children.

Bowlby grew up in an upper-middle-class family in London. His father, a leading surgeon, was often absent. He was cared for primarily by a nanny and nursemaids and did not spend much time with his mother, as was the custom at that time among his class.

In 1918, he and his brother were sent to Lindisfarne, a boarding school . In 1921 he entered the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, where he trained to be a naval officer. He eventually decided to study medicine at Trinity College , Cambridge, where he enrolled in 1925. After two years he changed his focus to psychology , and he graduated in 1928.

After graduating, Bowlby then spent a year as a volunteer teacher at two schools for children with behavioral difficulties, Bedales and Priory Gate. About 1929, Bowlby entered University College Hospital, London, and while in attendance there, he enrolled in the British Psychoanalytic Institute. He started training in adult psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital in London after his 1933 medical qualification. From 1937 to 1940, Bowlby worked as a psychiatrist at the London Child Guidance Clinic, a school for maladjusted children. The school viewed the children’s problems as stemming from past adverse experiences in their families, an approach that struck a chord with Bowlby. In 1946, he joined the staff of the Tavistock Institute in London, where he established a research unit to examine the effects on young children of separation from their primary caregivers. It was at Tavistock that he developed attachment theory, one tenet of which is that very young children who fail to develop close emotional bonds with a caregiver will experience behavioral problems in later life.

One of Bowlby’s coworkers at the clinic was Mary Salter Ainsworth , a Canadian American developmental psychologist who explored and expanded attachment theory through her research. She developed a widely used research instrument (called the Strange Situation) for studying children’s attachment to their mothers under laboratory conditions.

A high point of Bowlby’s career and one that spread his ideas worldwide was his 1951 report, at the invitation of the World Health Organization (WHO), on the mental health of homeless children. Translated into 14 languages, his report highlighted the importance of constant loving care by a mother figure for a young child’s healthy development. Bowlby laid out his more fully developed theory in his well-known three-volume work Attachment and Loss (1969–80).

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Bowlby Attachment Theory

The emotional bond.

When a person is emotionally bonded with another person, attachment starts. However, the things that occur with the presence of an attachment are really difficult to understand, and this is the reason why attachment theorists emerged.

This article is a part of the guide:

• Ecological Systems Theory
• Nature or Nurture?
• Moral Development
• Self-Concept Theory
• Erikson’s Psychosocial Model

Browse Full Outline

• 1 Social and Emotional Development in Children
• 2 Nature or Nurture?
• 3.1 Childhood Temperament
• 4 Zone Of Proximal Development
• 5 Cognitive Development
• 6 Moral Development
• 7 Ecological Systems Theory
• 8 Erikson’s Psychosocial Model
• 9 Self-Concept Theory

Perhaps the most prominent of this group of theorists, John Bowlby was the first psychologist who started an extensive study on attachment. According to Bowlby's Attachment Theory, attachment is a psychological connectedness that occurs between humans and lasts for a long period of time. To Bowlby, attachment is what keeps a baby connected to his mother, considering the needs of the child that can only be satisfied by his parent.

Characteristics of Attachment

There are four basic characteristics that basically give us a clear view of what attachment really is. They include a safe heaven, a secure base, proximity maintenance and separation distress. These four attributes are very evident in the relationship between a child and his caregiver.

1. Safe Haven

Ideally, the child can rely on his caregiver for comfort at times whenever he feels threatened, frightened or in danger. For example, if a child is given a toy that he doesn't like, he'd cry and his mother would remove the toy and hug the child so he would stop crying.

2. Secure Base

Here, the caregiver gives a good and reliable foundation to the child as he goes on learning and sorting out things by himself. For example, a child would ask questions to his mother about why his dad got sick and can't play with him at the moment.

3. Proximity Maintenance

This means that the child aims to explore the world but still tries to stay close to his care giver. For example, a teenager discusses peer problems with his mother.

4. Separation Distress

This means that the child becomes unhappy and sorrowful when he becomes separated from his caregiver. For example, an infant cries loudly when his mother leaves for work.

Attachment Styles

Aside from Bowlby, other theorists contributed to the study of attachment. Ainsworth, Main and Solomon are the main researchers who theorized the different styles of attachment that can be observed in the relationship of a person to another. These attachment styles include: secure, ambivalent-secure, avoidant-insecure and disorganized insecure attachments.

1. Secure Attachment

When children are securely attached to their caregivers (parents), they feel happy whenever their caregivers are around, but are upset when they get separated from them. While the child is in distress when his parent is away, still, he feels secured with the feeling that his caregiver will return sometime soon.

2. Ambivalent Attachment

A child who is ambivalently attached becomes very upset and sorrowful whenever he gets separated from his parent. The child does not feel that he can rely on his caregiver whenever he is in need of something.

3. Avoidant Attachment

Simply put, a child who has an avoidant attachment tends to keep away from his parents. Studies revealed that this may be a cause of parents who are fond of neglecting or abusing their children.

4. Disorganized Attachment

This is when there is no clear (or mixed) attachment between the child and his caregiver. When the parent acts as an apprehensive caregiver and a reassuring one at different times, the child may get confused and cause this kind of attachment.

Why is studying Bowlby's Attachment Theory important? Many studies have found out that determining the attachment style in social relationships have a lasting effect on the future behavior of people.

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Sarah Mae Sincero (May 17, 2012). Bowlby Attachment Theory. Retrieved Sep 05, 2024 from Explorable.com: https://explorable.com/bowlby-attachment-theory

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1950s: Harlow, Bowlby, and Ainsworth

Lumen Learning and Diana Lang

Harlow and Bowlby: Attachment

Psychosocial development occurs as children form relationships, interact with others, and understand and manage their feelings.  In social and emotional development, forming healthy attachments is very important and is the major social milestone of infancy. [1] Attachment is a long-standing connection or bond with others. Developmental psychologists are interested in how infants reach this milestone.  They ask questions such questions as: How do parent and infant attachment bonds form? How does neglect affect these bonds? What accounts for children’s attachment differences?

Researchers Harry Harlow, John Bowlby, and Mary Ainsworth conducted studies designed to answer these questions.  In the 1950s, Harlow conducted a series of experiments on monkeys.  He separated newborn monkeys from their mothers.  Each monkey was presented with two surrogate mothers.  One surrogate monkey was made out of wire mesh, and she could dispense milk.  The other monkey was softer and made from cloth, but did not dispense milk.  The findings showed that the monkeys preferred the soft, cuddly cloth monkey, even though she did not provide any nourishment.  The baby monkeys spent their time clinging to the cloth monkey and only went to the wire monkey when they needed to be fed.  Prior to this study, the medical and scientific communities generally thought that babies become attached to the people who provide their nourishment.  However, Harlow concluded that there was more to the mother-child bond than nourishment. [2]   Feelings of comfort and security are the critical components of maternal-infant bonding, which leads to healthy psychosocial development.

Video Example

Harlow’s studies of monkeys were performed before modern ethics guidelines were in place, and today his experiments are widely considered to be unethical and even cruel. Watch this video to see footage of Harlow’s monkey studies .

Building on the work of Harlow and others, John Bowlby developed the concept of attachment theory.  He defined attachment as the affectional bond or tie that infants form with their mother. [3]   An infant must form this bond with a primary caregiver in order to have normal social and emotional development.  In addition, Bowlby proposed that this attachment bond is very powerful and continues throughout life.  He used the concept of a secure base to define a healthy attachment between parent and child. [4]   A secure base is a parental presence that gives the child a sense of safety as he explores his surroundings.  Bowlby said that two things are needed for a healthy attachment: the caregiver must be responsive to the child’s physical, social, and emotional needs, and the caregiver and child must engage in mutually enjoyable interactions (See Figure 1.). [5]

Mary Ainsworth

While Bowlby believed that attachment was an all-or-nothing process, Mary Ainsworth’s research showed otherwise. [6]   Mary identified the existence of what she calls “attachment behaviors,” which are examples of behaviors demonstrated by insecure children in hopes of establishing or re-establishing an attachment to a presently absent caregiver.  ‘Since this behavior occurs uniformly in children, it is a compelling argument for the existence of “innate” or instinctual behaviors in human beings’. [7]

Ainsworth wanted to know if children differ in the ways they bond, and if so, why.  To find the answers to these questions, she used the Strange Situation procedure to study attachment between mothers and their infants in 1970.  In the Strange Situation, the mother (or primary caregiver) and the infant (age 12-18 months) are placed in a room together.  There are toys in the room, and the caregiver and child spend some time alone in the room.  After the child has had time to explore one’s surroundings, a stranger enters the room.  The primary caregiver then leaves the baby with the stranger.  After a few minutes, the caregiver returns to comfort the child.

Based on how the infants/toddlers responded to the separation and reunion, Ainsworth identified three types of parent-child attachments: secure, avoidant, and resistant. [8]   A fourth style, known as disorganized attachment, was later described. [9]   The most common type of attachment—also considered the healthiest—is called secure attachment (See Figure 2.).  In this type of attachment, the toddler prefers their parent over a stranger.  The attachment figure is used by the child as a secure base to explore their environment and is sought out in times of stress.  Securely attached children were distressed when their caregivers left the room in the Strange Situation experiment, but when their caregivers returned, the securely attached children were happy to see them.  Securely attached children have caregivers who are sensitive and responsive to their needs.

With avoidant attachment (sometimes called insecure or anxious-avoidant), the child is unresponsive to the parent, does not use the parent as a secure base, and does not care if the parent leaves.  The toddler reacts to the parent the same way she reacts to a stranger.  When the parent does return, the child is slow to show a positive reaction.  Ainsworth theorized that these children were most likely to have a caregiver who was insensitive and inattentive to their needs. [10]

In cases of resistant attachment (also called ambivalent or anxious-ambivalent/resistant), children tend to show clingy behavior, but then reject the attachment figure’s attempts to interact with them. [11]   These children do not explore the toys in the room, as they are too fearful.  During separation in the Strange Situation, they became extremely disturbed and angry with the parent.  When the parent returns, the children are upset and difficult to comfort.  Resistant attachment is the result of the caregivers’ inconsistent level of response to their child.

Finally, children with disorganized attachment behave oddly in the Strange Situation.  They freeze, run around the room in an erratic manner, or try to run away when the caregiver returns. [12]   This type of attachment is seen most often in children who have been abused. Research has shown that abuse disrupts a child’s ability to regulate their emotions.

Watch this video to view a clip of the Strange Situation . Try to identify which type of attachment baby Lisa exhibits.

While Ainsworth’s research has found support in subsequent studies, it has also met criticism.  Some researchers have pointed out that a child’s temperament may have a strong influence on attachment, and others have noted that attachment varies from culture to culture, a factor not accounted for in Ainsworth’s research. [13] [14] [15]

Key Takeaways

• Harlow: Contact comfort research concerning wire and cloth monkeys.
• Bowlby: Human attachment theory derived from Harlow’s research.
• Attachment: The connection formed between two individuals over time.
• Secure base: A primary caregiver a child views as “home base” who provides the child with security to actively explore one’s environment.
• Ainsworth: Strange Situation research which led to identifying types of attachment: secure, avoidant, disorganized, and resistant attachment.
• This chapter is an adaptation of Childhood   by Lumen Learning, used under a CC BY 4.0 license . ↵
• Harlow, H. F. (1958). The nature of love. American Psychologist, 13 (1), 673-685. ↵
• Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss, vol. 1: Attachment . Basic Books. ↵
• Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development . Basic Books. ↵
• 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,41 (1), 49-67. ↵
• Psychologist World. (2019). Attachment theory . https://www.psychologistworld.com/developmental/attachment-theory ↵
• 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, 41(1), 49-67. ↵
• Main, M., & Solomon, J. (1990). Procedures for identifying infants as disorganized/disoriented during the Ainsworth Strange Situation. In M. T. Greenberg, D. Cicchetti, & E. M. Cummings (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years: Theory, research, and intervention (pp. 121-160). University of Chicago Press. ↵
• Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the Strange Situation . Erlbaum. ↵
• 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, 41 (1), 49-67. ↵
• Gervai, J. (2009). Environmental and genetic influences on early attachment. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 3 (1), 25. https://doi.org/10.1186/1753-2000-3-25 ↵
• Harris, J. R. (2009). Attachment theory underestimates the child. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32 (1), 30. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X09000119 ↵
• Van Ijzendoorn, M. H., & Sagi-Schwartz, A. (2008). Cross-cultural patterns of attachment: Universal and contextual dimensions. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research and clinical applications (pp. 880–905). Guilford Press. ↵

An emotional, long-standing connection or bond with others.

A parental or primary caregiver presence that gives infants/toddlers a sense of safety as they explore their surroundings.

An attachment style characterized by a child using a parent or primary caregiver as a secure base from which to explore.

Characterized by an unresponsive child who treats the parent as a stranger.

An attachment style characterized by the child’s tendency to show clingy behavior and rejection of the parent when the parent and child are interacting.

An attachment style characterized by the child’s ambivalent behavior when faced with the parent; a type of attachment seen most often with children who have been abused.

Parenting and Family Diversity Issues Copyright © 2020 by Lumen Learning and Diana Lang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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These 1950s experiments showed us the trauma of parent-child separation. Now experts say they’re too unethical to repeat—even on monkeys.

By Eleanor Cummins

Posted on Jun 22, 2018 7:00 PM EDT

10 minute read

John Gluck’s excitement about studying parent-child separation quickly soured. He’d been thrilled to arrive at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in the late 1960s, his spot in the lab of renowned behavioral psychologist Harry Harlow secure. Harlow had cemented his legacy more than a decade earlier when his experiments showed the devastating effects of broken parent-child bonds in rhesus monkeys. As a graduate student researcher, Gluck would use Harlow’s monkey colony to study the impact of such disruption on intellectual ability.

Gluck found academic success, and stayed in touch with Harlow long after graduation. His mentor even sent Gluck monkeys to use in his own laboratory. But in the three years Gluck spent with Harlow—and the subsequent three decades he spent as a leading animal researcher in his own right—his concern for the well-being of his former test subjects overshadowed his enthusiasm for animal research.

Separating parent and child, he’d decided, produced effects too cruel to inflict on monkeys.

Since the 1990s, Gluck’s focus has been on bioethics; he’s written research papers and even a book about the ramifications of conducting research on primates. Along the way, he has argued that continued lab experiments testing the effects of separation on monkeys are unethical. Many of his peers, from biology to psychology, agree. And while the rationale for discontinuing such testing has many factors, one reason stands out. The fundamental questions we had about parent-child separation, Gluck says, were answered long ago.

The first insights into attachment theory began with studious observations on the part of clinicians.

Starting in the 1910s and peaking in the 1930s, doctors and psychologists actively advised parents against hugging , kissing, or cuddling children on the assumption such fawning attention would condition children to behave in a manner that was weak, codependent, and unbecoming. This theory of “behaviorism” was derived from research like Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning research on dogs and the work of Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner , who believed free will to be an illusion. Applied in the context of the family unit, this research seemed to suggest that forceful detachment on the part of ma and pa were essential ingredients in creating a strong, independent future adult. Parents were simply there to provide structure and essentials like food.

But after the end of World War II, doctors began to push back. In 1946, Dr. Benjamin Spock (no relation to Dr. Spock of Star Trek ) authored Baby and Child Care, the international bestseller, which sold 50 million copies in Spock’s lifetime. The book, which was based on his professional observation of parent-child relationships, advised against the behaviorist theories of the day. Instead, Spock implored parents to see their children as individuals in need of customized care—and plenty of physical affection.

At the same time, the British psychiatrist John Bowlby was commissioned to write the World Health Organization’s Maternal Care and Mental Health report. Bowlby had gained renowned before the war for his systematic study of the effects of institutionalization on children, from long-term hospital stays to childhoods confined to orphanages.

Published in 1951, Bowlby’s lengthy two-part document focused on the mental health of homeless children. In it, he brought together anecdotal reports and descriptive statistics to paint a portrait of the disastrous effects of the separation of children from their caretakers and the consequences of “deprivation” on both the body and mind. “Partial deprivation brings in its train acute anxiety, excessive need for love, powerful feelings of revenge, and, arising from these last, guilt and depression,” Bowlby wrote. Like Spock, this research countered behaviorist theories that structure and sustenance were all a child needed. Orphans were certainly fed, but in most cases they lacked love. The consequences, Bowlby argued, were dire—and long-lasting.

The evidence of the near-sanctity of parent-child attachment was growing thanks to the careful observation of experts like Spock and Bowlby. Still, many experts felt one crucial piece of evidence was missing: experimental data. Since the Enlightenment, scientists have worked to refine their methodology in the hopes of producing the most robust observations about the natural world. In the late 1800s, randomized, controlled trials were developed and in the 20th century came to be seen as the “gold standard” for research —a conviction that more or less continues to this day.

While Bowlby had clinically-derived data, he knew to advance his ideas in the wider world he would need data from a lab . But by 1947, the scientific establishment required informed consent for research participants (though notable cases like the Tuskegee syphilis study violated such rules into at least the 1970s). As a result, no one would condone forcibly separating parents and children for research purposes. Fortunately, Bowlby’s transatlantic correspondent, Harry Harlow, had another idea.

Over the course of his career, Harlow conducted countless studies of primate behavior and published more than 300 research papers and books. Unsurprisingly, in a 2002 ranking the impact of 20th century psychologists , the American Psychological Association named him the 26th most cited researcher of the era, below B.F. Skinner (1), but above Noam Chomsky (38). But the (ethically-fraught) experiments that cemented his status in Psychology 101 textbooks for good began in earnest only in the 1950s.

Around the time Bowlby published WHO report, Harlow began to push the psychological limits of monkeys in myriad ways—all in the name of science. He surgically altered their brains or beamed radiation through their skulls to cause lesions, and then watched the neurological effect, according to a 1997 paper by Gluck that spans history, biography, and ethics. He forced some animals to live in a “deep, wedge-shaped, stainless steel chambers… graphically called the ‘pit of despair'” in order to study the effect of such solitary confinement on the mind, Gluck wrote. But Harlow’s most well-known study, begun in the 1950s and carefully documented in pictures and videos made available to the public, centered around milk.

To test the truth of the behaviorist’s claims that things like food mattered more than affection, Harlow set up an experiment that allowed baby monkeys, forcibly separated from their mothers at birth, to choose between two fake surrogates. One known as the “iron maiden” was made only of wire, but had bottles full of milk protruding from its metal chest. The other was covered in a soft cloth, but entirely devoid of food. If behaviorists were right, babies should choose the surrogate who offered them food over the surrogate who offered them nothing but comfort.

As Spock or Bowlby may have predicted, this was far from the case.

“Results demonstrated that the monkeys overwhelmingly preferred to maintain physical contact with the soft mothers,” Gluck wrote. “It also was shown that the monkeys seemed to derive a form of emotional security by the very presence of the soft surrogate that lasted for years, and they ‘screamed their distress’ in ‘abject terror’ when the surrogate mothers were removed from them.” They visited the iron maiden when they were too hungry to avoid her metallic frame any longer.

As anyone in behavioral psychology will tell you, Harlow’s monkey studies are still considered foundational for the field of parent-child research to this day. But his work is not without controversy. In fact, it never has been. Even when Harlow was conducting his research, some of his peers criticized the experiments , which they considered to be cruel to the animal and degrading to the scientists who executed them. The chorus of dissenting voices is not new; it’s merely grown.

Animal research today is more carefully regulated by individual institutions, professional organizations like the American Psychological Association and legislation like the Federal Animal Welfare Act. Many activists and scholars argue research on primates should end entirely and that experiments like Harlow’s should never be repeated. “Academics should be on the front lines of condemning such work as well, for they represent a betrayal of the basic notions of dignity and decency we should all be upholding in our research, especially in the case of vulnerable populations in our samples—such as helpless animals or young children,” psychologist Azadeh Aalai wrote in Psychology Today .

Animal studies have not disappeared. Research on attachment in monkeys continues at the University of Wisconsin at Madison . But animal studies have declined. New methods—or, depending on how you look at it, old methods—have filled the void. Natural experiments and epidemiological studies, similar to the kind Bowlby employed, have added new insight into the importance of “tender age” attachment .

Romanian orphanages established after the fall of the Soviet Union have served as such a study site. The facilities, which have been described as “slaughterhouses of the soul” , have historically had great disparities between the number of children and the number of caregivers (25 or more kids to one adult), meaning few if any children received the physical or emotional care they needed. Many of the children who were raised in these environments have exhibited mental health and behavioral disorders as a result. It’s even had a physical effect, with neurological research showing a dramatic reduction in the literal size of their brains and low levels of brain activity as measured by electroencephalography, or EEG, machines.

Similarly, epidemiological research has tracked the trajectories of children in the foster care system in the United States and parts of Europe to see how they differ, on average, from youths in a more traditional home environment. They’ve shown that the risk of mental disorders , suicidal ideation and attempts , and obesity are elevated among these children. Many of these health outcomes appear to be even worse among children in an institutional setting , like a Romanian orphanage, than children placed in foster care, which typically offers kids more individualized attention.

Scientists rarely say no to more data. After all, the more observations and perspectives we have, the better we understand a given topic. But alternatives to animal models are under development and epidemiological methodologies are only growing stronger. As a result, we may be able to set some kinds of data—that data collected at the expense of humans or animal —aside.

When it comes to lab experiments on parent-child attachment, we may know everything we need to know—and have for more than 60 years. Gluck believes that testing attachment theory at the expense of primates should have ended with Harry Harlow. And he continues to hope people will come to see the irony inherent in harming animals to prove, scientifically, that human children deserve compassion.

“Whether it is called mother-infant separation, social deprivation, or the more pleasant sounding ‘nursery rearing,'” Gluck wrote in a New York Times op-ed in 2016, “these manipulations cause such drastic damage across many behavioral and physiological systems that the work should not be repeated.”

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Harlow’s Monkey Experiments: 3 Findings About Attachment

When that need is met, the infant develops a secure attachment style; however, when that need is not met, the infant can develop an attachment disorder.

In this post, we’ll briefly explore attachment theory by looking at Harlow’s monkey experiments and how those findings relate to human behavior and attachment styles. We’ll also look at some of the broader research that resulted from Harlow’s experiments.

Before we begin, I have to warn you that Harlow’s experiments are distressing and can be upsetting. Nowadays, his experiments are considered unethical and would most likely not satisfy the requirements of an ethical board. However, knowing this, the findings of his research do provide insight into the important mammalian bond that exists between infant and parent.

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This Article Contains:

Harlow’s experiments: a brief summary, three fascinating findings & their implications, its connection to love and attachment theory, follow-up and related experiments, criticisms of harlow’s experiments, ethical considerations of harlow’s experiments, relevant positivepsychology.com resources, a take-home message.

Harry Harlow was trained as a psychologist, and in 1930 he was employed at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His areas of expertise were in infant–caregiver relationships, infant dependency and infant needs, and social deprivation and isolation. He is also well known for his research using rhesus monkeys.

Maternal surrogates: Food versus comfort

For his experiments, Harlow (1958) separated infant rhesus monkeys from their mothers. He then constructed two surrogate ‘mothers’ for the infants: one surrogate made out of metal but that provided milk through an artificial nipple, the other surrogate covered in soft, fluffy material but that didn’t offer food.

The first surrogate delivered food but provided no comfort; the second did not deliver food, but the rhesus infants were able to cuddle with it.

When both surrogates were placed in the infants’ cages, Harlow found the surrogates satisfied different needs of the rhesus infants. The wire surrogate satisfied the infants’ primary need for food. However, when Harlow made a loud noise to frighten the rhesus infants, they ran to the second, fluffy surrogate for comfort.

Maternal surrogates: A secure base from which to explore

In subsequent experiments, Harlow (1958) showed that the fluffy surrogate acted as a secure base from which rhesus infants could explore an unfamiliar environment or objects. In these experiments, the infants, along with their fluffy surrogates, were placed in an unfamiliar environment like a new cage.

These infants would explore the environment and return to the surrogate for comfort if startled. In contrast, when the infants were placed in the new environment without a surrogate, they would not explore but rather lie on the floor, paralyzed, rocking back and forth, sucking their thumbs.

The absence of a maternal surrogate

Harlow also studied the development of rhesus monkeys that were not exposed to a fluffy surrogate or had no surrogate at all. The outcome for these infants was extremely negative. Rhesus infants raised with a milk-supplying metal surrogate had softer feces than infants raised with a milk-supplying fluffy surrogate.

Harlow posited that the infants with the metal surrogates suffered from psychological disturbances, which manifested in digestive problems.

Rhesus infants raised with no surrogates showed the same fearful behavior when placed in an unfamiliar environment as described above, except that their behavior persisted even when a surrogate was placed in the environment with them. They also demonstrated less exploratory behavior and less curiosity than infants raised with surrogates from a younger age.

When these infants were approximately a year old, they were introduced to a surrogate. In response, they behaved fearfully and violently. They would rock continuously, scream, and attempt to escape their cages. Fortunately, these behaviors dissipated after a few days. The infants approached, explored, and clung to the surrogate, but never to the same extent as infants raised with a fluffy surrogate from a younger age.

Primary drives are ones that ensure a creature’s survival, such as the need for food or water. Harlow suggests that there is another drive, ‘contact comfort,’ which the fluffy surrogate satisfied.

The ‘contact comfort’ drive does more than just satisfy a need for love and comfort. From Harlow’s experiments, it seems that these fluffy surrogates offered a secure, comforting base from which infants felt confident enough to explore unfamiliar environments and objects, and to cope with scary sounds.

Conclusions from Harlow’s work were limited to the role of maternal surrogates because the surrogates also provided milk – a function that only female mammals can perform. Consequently, it was posited that human infants have a strong need to form an attachment to a maternal caregiver (Bowlby, 1951). However, subsequent research has shown that human infants do not only form an attachment with:

• a female caregiver,
• a caregiver that produces milk, or
• one caregiver (Schaffer & Emerson, 1964).

The bond between human infant and caregiver is not limited to only mothers, but can extend to anyone who spends time with the infant. Schaffer and Emerson (1964) studied the emotional responses of 60 infants to better understand their attachments and behaviors.

They found that at the start of the study, most of the infants had formed an attachment with a single person, normally the mother (71%), and that just over a third of the infants had formed attachments to multiple people, sometimes over five.

However, when the infants were 18 months, only 13% had an attachment to a single person, and most of the infants had two or more attachments. The other people with whom infants formed an attachment included:

• Grandparents
• Siblings and family members
• People who were not part of their family, including neighbors or other children

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Harlow’s experiment on rhesus monkeys shed light on the importance of the relationship between caregiver and infant. This relationship satisfies other needs besides food and thirst, and the behavior of rhesus infants differs depending on whether they were raised (1) with or without a surrogate and (2) whether that surrogate was a fluffy (i.e., comforting) or metal (i.e., non-comforting) one.

Widespread thinking at the time was that children only needed their physical needs to be satisfied in order to grow up into healthy, well-adjusted adults (Bowlby, 1951, 1958). Harlow’s work, however, suggests that the caregiver satisfies another need of the infant: the need for love.

It is difficult to know whether the infant monkeys truly loved the surrogate mothers because Harlow could not ask them directly or measure the feeling of love using equipment.

But there is no doubt that the presence (or absence) of a surrogate mother deeply affected the behavior of the infant monkeys, and monkeys with surrogate mothers displayed more normal behavior than those without.

Additionally, Harlow’s work also showed that infant monkeys looked for comfort in the fluffy surrogate mother, even if that surrogate mother never provided food.

From this research, we can conclude that infants feel an attachment toward their caregiver. That attachment is experienced as what we know to be ‘love.’ This attachment seems to be important for a variety of reasons, such as:

• Feeling safe when afraid or in an unfamiliar environment
• Responding in a loving, comforting way to the needs and feelings of infants

The infant’s need to form an attachment was not considered a primary need until 1952, when Bowlby argued that this basic need was one that infants feel instinctually (Bowlby & World Health Organization, 1952).

Bowlby’s work formed the basis of attachment theory – the theory that the relationship between infant and caregiver affects the infant’s psychological development.

The contributions from these researchers include:

• The emotional needs of infants are critical to healthy development and survival
• Parents play an important role besides merely satisfying the physical needs of an infant to ensure survival

Maternal deprivation

John Bowlby (1958) argued that maternal deprivation has extremely negative effects on the psychological and emotional development of children.

He was especially interested in extreme forms of parental deprivation, such as children who were homeless, abandoned, or institutionalized and therefore had no contact with their parents.

From his research, Bowlby argued that satisfying the physiological needs of the child did not ensure healthy development and that the effects of maternal deprivation were grave and difficult to reverse.

Specifically, he argued that how the caregiver behaves in response to the behavior and feelings of an infant plays an important role in infants’ psychological and emotional development (Bowlby, 1958).

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Attachment styles in infants

How the caregiver responds to the infant is known as sensitive responsiveness (Ainsworth et al., 1978). The fluffy surrogate mothers in Harlow’s experiment were not responsive, obviously; however, their presence, the material used to cover them, and their shape allowed the rhesus infants to cling to them, providing comfort, albeit a basic, unresponsive one.

The findings from research by Harlow and Bowlby led to pioneering work by Mary Ainsworth on infant–mother attachments and attachment theory in infants. Specifically, she developed an alternative method to study child–parent attachments, using the ‘strange situation procedure’:

• The parent and child are placed together in an unfamiliar room.
• At some point, a (female) stranger enters the room, chats to the parent and plays with/chats to the infant.
• The parent leaves the room, and the child and stranger are alone together.
• The parent returns to the room, and the stranger leaves. The parent chats and plays with the child.
• The parent leaves the room, and the child is alone.
• The stranger returns and tries to chat and play with the child.

Depending on how the child behaved at the separation and introduction of the parent and the stranger, respectively, the attachment style between the infant and mother was classified as either secure, anxious-avoidant, or anxious-resistant.

For more reading on Mary Ainsworth, Harlow, and Bowlby, you can find out more about their work in our What is Attachment Theory? article.

Harlow’s studies on dependency in monkeys – Michael Baker

Subsequent research has questioned some of Harlow’s original findings and theories (Rutter, 1979). Some of these criticisms include:

• Harlow’s emphasis on the importance of a single, maternal figure in the child–parent relationship. As mentioned earlier, children can develop important relationships with different caregivers who do not need to be female/maternal figures (Schaffer & Emerson, 1964).
• The difference between a bond and an attachment. Children can form attachments without forming bonds. For example, a child might follow a teacher (i.e., an example of attachment behavior) and yet not have any deep bonds or relationships with other children. This suggests that these two types of relationships might be slightly different or governed by different processes.
• Other factors can also influence the relationship between child and parent, and their attachment. One such factor is the temperament of the parent or the child (Sroufe, 1985). For example, an anxious parent or child might show behavior that suggests an insecure attachment style.  Another factor is that behaviors that suggest attachment do not necessarily mean that the parent is better responding to the child’s needs. For example, children are more likely to follow a parent when in an unfamiliar environment. This behavior does not automatically imply that the child’s behavior is a result of the way the parent has responded in the past; instead, this is just how children behave.

One of Harlow’s most controversial claims was that peers were an adequate substitute for maternal figures. Specifically, he argued that monkeys that were raised with other similarly aged monkeys behaved the same as monkeys that were raised with their parents. In other words, the relationship with a parent is not unique, and peers can meet these ‘parental’ needs.

However, subsequent research showed that rhesus monkeys raised with peers were shyer, explored less, and occupied lower roles in monkey hierarchies (Suomi, 2008; Bastian, Sponberg, Suomi, & Higley, 2002).

Importantly, Harlow’s experiments are not evidence that there should be no separation between parent and infant. Such a scenario would be almost impossible in a normal environment today. Frequent separations between parent and infant are normal; however, it is critical that the infant can re-establish contact with the parent.

If contact is successfully re-established, then the bond between parent and child is reinforced.

Impact on psychological theories about human behavior

Harlow’s research on rhesus monkeys demonstrated the important role that parents have in our development and that humans have other salient needs that must be met to achieve happiness.

Harlow’s work added weight to the arguments put forward by Sigmund Freud (2003) that our relationship with our parents can affect our psychological development and behavior later in our lives.

Harlow’s work also influenced research on human needs. For example, Maslow (1943) argued that humans have a hierarchy of needs that must be met in order to experience life satisfaction  and happiness.

The first tier comprises physiological needs, such as hunger and thirst, followed by the second tier of needs such as having a secure place to live. The third tier describes feelings of love and belonging, such as having emotional bonds with other people. Maslow argued that self-actualization could only be reached when all of our needs were met.

Harlow continued to perform experiments on rhesus monkeys, including studying the effects of partial to complete social deprivation. It is highly unlikely that Harlow’s experiments would pass the rigorous requirements of any ethics committee today. The separation of an infant from their parent, especially intending to study the effect of this separation, would be considered cruel.

Kobak (2012) outlines the experiments performed by Harlow, and it is immediately obvious that many of these animals experienced severe emotional distress because of their living conditions.

In the partial isolation experiments, Harlow isolated a group of 56 monkeys from other monkeys; although they could hear and see the other monkeys, they were prevented from interacting with or touching them. These monkeys developed aggressive and severely disturbed behavior, such as staring into space, repetitive behaviors, and self-harm through chewing and tearing at their flesh.

Furthermore, the monkeys that were raised in isolation did not display normal mating behavior and failed in mating.

The complete social deprivation experiments were especially cruel. In these experiments, they raised the monkeys in a box, alone, with no sensory contact with other monkeys. They never saw, heard, or came into contact with any other monkeys.

The only contact that they had was with a human experimenter, but this was through a one-way screen and remote control; there was no visual input of another living creature.

Harlow described this experience as the ‘pit of despair.’ Monkeys raised in this condition for two years showed severely disturbed behavior, unable to interact with other monkeys, and efforts to reverse the effect of two years in isolation were unsuccessful.

Harlow considered this experiment as an analogy of what happens to children completely deprived of any social contact for the first few years of their lives.

The effects of Harlow’s experiments were not limited to only one generation of monkeys. In one of his studies, a set of rhesus monkeys raised with surrogates, rather than their own mothers, gave birth to their own infants.

Harlow observed that these parent-monkeys, which he termed ‘motherless monkeys,’ were dysfunctional parents. They either ignored their offspring or were extremely aggressive toward them. They raised two generations of monkeys to test the effect of parental deprivation.

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Harlow’s monkey experiments were cruel, but it would have been impossible to conduct the same experiments using human infants.

Furthermore, Harlow’s experiments helped shift attention to the important role that caregivers provide for children.

When Harlow was publishing his research, the medical fraternity believed that meeting the physical needs of children was enough to ensure a healthy child. In other words, if the child is fed, has water, and is kept warm and clean, then the child will develop into a healthy adult.

Harlow’s experiments showed that this advice was not true and that the emotional needs of infants are critical to healthy development.

With love, affection, and comfort, infants can develop into healthy adults.

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• Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation . Erlbaum.
• Bastian, M. L., Sponberg, A. C., Suomi, S. J., & Higley, J. D. (2002). Long-term effects of infant rearing condition on the acquisition of dominance rank in juvenile and adult rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Developmental Psychobiology , 42 , 44–51.
• Bowlby, J. (1951). Maternal care and mental health . Columbia University Press.
• Bowlby, J. (1958). The nature of the child’s tie to his mother. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis , 39 , 350–373.
• Bowlby, J., & World Health Organization. (1952). Maternal care and mental health: A report prepared on behalf of the World Health Organization as a contribution to the United Nations programme for the welfare of homeless children . World Health Organization.
• Colman, M. A. (2001). Oxford dictionary of psychology . Oxford University Press.
• Freud, S. (2003). An outline of psychoanalysis . Penguin UK.
• Harlow, H. F. (1958). The nature of love. American Psychologist , 13 (12), 673.
• Kobak, R. (2012). Attachment and early social deprivation: Revisiting Harlow’s monkey studies. Developmental psychology: Revisiting the classic studies , S , 10–23.
• Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review , 50 (4), 370–96.
• Rutter, M. (1979). Maternal deprivation, 1972–1978: New findings, new concepts, new approaches. Child Development , 50 (2), 283–305.
• Schaffer, H. R., & Emerson, P. E. (1964). The development of social attachments in infancy. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development , 29 (3), 1–77.
• Sroufe, L. A. (1985). Attachment classification from the perspective of infant-caregiver relationships and infant temperament. Child Development , 56 (1), 1–14.
• Suomi, S. J. (2008). Attachment in rhesus monkeys. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research and clinical applications (pp. 173–191). Guilford Press.

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Parental attunement and attention also shape the architecture of the brain and the function of the nervous system. When a child does not encounter sufficient parental attunement, compassion, kindness, and empathy, they are deprived of experiences that foster the integration of the brain. This results in a dysregulated nervous system, which cannot produce regulated emotions, thoughts, behaviors, relationships, or bodily systems. The impeded integration causes internal distress, the symptoms of which include chronic illness, recurrent pain, poor relationships, and “mental health” conditions (which are health conditions).

The child (and subsequently insufficiently supported adult) tries to find relief through whatever means are available: numbing, acting out, withdrawing, overeating, substance abuse, dissociation, splitting, self-harm, etc. These are not “disorders” but *survival adaptations* demanded by the unsafe environment. The child/adult uses whatever survival adaptations are available; when they have better options, they use them.

When the dysregulated person receives sufficient psychosocial support, such as through truly therapeutic or other integrative relationships, the brain can integrate and the nervous system can regulate. People, like animals and plants, flourish in supportive environments. Fix the environment and the symptoms fade.

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