ATTACHMENT THEORY John Bowlby & Mary Ainsworth (mid-late 1950’s)

CHARACTERISTICS Proximity Seeking Secure Base Effect Separation Protest

SEPARATION PROTEST DESPAIR DETACHMENT

OTHER CHARACTERISTICS Elicitation by Threat Specificity of Attachment Figure Inaccessibility to conscious control Persistence Insensitivity to experience with attachment figure

PREVIOUS THEORIES Psychoanalytic Theory of Secondary Drive Primary Object Sucking Theory Primary Object Clinging Theory Primary Return to Womb Theory

ATTACHMENT BEHAVIOR A class of social behavior equivalent to mating behavior and parental behavior Seen in non-human primates and other animal species

Patterns of Differentially Directed Behavior Differential vocalization Differential stopping of crying on being held Differential crying on mother’s departure Differential smiling at visual Differential visual-postural orientation Differential greeting response Differential approach Differential following Differential climbing & exploring Differential burying of face Use of mother as base from which to explore Flight to mother as haven of safety Differential clinging

ATTACHMENT & NEUROBIOLOGY “Attachment is internal, built into the nervous system, in the course and as a result of the infant’s experience of his transactions with the mother” – Ainsworth Limbic System

ATTACHMENT THROUGHOUT THE LIFE SPAN Attachment continues throughout one’s life span Adult Pair Bonds Parental Attachment