1. Attachment in childhood

2. How do parent-infant bonds form?
Attachment is a powerful survival impulse that keeps infants close to their caregivers.
Infants attach to those who are familiar and with whom they are comfortable

3. How do parent-infant bonds form?
Attachment is a powerful survival impulse that keeps infants close to their caregivers.
Infants attach to those who are familiar and with whom they are comfortable
Stranger Anxiety develops
at about 8 months

4. How do parent-infant bonds form?
Attachment is a powerful survival impulse that keeps infants close to their caregivers.
Early psychologists thought attachment was simply
to satisfy the need for
nourishment.
An accidental finding
overturned this
explanation.

5. How do parent-infant bonds form?
Harry Harlow study.
Preferred the cloth mother
When exploring, used the cloth mother as a base
When anxious, would cling to cloth mother

6. How do parent-infant bonds form?
Harry Harlow study.
Preferred the cloth mother
When exploring, used the cloth mother as a base
When anxious, would cling to cloth mother
Body contact seems to be a fundamental factor in attachment.

7. How do parent-infant bonds form?
Familiarity is another key in bonding.
With many animals, attachment based on familiarity occurs during a critical period.
Imprinting is the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during an early-life critical period.

8. How do parent-infant bonds form?

9. How do parent-infant bonds form?
Mary Ainsworth strange situation research
Observed mother-infant pairs at home during their first 6 months
Later observed as one-year olds in a strange situation (a laboratory play room)
Mom stays while child plays
Mom leaves the room
Mom returns to the room

10. How do parent-infant bonds form?
Mary Ainsworth strange situation research
Secure: explore happily; upset when mother departs, but easily soothed upon her return.
Avoidant: willing to explore, don’t “touch base,” react very little to mother’s absence or return.
Ambivalent: clinging, unwilling to explore; upset when mother leaves, angry with her on her return.
Disorganized-disoriented: unable to decide reaction to mother’s return, approach mother with their eyes turned away from her, avoid eye contact.