Attachment Theories: Are Early Attachments Really Necessary?

Attachment theory concerns the psychological, evolutionary and ethological ideas that help us understand relationships between people. Theorists believe that a child has a need to form attachments with an adult care giver to ensure adequate growth and social and emotional development. This ‘bond’ has to be maintained by the care giver and mostly uninterrupted to ensure a child grows into a happy and confident, adapted adult.

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory has heavily influenced research into attachment, underpinning the importance of the mother/child bond on future child development. Bowlby (1969) and others recognised this in their research and results, but some found it did not specifically have to be the mother- a general loving care giver, as long as it was constant would usually be enough to deliver good prospects for a child’s later emotional development.

Theories on why a child creates these attachments can be explained by our evolutionary survival instincts- we create a strong emotional bond with our care giver as it ensures our each and every need is accounted for including our emotional, psychological and physical needs. The importance of this bond can be recognised in many ways, not least the advantage of seeking comfort from a caregiver in unfamiliar or dangerous surroundings.

Attachments normally start soon after birth. A child will create an attachment with any caregiver who is sensitive, responsive and who interacts with the child over a long period of time. From around two months a child understands receiving comfort and by around five months they generally prefer one particular adult. The strongest attachment forms at around six to eight months of age, where it can be recognised that a child will perhaps...

... middle of paper ...

...mes where they have had a constant, loving secure home life. Statistics would show that if you have a parent who has gone to prison, you are more likely to go yourself. Is this because of learned behaviour or because or separation or both? I think that many factors affect the path our life will take but attachments in early life are definitely a contributing factor. The quality of these attachments would seem much more important than the quantity, but common sense would assume the more loving caregivers you have, the more adapted, happy, social and confident child you will have. Ainsworth showed that attachment was not as simple as just a ‘one size’ attachment, there were many different types of attachment. And Skeel’s showed possibly Bowlby had over-estimated the importance of the attachment being made to the mother, and the critical period in which it must occur.