to maintain close proximity to their caregivers, and
they are distressed by separations from them. Over
time, partnerships emerge between children and
their caregivers, such that children develop an appre-
ciation of caregivers as separate persons with their
own goals, needs, and desires. Attachment relation-
ships with parents and other important caregivers
continue throughout the lifespan. Moreover, begin-
ning in adolescence, other attachment relationships
develop, including those with romantic partners and
close friends.
History of Attachment Theory
The earliest roots of attachment theory can be
found in Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of
development, written at the turn of the twentieth cen-
tury. Freud was the first theorist to propose a stage
theory of development. His first stage, the oral stage,
presupposed that infants develop relationships with
their mothers, because mothers satisfy their hunger.
Animal studies, however, provided persuasive evi-
dence that feeding was not a sufficient explanation
for attachment. In a series of famous experiments,
Harry Harlow and his colleagues demonstrated that
infant rhesus monkeys, raised in isolation, preferred
the comfort of a cloth-covered surrogate mother to
that of a wire-mesh surrogate with an attached feed-
ing bottle. Clearly, the basis for attachment relation-
ships does not reside in feeding alone. Erik Erikson,
a student of Freud’s, foreshadowed attachment theo-
ry by emphasizing the importance of children’s ability
to trust parents to meet their needs as the basis for
later social and emotional development.
World Wars I and II alerted mental health profes-
sionals and the general public alike to the importance
of close interpersonal relationships in development.
Particularly in Europe, where casualty rates were
highest, psychological trauma due to the loss of loved
ones was common. Therapists, in fact, reported that
death of family members was a frequent reason for in-
dividuals to seek therapy during the postwar years. In
this context, British psychiatrist John Bowlby, while
working with children and adolescents in London or-
phanages, discovered that the most disturbed chil-
dren were those who had experienced separations
from their caregivers, particularly their mothers.
Consider, for example, his account of a seven-year-
old girl:
At twelve months she fell ill with bronchitis
and was in the hospital for nine months...
During this time she never saw her parents,
who were only permitted to visit her when she
was asleep... When examined at the Clinic
[at seven years of age] she was found... tobe a withdrawn, detached, and unemotional
child (Bowlby 1940, pp. 159–160).
Bowlby also noted that children who developed
behavioral and emotional problems often experi-
enced parenting that was characterized by displays of
ambivalence or outright rejection. Based on these ob-
servations, he hypothesized that a caregiver’s emo-
tional attitude toward a child had direct implications
for that child’s later mental health. In other words, he
believed that mental health is dependent upon a child
feeling wanted and loved.Three Main Propositions of Attachment
Theory
Bowlby’s seminal three-volume series on attach-
ment and loss and subsequent work by his student,
Mary Dinsmore Salter Ainsworth, form the core of at-
tachment theory. There are three main propositions.
The first is that infants’ emotional ties to their care-
givers can be viewed from an evolutionary perspec-
tive. Consider, for example, that closeness with adults
can be viewed as an adaptive strategy for children be-
cause it leads to protection from environmental haz-
ards, such as predators. Throughout the long
evolution of human history, children who did not de-
velop close relationships with their parents were less
likely to survive and therefore less likely to reproduce.
It is difficult to prove this thesis because there is no
fossil record for social behavior. Still, it seems likely
that attachment behaviors provided an evolutionary
advantage.
Second, attachment is grounded in what is called
a motivational control system, which organizes chil-
dren’s behavior. Just as physiological control systems
are believed to regulate processes such as body tem-
perature, a behavioral control system balances a
child’s desires to explore the environment and to seek
proximity with caregivers, especially in the presence
of danger. In this system, the child’s primary goal is
to feel safe and secure. Feelings of security, however,
are dependent on caregivers’ responses. When care-
givers are sensitive and responsive, children are con-
fidant that their needs will be met and that they may
rely on their caregivers in times of stress. In contrast,
when caregivers are insensitive and unresponsive,
children become distrustful of their caregivers and
are unable to rely on them. In the face of insensitive
caregiving, infants develop strategies that are adap-
tive in context, for example avoiding or clinging to
caregivers.
Third, early experience guides later behaviors
and feelings via internal working models of attach-
ment—‘‘internal’’ because they reside in the mind,
‘‘working’’ because they guide perceptions and be-ATTACHMENT 33