Attachment Theory

This theory provides an explanation to some kinds of behaviour patterns: it was developed from the psychoanalytic object-relation theory and it’s based on interviews and observations on how a child reacts to an unfamiliar environment with unfamiliar adults and how that situation affects the child’s relationship with his parents.

In other words: emotional bonds between individuals are primary and biological; they are formed and maintained by a cybernetic system within the Central Nervous System which uses models of the self and the attachment figure in relationship with each other to function, so there is an influence of how parents treat and speak to a child on the child’s development.

Since attachment is formed within the CNS, it’s maintenance is homeostatic: the control system keeps the relationship between the person and the attachment figure within certain boundaries of distance and accessibility, using progressively more sophisticated ways… there is a progressively higher stress level necessary to activate the attachment behaviour and this occurs because of a progressively better systemic control through incorporation of more functional and detailed internal working models of the environment, of the others and of the self.

Even though sex and feeding have an important role in the attachment relationships, these have an importance and a surviving role on their own. At the beginning, emotion and its behavioural expression are the single forms of communication between baby and caretaker. In fact, they are later complemented by language, but communication through emotional behaviour persists as a main trait of intimate relationships throughout life. Therefore, the desire of comfort and support in adversity are not simply childish or a result of regression, but, actually, the ability to establish a relationship either and both (one at a time) on the care seeker or caregiver role is one of most important tags of the individuals’ personality functioning and mental health.

So, attachment behaviour is any kind of behaviour that results on the individual attaining and maintaining proximity to another clearly identified individual, who is conceived as better fitted to cope with the world – these behaviours are more obvious whenever a person is scared, tired or sick and are terminated by comforting and caretaking – its biological function is protection.

In fact, attachment and exploratory behaviour and incompatible: the second one has a lower priority level when compared with the first one, therefore, only when attachment behaviour activation level is low does the exploration of the surroundings occur. In the beginning, these explorations have little space and time tolerance, but by adolescence they can last weeks or months – a secure base is still very important in adolescence for functioning and mental health, though.

Attachment behaviour does elaborate one hierarchy of preferences: the baby shows a clear preference for ONE adult and if he is not available, the child will settle for a second one and so on – on last resort, the child will allow a stranger to comfort him. Even though the child will only establish an attachment relationship with one adult, taking care of a child is a full time job and someone should take care of caretaker so that the caretaker can assure the quality of the relationship with the child.

To conclude, the attachment pattern is only established by the second half of the first year, even though babies can initiate social interaction and take pleasure in doing so since birth. Attachment patterns establishment requires the cognitive ability to think about the caretaker and it requires a cognitive representation of him when he’s not present and this is only fully developed by the age of nine months. From this age on, the child will protest, cry and reject for some time when left alone with a stranger. A seriously disturbed child will not seek any comfort and it will be indifferent to the shift of the person whom takes care of him.

The intention, the desire to achieve a goal, the feelings of satisfaction and frustration, anxiety and anger, the understanding of the inverse proportionality relation between pleasure and frustration in satisfaction emerges when the child consciously knows which behaviours terminate his activated attachment behaviour.

The first steps of the attachment theory

James Robertson and his wife, Joyce Robertson

In 1948, Bowlby hired Robertson, a trained naturalistic observer, to help him observe children whom were separated from their parents by hospitalization and institutionalization. In 1950, Robertson felt compelled to act… so on a very low budget, minimum training, a hand-held camera and his heart he made a deeply moving film: A two-year-old-goes-to-hospital (1953) The target child was randomly selected and the hospital’s clock on the wall was proof for video recording being made at regular periods of the day. This film, together with Spitz's Grief: a peril in infancy helped improve conditions for hospitalized children.
At this time, Bowlby’s work caught the eye of Ronald Hargreaves of World Health Organization (WHO), so he was asked to write a report on the mental health of homeless children in post-war Europe. This report was first published in 1951 as Maternal Care and Mental Health by the WHO, sold nearly 400 000 copies and was translated into 14 languages. A second edition was published in 1965, entitled Child care and the growth of love and with review chapters by Mary Ainsworth.

John Bowlby

John Bowlby

John Bowlby graduated in 1929 from the University of Cambridge and undertook training ate the British Psychoanalytic Institute. At the time, Melanie Klein was the major influence and even though Bowlby acknowledged it's emphasis on early relationships and the pathogenic potencial of loss, he didn't agree that cildren's emotional problemas are pretty much due to fantasies generated from interanl conflict between agressive and libidinal drives.

In fact, Bowlby had already become interested in intergenerational transmission of attachment and in the possiblity of helping the children by helping their parents.

Bowlby's first empirical study dates from 1940 and was reviewed in 1944: Forty-four juvenile thieves:their characters and home lives, in which through detailed examination of these cases he was able to establish a link between their symptoms and histories of separation and maternal deprivation.

After WW II, Bowlby became the head of the Children's Department at the Tavistock Clinic, which he then renamed the Department for Children and Parents. Even so, he decided to found his own research unit focused on mother-child separation (this was an undeniable event and it was easier to study than more subtle influences of interaction.).

We should have start prevention a long time ago...

pic: Ivaldo Cavalcante