Table of Contents

Introduction …………………………………………. 1

Problem Statement ………………………………….. 3

Proposed Solutions …………………………………. 7

Conclusion …………………………………………… 9

References ………………………………………….. 11

Introduction

When looking back at one’s childhood what memories come flooding to the brain; experiences that were happy, sad, traumatic, all of the above? Childhood plays a significant role shaping individuals into the adults they become. One aspect of childhood that is truly important is early childhood attachment. What is early childhood attachment, one may ask? Early childhood attachment is a theory that was developed through the joint contributions of John Bowlby and Mary Salter Ainsworth in the early 1950s (Bretherton, 1992).  Attachment theory focuses on the relationships between people, and the importance these bonds are in regard to personal development.

John Bowlby contributions

 In 1928, John Bowlby graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in developmental psychology. It was not until Bowlby performed volunteer work at a school for maladjusted children that he truly began to understand childhood development. Two children in particular were the driving factor behind Bowlby’s work. One child was a teenager who had been expelled from his previous school due to theft. He was a very cold, isolated, affectionless individual whom did not have a stable mother figure. The other child was “an anxious boy of 7 or 8 who trailed Bowlby around and was known as his shadow” (Ainsworth, 1974).  By observing these two young gentlemen, Bowlby knew that early family played a large role in the personality development of a child.  Throughout his years of study, Bowlby was primarily interested in the distress and separation anxiety children experienced when separated from their primary caregiver. His findings brought him to discover that behavior and motivation patterns are the main proponents to attachment. With this, he sought to understand how early childhood attachment can contribute late problems as adults.

Mary Ainsworth contributions

Mary Ainsworth graduated from the University of Toronto just before the beginning of World War II. Ainsworth became associated with childhood development when she acquired a research job, under John Bowlby, that was looking into the separation from mother in early childhood and the effect on personality development (Bretherton, 1992, p. 760).  In was in these years working with Bowlby that Ainsworth further added to the theory of attachment with her assessment technique called the Strange Situation Classification. In this experiment, researchers observed children’s reactions through a one way mirror when presented different situations involving the infants, their parent, and a stranger. Different circumstance included the parent and infant alone, the stranger joining the two, the parent leaving the infant and stranger alone, etc. The results of this experiment identified three of the main four attachment styles: secure, insecure avoidant, insecure ambivalent. The fourth being insecure disorganized, was discovered later in history.