Provided by David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D.
Surgeon General of the United States of America
Chapter 2
Overview of Development, Temperament, and Risk Factors
John Bowlby: Attachment Theory of Development
Fifty years ago, a new conceptualization of the psychoanalytic
approach to development came into the lexicon of human development theory. John
Bowlby’s reinterpretation of Freudian development is grounded in both Darwinian
evolutionary theory and animal ethology. The previous work of Konrad Lorenz and
others, who explored the relationship between other animals and their
caregivers, determined that the bonds of infant care and the attachment of young
to their caregivers are seminal in the drive for survival. Similarly, Bowlby
theorized that for humans, attachment to a caregiver had a biological basis in
the need for survival (Bowlby, 1951). Moreover, he suggested that this
attachment drive exists alongside the drive for nutrition and the sex drive, yet
distinct and separate from them. Attachment is seen as the anchor that enables
the developing child to explore the world.
With the comfort and security of a stable and routine attachment to the
mother—or other primary caregiver—a child is able to organize other elements of
development in a coherent way. In contrast, instability in the caregiving
relationship—whether physical distance, erratic patterns of parental behavior,
or even physical or emotional abuse—may interfere with the sense of trust and
security, potentially giving rise to anxiety and psychological problems later in
childhood or even decades later in life.
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