by DK
Five years later Bowlby began a second study, this time investigating children who had spent five months to two years in a tuberculosis sanatorium (which offered no substitute mothering) when they had been less than four years old. The children—aged 7 to 13 by the time of the study—were rougher in play, showed less initiative and more over-excitement, and were less competitive than those with a more traditional upbringing.
In extreme cases, Bowlby found that maternal deprivation could even result in “affectionless psychopathy,” a clinical condition in which people are unable to care deeply for others and so do not form meaningful interpersonal relationships. Those who suffer from it display a higher incidence of juvenile delinquency and antisocial behavior without any sign of remorse, as they are unable to experience feelings of guilt. In Bowlby’s 1944 study of juvenile thieves, he found that many of the young criminals had been separated from their mothers for a period of more than six months before they were five years old, and of these, 14 had developed the condition of affectionless psychopathy.
The reason why this primary, secure attachment is so important, Bowlby says, is that it is essential for the development of an inner working model or framework, that the child uses to understand himself, others, and the world. This inner working model guides a person’s thoughts, feelings, and expectations in all of his personal relationships, even into adulthood. Because the primary attachment serves as a prototype for all future relationships, the quality of the attachment will determine whether or not a child grows to trust others, view himself as valuable, and feel confident in society. These working models are resistant to change; once formed, they determine how people behave and the kind of bond they will form with their own children.
Bowlby predicted that child evacuees would suffer long-term attachment problems as a result of enforced separation from their mothers; later studies found this to be the case.
The father’s role
Bowlby’s attachment theory has been criticized for exaggerating the importance of the mother—child relationship and undervaluing the father’s contribution. Bowlby sees the father as having no direct emotional significance for the infant, contributing only indirectly by supporting the mother financially and emotionally. The evolutionary basis of Bowlby’s theory suggests that women are naturally inclined to be parents, with inborn maternal instincts that guide them through the process of child-rearing, whereas men are more naturally suited for being providers.
However, British psychologist Rudolph Schaffer—who worked under Bowlby at the Tavistock Clinic in London—found that there is considerable cultural variation in the extent to which fathers are involved in childcare. Increasing numbers of fathers are taking on the role of principal parent, which suggests that parenting roles are a consequence of social convention rather than biology.
Bowlby’s view implies that men will inevitably be inferior parents, but research by Schaffer and the American psychologist Ross Parke suggests that men are equally capable of providing warmth and sensitivity to their infants. They also found that a child’s developmental outcome is not determined by the parent’s gender, but rather by the strength and quality of the bond that is forged. In a further study, Schaffer and psychologist Peggy Emerson found that infants and young children display a wide range of attachment behaviors toward many people besides their mothers, and that multiple attachments may actually be the rule rather than the exception.
These later findings were especially important for working women, because the implication of Bowlby’s theories was that women should not work once they become mothers; they should stay with the child, fulfilling the role of essential primary caregiver. For decades after Bowlby’s theory was posited, generations of working women were saddled with guilt, but many studies since then have questioned this aspect of Bowlby’s theory. For instance, in the 1970s psychologists Thomas Weisner and Ronald Gallimore showed that mothers are the exclusive caregivers in only a very small percentage of human societies, and it is not uncommon for groups of people (including relatives and friends) to share responsibility for raising children. Schaffer also points to evidence suggesting that children of mothers who are happy in their work develop more successfully than children whose mothers are frustrated from staying at home.
"Direct observations of men in their fathering role has shown them to be as capable of as much warmth and sensitivity as women."
H. Rudolph Schaffer
Groundbreaking work
Despite the many criticisms and revisions that it has provoked, Bowlby’s work remains the most comprehensive and influential account of human attachment to date, and led to the groundbreaking experiments of Harry Harlow and Mary Ainsworth. Psychologists have used Bowlby’s basic premise to delve more deeply into childhood attachment patterns, and to develop theories of adult attachment by exploring how the bond between parent and child can influence the future bond between spouses and romantic partners. Bowlby’s theories have also had many beneficial effects on various aspects of child-rearing, such as the improvement of institutional care and the growing preference for fostering as an alternative.
Bowlby claimed that day care centers are not suitable for the care of infants, because maternal deprivation leads to juvenile delinquency; this created a real dilemma for working mothers.
JOHN BOWLBY
John Bowlby was the fourth of six children born to a London-based, upper-middle-class family. He was raised primarily by nannies and sent to boarding school at the age of seven. These experiences made him particularly sympathetic to the attachment difficulties faced by young children. He studied psychology at Trinity College, Cambridge, then spent some time teaching delinquent children. He later earned a medical degree and qualified as a psychoanalyst.
During World War II, Bowlby served in the Royal Army Medical Corps and in 1938 married Ursula Longstaff, with whom he had four children. After the war he became director of the Tavistock Clinic, where he remained until retirement. In 1950 he carried out a major study for the World Health Organization. He died at his summer home on the Island of Skye in Scotland, aged 83.
Key works
1951 Maternal Care and Mental Health (WHO Report)
1959 Separation Anxiety
1969, 1973, 1980 Attachment and Loss (three volumes)
See also: Konrad Lorenz • Sigmund Freud • Melanie Klein • Anna Freud • Kurt Lewin • Lev Vygotsky • Bruno Bettelheim • Harry Harlow • Mary Ainsworth • Michael Rutter
IN CONTEXT
APPROACH
Attachment theory
BEFORE
1926 Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of “cupboard love” suggests that an infant becomes attached to a caregiver because that person is a source of food.
1935 Konrad Lorenz states nonhumans form strong bonds with the first moving object they meet—often the mother.
1951 John Bowlby argues that human mothers and infants are genetically programmed to form a uniquely strong bond.
AFTER
1964 UK psychologists Rudolf Schaffer and Peggy Emerson show that infants are attached to people who do not perform feeding and caretaking duties.
1978 Michael Rutter shows that children bond with a variety of attachment figures, including inanimate objects.
Many psychologists have suggested that an infant becomes attached to its caregiver simply because that person fulfils its need for food. John Bowlby challenged this “cupboard love” idea theoretically, but Harry Harlow set out to prove it.
Harlow took infant macaque monkeys from their mothers, placing
them in cages with surrogate “mothers”—one made of wire with a feeding bottle attached; the other made of soft, cuddly, terry cloth, but with no bottle. If the “cupboard love” theory was correct, the baby monkeys would remain with the mother that provided food. But in fact, they spent most of their time with the cloth mother, using her as a secure base, and clinging to her for safety when frightening objects were placed in the cage. Later tests, in which the cloth mother was also able to rock and provide food, showed this attachment was even stronger. Harlow, therefore, suggested that the main function of nursing might even be to ensure body contact with the mother.
Harlow’s work was enormously important, because contemporary advice from psychologists and doctors had warned parents against rocking or picking up a crying child. The results of his experiments were so conclusive that they changed the approach to parenting in the Western world.
Infant macaque monkeys in Harlow’s experiment formed a strong attachment to their cuddly, cloth, surrogate “mother,” despite her inability to provide any nourishment.
See also: Konrad Lorenz • Sigmund Freud • Abraham Maslow • John Bowlby • Mary Ainsworth • Michael Rutter
IN CONTEXT
APPROACH
Psychoanalysis
BEFORE
1924 Sigmund Freud theorizes about the castration anxiety children face, which Dolto says is a factor in our unconscious image of our own bodies.
1969 Jacques Lacan investigates “otherness,” which becomes central to Dolto’s work focusing on the distinctiveness of individuals.
AFTER
1973 A school based on Dolto’s theories opens in La Neuville-du-Bosc, France, emphasizing well-being and non-compulsory activities.
1978 La Maison Verte, a daycare center based on Dolto’s ideas, opens in Paris, with the aim of helping parents and children to minimize the adverse effects of separation.
Following her own difficult childhood, French physician and psychoanalyst Françoise Dolto decided that her work should help children discover and release their desires, believing that this release would prevent neuroses. She felt that some of the illnesses commonly manifested by children were, in reality, reflections of a lack of connection between parents and their offspring. Adults, she observed, often seemed unable to understand children, in spite of once being children themselves.
"It is too late to make a difference with adults; the work has to be done with children."
Françoise Dolto
Unique perspective
Dolto believed that every child possesses a unique perspective, which traditional education seeks to stifle. She condemned any system of morality or education that seeks to control children through obedience or imitation, and was dissatisfied with the techniques being used, both at school and at home, to anticipate a child’s future when that future is fundamentally unknowable. Children, she stated, are different from the adults who teach them, simply because they must have had experiences that the older generation could never have had when they were that age.
For Dolto, the goal of education was to allow each child the freedom to explore his individual inclination. The adult, she believed, should serve as a role model, offering an example rather than attempting to impart a method. The educator’s role, Dolto declared, was to teach children how to lead themselves.
See also: Sigmund Freud • Alfred Adler • Jacques Lacan • Daniel Lagache
IN CONTEXT
APPROACH
Attachment theory
BEFORE
1950s John Bowlby emphasizes the significance of the mother-child bond.
1959 Harry Harlow’s research with infant macaque monkeys demonstrates that they use an attachment figure as a secure base from which to explore their environment.
AFTER
1980 American psychologist Brian E. Vaughn shows that the attachment figure may change, according to variations in a family’s circumstances.
1990 American psychologist Mary Main identifies a fourth attachment type in young children—“disorganized”—to describe an infant who is fearful of both the environment and the attachment figure.
In the early 1950s, Mary Ainsworth, working closely with attachment theorist John Bowlby, developed a particular interest in the relationship between mothers and infants. In 1969, she experimented with a procedure that became known as the “Strange Situation,” which studied how babies balance their needs for attachment and exploration under varying levels of stress. In each experiment, Ainsworth placed a mother and her one-year-old baby in a room with toys for the baby to play with, and watched their interactions both before and after the introduction of a stranger to the room. The “situation” included periods when the mother left the baby alone with the stranger, then returned to the room.
Ainsworth found that the most important information about mother-child bonding was gleaned not from the baby’s reaction to the mother leaving the room, but rather from the infant’s reaction to her return. She suggested that a baby’s reactions upon reunion with his mother indicate three distinct patterns, or types, of attachment.
"Attachment behavior is strongly activated under circumstances when the attachment figure is inaccessible."
Mary Ainsworth
Attachment types
Around 70 percent of the babies in Ainsworth’s studies were “securely attached.” These infants used their mothers “as a secure base from which to explore.” They were distressed when she left the room, but played happily, even in the presence of a stranger, as long as the mother was on hand if needed.
The babies who appeared to be indifferent to their mothers, and were hardly affected when she left the room, Ainsworth classified as “anxious-avoidant.” They were as easily comforted by the stranger as by the mother. About 15 percent of the infants fell into this group.
A further 15 percent, described as “anxious-resistant,” were wary of the stranger, even with the mother present. They became intensely distressed when the mother left the room, but were also angry and resistant to contact on her return.
Ainsworth claimed that a mother’s sensitivity largely determines the type of attachment. A sensitive mother, she stated, understands her child’s needs and responds appropriately to them, creating a secure attachment.
Criticism
Critics of Ainsworth’s work have suggested that attachment types are not always permanent, and that babies do not fit neatly into a single type. Cultural differences have also been noted. A 1990 study in Japan uncovered an unusually high percentage of anxious-resistant infants, which may have been due to Japanese babies being less used to separation from their mothers than US infants. However, the Strange Situation is considered to be one of the most important studies in attachment research, and is still widely replicated today.
Mothers in non-Western cultures often keep their infants close to them at all times. Customs such as these can affect the incidence of different attachment types in a community.
MARY AINSWORTH
Mary Ainsworth was born in Glendale, Ohio, USA, moving to Canada at the age of five. She gained her doctorate in psychology from the University of Toronto in 1939, and taught there briefly before joining the Canadian Women’s Army Corps in 1942. After World War II, she returned to the University of Toronto, marrying graduate student Leonard Ainsworth in 1950 and moving to London, where Mary worked with John Bowlby at the Tavistock Clinic. In 1954, the couple moved to Uganda, where Leonard had accepted a post, and Mary took the opportunity to study mother-child bonding in tribal society. On returning to the US in 1956, she continued her academic career, eventually becoming a professor a
t the University of Virginia in 1975.
Key works
1967 Infancy in Uganda
1971 Infant Obedience and Maternal Behavior
1978 Patterns of Attachment
See also: Sigmund Freud • John Bowlby • Harry Harlow • Jerome Kagan • Michael Rutter
IN CONTEXT
APPROACH
Race attitudes
BEFORE
1929 German-born writer and social worker Bruno Lasker publishes Race Attitudes in Children, setting up methods for the psychological study of children’s views on race.
Early 1930s Canadian psychologist Otto Klineberg works with lawyers fighting for equal salaries for black public-school teachers.
AFTER
1954 The US Supreme Court rules that racial segregation in schools is unconstitutional, in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka hearings.
1978 Elliot Aronson devises the “jigsaw method” of teaching—where mixed-race groups of students work interdependently—to help reduce racial prejudice in integrated classrooms.
