Attachment Theories: Bowlby & Ainsworth

Attachment theories: Bowlby and Ainsworth

Researchers have been studying attachment for decades as they have come to see and appreciate the importance of a healthy attachment in a child’s development. To recap, an attachment is a relationship built with a reliable, safe, warm person who consistently responds to the child with care. This relationship starts from infancy and is mutually responsive between the caregiver and child.

How each responds to the other will affect how the other responds in turn and the development of closeness, safety, and intimacy in that way. Therefore, this relationship can be influenced by temperament and personality, though responsiveness is the most important part.

Remember in Part 1 how I mentioned that attachment is attached to survival? Basically, attachment = survival + optimal development. That’s what the following theorists discuss, and they show us how this emerges and is evident from infancy.

Biological basis of attachment

John Bowlby was a psychological theorist whose theories emerged out of research he conducted on the mental health of post-war homeless children. These were children who had experienced permanent separation from their primary caregiver and had no one else to turn to.

His research found that in order for children to develop optimally (in the best way possible). They needed a constant, intimate relationship with a mother or a substitute (permanent primary caregiver who would fulfil the mother role). This is because attachment is so important to emotional, social, and cognitive development.

The main thing to note about his theory is that the idea of attachment is not just a social thing constructed by society, it has biological roots and children are looking for someone to attach to from the moment they are born. Therefore, it should be valued as an inherent need.

I emphasise this because many people may think that working at an attachment relationship is not important, but our bodies (and the helpless state of babies) are hardwired to need closeness and relationship at all stages of life because that is how we thrive. Naturally, babies would ordinarily attach to their mother, but where there is no mother, they will look for the next possible, available person because that need is so intense.

Four Phases in the Development of Attachment

The way that the child seeks out and builds on their attachment changes as they grow older. This is called the development of an attachment system. However, they are looking for this from infancy, literally from the day they are born. The older the child gets and the more they can identify their primary caregiver, the more specifically targeted these will become.

In other words, the child may initially expect attention from any available individual, but as they come to associate a specific individual with the response of their needs more and more, they will change how they behave toward that individual compared to other people. This change in how they relate is also indicative of their cognitive development.

So as the child grows, their attachment and ways of relating change. The way they go through each phase depends on the caregiver's consistent responsiveness in the previous phase. Bowlby identified four distinct phases that we can see changes in the development of the child’s attachment system. These are:

1. Signalling – this is the first stage from birth to around 12 weeks. Here babies will seek out attention through crying or clinging

2. Discriminating sociability – by 12 weeks, the baby should be able to identify who their primary caregiver is. Therefore, they will respond differently to that person compared to others, probably showing more favour to them than others.

3. Proximity-seeking – this phase starts from 6 months and lasts until age 3. The child deliberately seeks to be close to their primary caregiver for safety and security. They should see their caregiver as their point of reference and safety when it comes to exploring the world. They also begin knowing how to adjust their behaviour to preserve their relationship with their caregiver, which will ultimately benefit them.

4. Reciprocal relationship – this phase, between age 3 and 4 is where the child begins understanding others’ feelings and motives more deeply, from their learnings in phase 3. While it's still concerned with how they benefit, this forms a base for more mature, complex socio-emotional processes to develop.

Now if you were paying attention to the specific ages, you will see that the attachment system that a child goes into the rest of their lives with develops by the age of 4. This is within the first 1001 days! This again emphasises the importance of the first 1001 days of life as this is one of the crucial things which happen within that period.

These phases also show us the child’s cognitive development as they are able to reason at a most basic level, understanding how their actions might impact others and their own wellbeing. Additionally, these phases of attachment are some of the beginnings of goal-oriented behaviour, where the baby is deliberate and purposeful in their actions.

Mary Ainsworth

Mary Ainsworth is another psychological theorist. She built on Bowlby’s work to find a way of measuring (better observing and proving) what he was saying. In her research, she explored how children responded and related to their caregivers when placed in a new situation. Out of this research, she identified three (3) different types of attachment. These were: Secure attachment, Insecure-avoidant attachment, and Insecure-resistant attachment. A fourth type of attachment was identified by two other researchers (Main and Solomon) for all the children who did not fit perfectly into the first three categories. This was called Disorganised attachment.

The different types of attachment emerge from infancy, but are more evident by the third phase (proximity seeking). It is important to note that children will attach because this is a biological need, however the type of attachment varies based on the consistency of their caregiver’s responses to their needs. Think about the signalling and proximity-seeking phases. How the caregiver responds to their child during those times will shape how they behave around their caregiver, especially by the reciprocal phase.

Why understanding types of attachment is important

It's important to understand the different types of attachment because, as I mentioned in Part 1, the relationship that the child develops with their primary caregiver is their first ever and most important relationship, and because the attachment relationship is built on interactions, they form the child’s foundation for understanding social interactions and social relationships. Caregivers can be deliberate at this stage so that their children can form secure relationships as they grow older.

The types of attachment also show us the value of responsive caregiving. It is one thing for an individual to look after a child and meet their physical survival needs, but it is a completely different thing the way in which that is done. If it is done in a cold, harsh way, the child will still look to that caregiver for their survival needs, but the relationship would not be very good and cause a lot of fear or insecurity in the child.

Ainsworth’s types of attachment are very much tied to how safe the child feels when their caregiver is there, and when they aren’t, showing the type of relationship they have with their caregiver. A caregiver who is warm and responsive will automatically make the child feel safer and more comfortable, they will know how to act and respond in their presence and will be more relaxed. If the caregiver treats the child harshly, that child will not be able to hide their fear or insecurity around the caregiver. How the child relates with their caregiver can translate to how they relate to the outside world. The types of attachment help us to understand these things at a more detailed level.

When we look at each of these types of attachment, they help us to understand whether the child discriminates between their caregiver and a stranger and how much they seek proximity with their caregivers (remember phases 2 and 3).

Different types of attachment

1. Secure attachment: A child whose caregiver responds to their needs consistently and is there for them will develop a secure attachment. This child does not fear when their caregiver leaves the room and are not clingy or anxious because they are secure in the knowledge that their caregiver won’t abandon them. They might initially be upset when their caregiver leaves, but eventually happily continue their lives even when their caregiver isn't there and welcome them when they come back. This translates into how they relate with the world where they are not afraid to engage and explore.

2. Insecure-avoidant (dismissive) attachment: This child shows little to no interest when the caregiver is there or even when they leave the room. They show no preference for their caregiver over other people and don't seek closeness when they approach. This may be because this child's efforts for attachment have been disappointed so many times that they have learned to become independent. They realised that their caregiver was not going to attend to their needs and so they are indifferent and feel no level of affection for them when they come or go. This can negatively affect social and emotional development.

3. Insecure-resistant (ambivalent) attachment: This is the child who is very hot and cold. This child desires their caregiver’s presence and closeness, but is not necessarily happy in their presence. Sometimes they come close, other times they may ignore their caregiver. They may be bothered when their caregiver goes, but when the caregiver comes back, they aren’t always happy and become upset with them. They may seek closeness, then reject it. This could be a reflection of similar hot and cold (inconsistent) treatment from their caregiver.

4. Disorganised attachment: This child displays fear when they are around their caregiver. This may be because they have experience good and bad from their caregivers as both a person of safety and fear. The child may not know which face or side of their caregiver they will get, so they often do not know how to respond safely to their caregiver.

The Takeaway

The desire for attachment is fundamentally a biological desire that stimulates emotional, social, and relational growth. The attachment relationship and development of an attachment system are a vital way of showing us how infants and young children are developing emotionally, socially, and cognitively.

Infants are aware of their surroundings and those who meet their needs as well as how and when their needs are met. They may not be able to cognitively think through these things at a sophisticated level like adults, but they are cognitively, emotionally, and socially influenced by them. They care very much about their caregiver’s attitude and response toward them because again, this is very much tied to their survival.

Bowlby shows us how there is a biological root to attachment and Ainsworth helps us to properly observe what this looks like so that we can begin to improve and intervene when we see problems. Attachment styles are often unconsciously developed and form a blueprint for the rest of the child's life. They can be changed, but with deliberate effort.

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