SENSITIVE MOTHERING

Sensitive Mothering

Sensitive Mothering

Bowlby's attachment theory and Ainsworth's experiments

Attachment theory originated from the work of Psychiatrist, John Bowlby and its concept associated with the development of early relationships. In order to ascertain if theories of attachment provide a sound basis for advice on how to bring up children, different theories will be looked at, evaluated and concluded.

According to Bowlby the separation from the mother activates the infant's attachment system; the infant would vocalise, cling or cry out to their mother, thus displaying attachment behaviour. Also using this same example, Bowlby specified the importance of an infant's environment and the need to explore it, whist maintaining a balance between attachment and innate needs. Here infants will actively interact within their environment with the reassurance of the mother being in close proximity, once this changes and the mother leaves the room, again the attachment system launches and activates the attachment behaviours, as described above.

The World Health Organisation asked Bowlby to elaborate on theories of attachment and he conducted a study in 1950 of the childhood experiences of delinquent adolescent boys who had grown up institutionalised and without a permanent mother figure. His results were published in 1951 and was called The maternal deprivation hypothesis.

Bowlby believed there was a critical period between the ages of 6 months and 3 years that children needed 'continuous love and care from one person, the mother or a permanent mother substitute'. (Book 2, Chapter 1) He believed that significant separation from the child and caregiver would have a serious effect on the development, both socially and emotionally, of the child, that is, they are likely to suffer from mental illness. He also emphasised that first attachments laid out crucial foundations for subsequent attachments.

He also found that “they were retarded in terms of intelligence, speech, reading and arithmetic”. (Book 2, Chapter 1). Bowlby interpreted this by saying that providing babies do receive mothering in time (within the 12 month age limit), the likelihood of damage to the child is reduced. Bowlby also found that below the ages of around 6 months there are no effects on a baby if an attachment is not formed. Bowlby related this finding to Piaget's view that young infants are unable to conceive of persons or objects as persisting in time, and are therefore not disturbed by their disappearance. (Tizard 1986)

Following on from Bowlby's work has been further research by Mary Ainsworth. Ainsworth puts more emphasis on the quality of the attachment rather than the quantity, and argued that it is possible for an infant to form more than one quality attachment with adults.

Ainsworth was particularly interested in the reactions of the infants when their mother left the room, and their subsequent reactions when the mother returned. This led to Ainsworth developing the Strange Situation technique. This is a laboratory-based experiment where the infants behaviour is observed as changes to the environment are made. It takes place in an environment (an observation room) which is unfamiliar to the ...