Attachment Is A Lasting And Profound Emotional Bond

Attachment is a lasting and profound emotional bond that attaches one individual to another across space and time (Bowlby, 1969; Ainsworth, 1973). Attachment does not have to be a mutual thing; one individual may have an attachment to another person however he or she may not feel the same way. Attachment is considered by the way children behave, for example seeking closeness with the attachment figure when they are endangered or in distress (Bowlby, 1969). Bowlby’s (1951) ethological theory of attachment began with the ‘asocial’ phase, where the child non-discriminatingly socially responds to his guardians. This progresses later into an ‘indiscriminate attachments’ phase; this is when the child begins to restrict their responses to only†¦show more content†¦Other attachments are formed, they are called ‘subsidiary attachments’ however they do not have the same effect on the baby’s development (Prior, 2006, P63). This then lead to Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory; if there is a malfunction of the maternal attachment or the maternal attachment was never formed, it could lead to severe negative consequences such as a lack of emotional, intellectual and social development of the child, this could perhaps lead to affectionless psychopathy (McLeod, 2007). This theory was based on the study of 44 juvenile thieves and the study of children who were brought up in residenti al nurseries and orphanages (Davenport, 1992, P56). On the other hand, Feminists disagreed with Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation as it seems to contribute in confirming that women’s responsibilities are only meant to be in the home, this lead to several nurseries closing down, causing women to go back to their homes and becoming housewives again after employment throughout the World War II (Burman, 1994). Rutter’s (1981) also disagrees with Bowlby, he believes that affectionless psychopathy is not due to maternal deprivation but other aspects, for instance, social experiences, conflict and tension in the home and intellectual stimulation, which may lead to disorderly behaviour. He also mentions that children disapprove separation from various attachment