Discuss the contributions of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth to our understanding of the early parent-child relationship.

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Alison Portlock  20045505                                                        Psy1003

It has been said of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth that they “revolutionized the way in which we think and observe young children and their parents” (Goldberg, 2000) Discuss the contributions of these two individuals to our understanding of the early parent-child relationship.

Attachment describes “an infants tendency to seek closeness to particular people and to feel more secure in their presence”(Atkinson et al, 2000).  There are two major perspectives that deal with parental/child attachment theory.  The behaviorist view is that infants become attached to their mother because she is a source of food and she removes the tension of hunger.  The Psychoanalytical view is that infants are driven by sexual drives and the mother provides gratification to the child.  Several pieces of evidence showing that both of these theories are not entirely correct have been found.  Take ducklings for instance.  They feed them selves from birth yet they still follow their mother around and always like to be in their presence.  Therefore, the comfort they get from their mother cannot be based upon feeding.  Harlow & Harlow (1962) researched attachment amongst Rhesus monkeys.  The monkeys were taken from their mother from birth and reared using two artificial monkeys.  One made of wire that dispensed milk and the other covered on terry cloth.  Although the terry cloth monkey did not provide milk, the babies clung to it most of the time and reached over to the wire monkey for feeding.  This concludes that a mother is not there solely for food but is a source of comfort too.

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Bowlby (1969) combined the Psychoanalytical approach with the ethological theory to produce his theory of attachment.  He thought that a person’s personality and ability to form later relationships depends on their attachment in early life.  He noted that if a child experienced disruption in family life during early infancy then it would lead to problems, such as crime, in adolescence.  Bowlby suggests that, attachment is a relationship with a caregiver consisting of affection from both sides and a need to be close to one-another.  Rutter (1981) criticized Bowlby’s idea that an infant needs only one caregiver in order to develop ...

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