Cupboard Love Theory – Sigmund Freud
Incorporating the psychoanalytic and behaviourist explanations.
At the turn of the century, the treatment of new-born babies was regarded as having little significance for later life, as babies were thought to be immune to influence. This idea, like many others prevalent at that time, was attacked by Sigmund Freud. He believed that the relationship a child has with its mother is a prototype on which all future relationships are based.
According to Freud's psychoanalytic theory a child becomes attached to its mother because she is its source of food; hence she gratifies its most basic instinctual and psychological needs. Freud states that the primary drive is for food and as the mother is associated with food, she becomes desired by the infant in her own right. In the normal course of growing up, the child comes to accept that this psychosexual relationship can not be, and as it becomes an adult, sets out to find another figure with whom to satisfy this need. It follows that if future relationships are a substitute for the mother-child bond, then they will also be modelled on it.
The behaviourist view of attachment also sees infants becoming attached to whoever satisfies their basic needs. The infants hunger drive is satisfied by the mother and through classical conditioning, in this case the association between the mother and food, the infant develops a secondary drive for the mother herself.
In turn, infants learn to approach the mother (or primary caregiver) to have their needs satisfied and this eventually generalises into a feeling of security whenever the caregiver is present.
Ethological Theories and Bowlbys Theory.
The term attachment was introduced by ethologists (psychologists, who study non human behaviour,) Lorenz showed that some non humans form strong bonds with the first moving objects they see after birth. In precocial species’, where the newborn is able to move on its own almost immediately after birth, the young need to learn quickly to recognize its parents and stay close to them. Lorenz called this recognition between parent and offspring imprinting.
- Imprinting is the result of an instinct. That is, a genetically predetermined response that is "released" by a limited set of stimuli from the environment, the most effective stimuli probably being those that are represented in adults of a give species.
- Additionally, the "critical period" during which imprinting can occur was thought to be limited and severely restricted to the animals very early life.
Bowlby , who first applied this idea to the infant-caregiver bond, was inspired by Lorenz's studies of imprinting in baby geese. He believed that the human baby, like the young of most animal species, is equipped with a set of built-in behaviours that helps keep the parent nearby, increasing the chances that the infant will be protected from danger. Contact with the parent also ensures that the baby will be fed, but Bowlby was careful to point out that feeding is not the basis of attachment.
According to Bowlby, the infant's relationship to the parent begins as a set of innate signals that call the adult to the baby's side. As time passes, a true affectionate bond develops, which is supported by new cognitive and emotional capacities as well as a history of consistent, sensitive and responsive care by the parent. Out of this experience, children form an enduring affectional bond with their caregivers that enable them to use this attachment figure as a secure base. The inner representation of this parent-child bond becomes an important part of personality. It serves as an internal working model, or set of expectations about the availability of attachment figures, the likelihood of receiving support from them during times of stress, and the interaction with those figures. This image becomes the basis for all future close relationships during infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adult life.
- Outline Bowlbys Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis
In 1973 the leading attachment psychologist, Mary Ainsworth, pointed out that “Attachment is an affectional tie that one person forms to another person, binding them together in space, and enduring over time”. Deprivation can occur when there is insufficient opportunity for interaction with a mother figure (privation), when there is insufficient interaction with mother (deprivation), or when there are repeated breaches of ties with mother figures.
Bowlby believed that an infant’s failure to attach to a primary caregiver would have long term effects. In 1949, the World Health Organisation became concerned about the number of homeless children, or children who were growing up in institutions as a result of the war years. They commissioned Bowlby to look into this matter, and to report to them whether these children were likely to be suffering from their experiences, and in turn, what the best kind of upbringing would be. Bowlby concluded that a warm intimate and continuing relationship with a mother figure is an essential necessity for mental health. . Maternal deprivation or a disturbed emotional attachment between mother and child was said to cause irreparable damage. Contrary to behaviourists and Freudians, who thought that physical comfort was a caregiver’s primary concern, Bowlby suggested that emotional care was at least equally important. He states that “maternal attachment is as essential for healthy psychological development as vitamins and minerals are for physical health”.
Bowlby also proposed the concept of monotropy which is the need for one central caregiver, usually the mother, or alternatively the father or another person. Bowlby felt that there was a critical period in the formation of attachments. He believed that children who experience maternal deprivation below the age of four will suffer permanent psychological damage.
- Describe the procedures and conclusions of one study of the effects of privation.
Over the centuries there have been several reports of children, who have been raised in isolated and deprived circumstances. Privation occurs when a child has never formed a close relationship with anyone. An extreme case of privation would be the case of ‘Genie.’
Genie was discovered by the authorities at the age of 13, having been kept in virtual isolation for most of her life, and treated cruelly by her parents. She had been tied to a ‘potty chair’ for much of the time, could only eat baby food, and her development was severely retarded. She walked awkwardly, had no language, and made very little sound, having been beaten for making a noise. After spending about a year in hospital, Genie went to live with her therapist, David Rigler, and his family. He was also in charge of the scientific research project that had funding to study whether Genie was able to develop language, or whether she had passed the critical period for language development. She lived with them for four years, and experienced an intensive care and rehabilitation programme.
Genie made good progress during her time with the Riglers and when in the hospital. She learned to say and recognise a lot of words, and though she never got to grips with grammar, she communicated well. Accordingly, she made about a year’s progress for every year after she was found.
Another area of concern was Genie’s ability to form attachments. She did seem to become attached to the family who looked after her, and became gradually more sociable. However, after four years with the Riglers, the research funding was cut. Genie still displayed a lot of difficult behaviour, such as tantrums, and looking after her had been a real strain on the family, so the Riglers gave up looking after her, and Genie returned to her biological mother. Unfortunately, Genie was too difficult for her mother to take care of, and she was placed in a series of care homes and foster homes, where she was sometimes treated very badly, and she regressed dramatically.
This study shows that extreme privation has serious and lasting effects, on both emotional development (attachment) and cognitive development (language), but these effects can be reversed to some extent with high quality care.
It is not clear whether Genie suffered from some kind of learning difficulties from birth. Dr Jake Shurley found that Genie had abnormal sleep spindles, which suggested she had been brain damaged; however it was argued that as Genie had made such good progress she must have been ‘normal’ at some point.
