Some recent research suggests that child-care in infancy threatens attachment security and later emotional adjustment. Discuss.

Authors Avatar

Linda Wade    PSY230        Page         5/4/2007

1 Some recent research suggests that child-care in infancy threatens attachment security and later emotional adjustment. Discuss.

   

Infant attachment can be defined as the formation and bonding of a relationship between caregiver and child. Although this bonding is initiated throughout the onset of pregnancy between mother and child, the growth of primary attachments do not develop until the child is born.  Maccoby (1980) suggested that a child would exhibit attachment behaviour via four ways: (1) aged 8-9 month, baby seeks proximity of the caregiver, and when separated for a given time they would return to the individual; (2) babies show stress whilst separated from caregiver; (3) often pleased when reunited; (4) in certain behavioural circumstances they would periodically seek their caregivers approval and reassurance (Butterworth, 1998 p. 107.)

During this essay one will discuss the important issues that can affect a child’s emotional development. Firstly, one would take into account the some of the theoretical explanations of the importance of attachment analyzing the psychoanalytical, and learning perspectives from the past. Then we will look at recent research that has been carried out on children, to see whether the lack of attachment can determine our emotional behaviour in later life.

Sigmund Freud (1909) emphasis of attachment evolved from his work on ‘Drive Reduction Theory’. He recognised that infants are born with biological drives to satisfy their basic needs, which are hunger and thirst; he called this process ‘mothereise’. However, he extrapolated this analogy further in his structure of psychoanalytical thesis on personality. It is here that he stressed the importance of the five psychosexual stages in a child’s development.  Moreover he expressed his particular concern about the phallic stage of development and the emotional attachment that the child develops towards the caregiver i.e. “Oedipus complex” where the boy is fixated with his mother. Freud noted that for a child to develop normally they needed to pass through each stage without any hidden conflicts e.g. external forces that can intervene with the child’s behaviour, causing the child to regress later on in their development (Gross, 2001 pp.506-07.)

Join now!

Regression according to Freud evolves via the conflict principle, which causes traumas, which can later result in the child/adult being neurosis. Freud’s theory of neurosis has been thought to be an explanation for many of the antisocial behavioural occurrences, which occur today (Bowlby, 1997, p.10.)

Bowlby (1950’s) was one researcher who was influenced by the psychoanalytical approach and later emphasized the importance of the ethological perspective. At first he implemented Freud’s idea of the child‘s attachment being built around the mother and their primary needs for survival. In fact Bowlby stressed that the child’s emotional attachment transpires from ...

This is a preview of the whole essay