PSY 3102 Lecture 8: Attachment

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 3102
• Professor: Yaroslav Konar

Document Summary

Bowlby was the seminal researcher who studied child attachment to caregivers: evolutionarily, an infant has the best chance of surviving by being close to its mother, the child can summon the mother by voicing its distress. Although all children develop an attachment to the caregiver, there are individual differences in the level of attachment (all infants are born unique) Types of attachment include avoidant attachment, anxious attachment, and secure attachment. A child with the anxious-avoidant insecure attachment style will avoid or ignore the caregiver, showing little emotion when the caregiver departs or returns: the child will not explore vey much regardless of who is there. There is a complex interaction of three factors: the mother/caregiver, child"s innate characteristics, and the cultural context. This problem also introduces a dilemma; unclear which of these factors is the primary causative factor of a child"s attachment style, and later the adult"s attachment style.