Attachment primarily in infants is a process of “proximity seeking” to an identified attachment figure in situations of perceived distress or alarm.
Infants become attached to adults who pay close attention to them and are sensitive and responsive in social interactions with the infant, and who happened to be their persistent caregivers for some months during the period from about 6 months to two years of age.
Style of attachment behavior and expectation of attachment figures learnt in infancy as well as experience of separation and loss form the basis of adult emotional relationship. Bowby 1973.To Bowby, human attachment is based on innate pattern of behavior that guides social interaction between parent and children. Attachment occur because the infants are pre-equiped with innate emotional responses that elicit parental cares and protection that are mutually rewarding in the form of social signals such as smiles, hugs and giggles.
In Bowlby's approach, the human infant is considered to have a need for a secure relationship with adult caregivers, without which normal social and emotional development will not occur. Children subsequently learn to use attachment figures as a secure base to explore from and return to.
Bowlby believed that there are four distinguishing characteristics of attachment: Proximity Maintenance - The desire to be near the people we are attached to; Safe Haven - Returning to the attachment figure for comfort and safety in the face of a fear or threat; Secure Base - The attachment figure acts as a base of security from which the child can explore the surrounding environment and Separation Distress - Anxiety that occurs in the absence of the attachment figure. In addition to care-seeking by children, attachment behaviours include peer relationships of all ages, romantic and sexual attraction, and responses to the care needs of infants or sick or elderly adults.
Author: Awujoola Olaoluwa
References.
Developmental Psychology by Grace A. Adejuwon Ph.D Department of Psychology University of Ibadan.
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