Perhaps the most prominent of this group of theorists, John Bowlby was the first psychologist who started an extensive study on attachment. According to Bowlby's Attachment Theory, attachment is a psychological connectedness that occurs between humans and lasts for a long period of time. To Bowlby, attachment is what keeps a baby connected to his mother, considering the needs of the child that can only be satisfied by his parent.
Characteristics of Attachment
There are four basic characteristics that basically give us a clear view of what attachment really is. They include a safe heaven, a secure base, proximity maintenance and separation distress. These four attributes are very evident in the relationship between a child and his caregiver.
1. Safe Haven
Ideally, the child can rely on his caregiver for comfort at times whenever he feels threatened, frightened or in danger. For example, if a child is given a toy that he doesn't like, he'd cry and his mother would remove the toy and hug the child so he would stop crying.
2. Secure Base
Here, the caregiver gives a good and reliable foundation to the child as he goes on learning and sorting out things by himself. For example, a child would ask questions to his mother about why his dad got sick and can't play with him at the moment.
3. Proximity Maintenance
This means that the child aims to explore the world but still tries to stay close to his care giver. For example, a teenager discusses peer problems with his mother.
4. Separation Distress
This means that the child becomes unhappy and sorrowful when he becomes separated from his caregiver. For example, an infant cries loudly when his mother leaves for work.
Attachment Styles
Aside from Bowlby, other theorists contributed to the study of attachment. Ainsworth, Main and Solomon are the main researchers who theorized the different styles of attachment that can be observed in the relationship of a person to another. These attachment styles include: secure, ambivalent-secure, avoidant-insecure and disorganized insecure attachments.
1. Secure Attachment
When children are securely attached to their caregivers (parents), they feel happy whenever their caregivers are around, but are upset when they get separated from them. While the child is in distress when his parent is away, still, he feels secured with the feeling that his caregiver will return sometime soon.
2. Ambivalent Attachment
A child who is ambivalently attached becomes very upset and sorrowful whenever he gets separated from his parent. The child does not feel that he can rely on his caregiver whenever he is in need of something.
3. Avoidant Attachment
Simply put, a child who has an avoidant attachment tends to keep away from his parents. Studies revealed that this may be a cause of parents who are fond of neglecting or abusing their children.
4. Disorganized Attachment
This is when there is no clear (or mixed) attachment between the child and his caregiver. When the parent acts as an apprehensive caregiver and a reassuring one at different times, the child may get confused and cause this kind of attachment.
Why is studying Bowlby's Attachment Theory important? Many studies have found out that determining the attachment style in social relationships have a lasting effect on the future behavior of people.
Attachment theory describes the dynamics of long-term social relationships between humans. Attachment in infants is primarily a process of proximity-seeking to an identified attachment figure in situations of perceived distress or alarm for the purpose of survival. In other words, infants develop attachment to their caregivers—upon whom they are dependent—as a means of survival. John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth were two prominent researchers who advanced the theory of attachment as related to human development.
Bowlby's Attachment Theory
John Bowlby's contributions to the theory of attachment formation are heavily influenced by ethology (the scientific study of human and animal behavior), including an emphasis on the evolutionary origins and biological purposes of behavior. According to Bowlby, children are biologically predisposed to develop attachments to caregivers as the result of genetics. In 1969 Bowlby studied mother-infant interactions and concluded that infant smiling, babbling, crying, and cooing are built-in mechanisms to encourage parents to attach to, and thereby care for, the infant. Keeping the parent in close proximity ensures the infant will avoid danger. Bowlby introduced the idea of the caregiver as a "secure base" for the child, and that this secure base was either successfully created during childhood or was not.
The development of parent-infant attachment is a complex process that leads to deeper and deeper attachment as the child ages. This attachment (or lack thereof) has lifelong implications for the child as he or she reaches adulthood. Bowlby conceived of four stages of attachment that begin during infancy: preattachment, attachment-in-the-making, clear-cut attachment, and formation of reciprocal relationships.
- Preattachment (birth to 6 weeks): Built-in signals, such as crying and cooing, bring a newborn baby into close proximity with their caregiver. Babies recognize a caretaker's smell and voice and are comforted by these things. When the caretaker picks up the baby or smiles at her, the beginnings of attachment are forming. However, complete attachment has not yet occurred, so the baby is still comfortable being left with an unfamiliar person.
- Attachment-in-the-making (6 weeks to 8 months): Attachment is getting stronger during this stage, and infants respond differently to familiar people than they do to strangers. For example, a 5-month-old baby will be more "talkative" with his mother rather than with an uncle he sees only once a month. He will also be calmed more quickly by the mother's presence than by the uncle's. Separation anxiety (becoming upset when a trusted caregiver leaves) has not set in yet but will be seen in the next stage. Parents continue to build attachment by meeting the baby's basic needs for food, shelter, and comfort.
- Clear-cut attachment (8 months to 18 months): Attachment to trusted caregivers continues to strengthen in this stage, and separation anxiety is likely in a caregiver's absence. Toddlers generally want to be with their preferred caregiver at all times, and they will follow the caretaker, climb on them, or otherwise do things to keep the caregiver's attention. Parents and other important adults in the child's life continue to strengthen attachment by being receptive to the child's needs for attention, meeting basic needs, and playing with the child.
- Formation of reciprocal attachment (18 months to 2 years): Rapid language growth facilitates the understanding of new concepts, and children begin to understand a parent's coming and going. For example, children can now understand that a parent returns home from work at a certain time each day, so separation anxiety lessens—although the child may do things to gain extra time with the parent prior to departure or to keep the parent from leaving. Parents can help a child form secure attachment by explaining things to them, by being present as much as possible, and by continuing to meet basic needs.
Ainsworth's Types of Attachment
In 1970, Mary Ainsworth built on and expanded Bowlby's ideas, coming up with a more nuanced view of multiple types of insecure attachment. Ainsworth's primary contribution to attachment theory comes in the form of a study known as the Strange Situation. In this study, Ainsworth placed children between the ages of 1 and 2 in unfamiliar situations to assess the type and level of their attachment to their caregivers. Her research showed that children generally use the parent as a secure base from which to explore an unfamiliar room, and they become upset or uncomfortable when the parent leaves and a new individual (not known to the child) enters the room.
Ainsworth identified four primary types of attachment: secure, avoidant, and resistant/ambivalent. Depending upon how the children attached to their parents, they would act in predictable ways in the Strange Situation experiment.
- Secure: Children with this form of attachment use the caregiver as a secure base from which to explore the room. They are comforted by the parent and show a clear preference for the caregiver (for example, by protesting or avoiding the unfamiliar person).
- Avoidant: These children avoid contact with the caregiver and show little interest in play. They do not seem to mind when the caregiver leaves, and they treat the stranger in a similar fashion to the caregiver. The child may act in a rebellious manner and have lower self-esteem as they get older. The children of parents who do not meet their basic needs or are inattentive may form avoidant attachment.
- Resistant/Ambivalent: Children with this form of attachment are unable to use the caregiver as a secure base, and they seek out the caregiver prior to separation. They are both distressed by the caregiver's departure and angry when the caregiver returns. They are not easily calmed by the caregiver or the stranger, and they feel anxiety with the caregiver due to inconsistent attachment patterns.
In 1990, a fourth category, known as disorganized attachment, was added by Ainsworth's colleague Mary Main. Children with these attachment patterns engage in stereotypical behavior such as freezing or rocking. They act strangely with the caregiver and do not appear to know how to attach, doing such things as approaching with their back turned or hugging the stranger upon their entry to the room. Disorganized attachment generally results from the child being maltreated or neglected in some way.
Children who have secure attachment to parents are more likely to be successful adults.
Harry Harlow and the Rhesus Monkeys
In order to demonstrate the importance of social and emotional development in people, Harry Harlow studied the attachment patterns of Rhesus monkeys. This was based on the belief of John Bowlby that maternal attachment is a necessity for proper emotional and social development. Harlow raised baby Rhesus monkeys in a nursery-type setting away from their mothers; he gave them surrogate mothers made out of wire and wood, to which the babies developed attachment bonds. His alternative rearing technique, also called maternal deprivation, is considered highly controversial today.
Harlow next chose to investigate if the baby monkeys had a preference for bare wire mothers or cloth-covered mothers. For this experiment, he presented the infants with a cloth mother or a wire mother under two conditions. In one situation, the wire mother held a bottle with food and the cloth mother held no food; in the other, the cloth mother held the bottle and the wire mother had nothing. In the end, even in the situations in which the wire mother had food and the cloth mother had none, the baby monkeys preferred to cling to the cloth mother for comfort. Harlow concluded that there was much more to the mother/infant relationship than milk, and that this "contact comfort" was essential to the psychological development and health of infants.
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Sigmund Freud was a Viennese physician who developed his psychosexual theory of development through his work with emotionally troubled adults. Now considered controversial and largely outdated, his theory is based on the idea that parents play a crucial role in managing their children's sexual and aggressive drives during the first few years of life in order to foster their proper development.
Sigmund Freud developed his theory of development based on five psychosexual stages.
Freud's Structural Model
Freud believed that the human personality consisted of three interworking parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. According to his theory, these parts become unified as a child works through the five stages of psychosexual development. The id, the largest part of the mind, is related to desires and impulses and is the main source of basic biological needs. The ego is related to reasoning and is the conscious, rational part of the personality; it monitors behavior in order to satisfy basic desires without suffering negative consequences. The superego, or conscience, develops through interactions with others (mainly parents) who want the child to conform to the norms of society. The superego restricts the desires of the id by applying morals and values from society. Freud believed that a struggle existed between these levels of consciousness, influencing personality development and psychopathology.
Freud believed that we are only aware of a small amount of our mind’s activities and that most of it remains hidden from us in our unconscious. The information in our unconscious affects our behavior, although we are unaware of it.
Psychosexual Stages of Development
For Freud, childhood experiences shape our personalities and behavior as adults. Freud viewed development as discontinuous; he believed that each of us must pass through a series of stages during childhood, and that if we lack proper nurturing and parenting during a stage, we may become stuck in, or fixated on, that stage. According to Freud, children’s pleasure-seeking urges (governed by the id) are focused on a different area of the body, called an erogenous zone, at each of the five stages of development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.
- Oral (0-1 years of age): During this stage, the mouth is the pleasure center for development. Freud believed this is why infants are born with a sucking reflex and desire their mother's breast. If a child's oral needs are not met during infancy, he or she may develop negative habits such as nail biting or thumb sucking to meet this basic need.
- Anal (1-3 years of age): During this stage, toddlers and preschool-aged children begin to experiment with urine and feces. The control they learn to exert over their bodily functions is manifested in toilet-training. Improper resolution of this stage, such as parents toilet training their children too early, can result in a child who is uptight and overly obsessed with order.
- Phallic (3-6 years of age): During this stage, preschoolers take pleasure in their genitals and, according to Freud, begin to struggle with sexual desires toward the opposite sex parent (boys to mothers and girls to fathers). For boys, this is called the Oedipus complex, involving a boy's desire for his mother and his urge to replace his father who is seen as a rival for the mother’s attention. At the same time, the boy is afraid his father will punish him for his feelings, so he experiences castration anxiety. The Electra complex, later proposed by Freud’s protégé Carl Jung, involves a girl's desire for her father's attention and wish to take her mother’s place.
- Latency (6-12 years of age): During this stage, sexual instincts subside, and children begin to further develop the superego, or conscience. Children begin to behave in morally acceptable ways and adopt the values of their parents and other important adults.
- Genital (12+ years of age): During this stage, sexual impulses reemerge. If other stages have been successfully met, adolescents engage in appropriate sexual behavior, which may lead to marriage and childbirth.
Criticism of Freud's Theories
Freud's psychosexual theory is controversial and has been thoroughly criticized. First, even though Freud's stages are related to children, he based most of his theory on his work with troubled adults; he in fact never worked with children. Second, many believed his work was too focused on human sexuality, especially his focus on the Oedipus complex and children's sexual desire for parents. Some critics of Freud believe the memories and fantasies of childhood seduction Freud reported were not real memories but constructs that Freud created and forced upon his patients. Finally, supporters of feminist theory believe Freud's theory to be sexist and overly reliant upon a male perspective (for example, his belief that girls developed sexual libido due to "penis envy").
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Erik Erikson (1902–1994) was a stage theorist who took Freud’s controversial theory of psychosexual development and modified it as a psychosocial theory. Erikson emphasized that the ego makes positive contributions to development by mastering attitudes, ideas, and skills at each stage of development. This mastery helps children grow into successful, contributing members of society. During each of Erikson's eight stages, there is a psychological conflict that must be successfully overcome in order for a child to develop into a healthy, well-adjusted adult.
Erikson developed his eight stages of psychosocial development based on Freud's psychosexual theory.
Erikson's stages of psychosocial development are based on (and expand upon) Freud's psychosexual theory. Erikson proposed that we are motivated by the need to achieve competence in certain areas of our lives. According to psychosocial theory, we experience eight stages of development over our lifespan, from infancy through late adulthood. At each stage there is a crisis or task that we need to resolve. Successful completion of each developmental task results in a sense of competence and a healthy personality. Failure to master these tasks leads to feelings of inadequacy.
Erikson also added to Freud's stages by discussing the cultural implications of development; certain cultures may need to resolve the stages in different ways based upon their cultural and survival needs.
Trust vs. Mistrust
From birth to 12 months of age, infants must learn that adults can be trusted. This occurs when adults meet a child's basic needs for survival. Infants are dependent upon their caregivers, so caregivers who are responsive and sensitive to their infant’s needs help their baby to develop a sense of trust; their baby will see the world as a safe, predictable place. Unresponsive caregivers who do not meet their baby’s needs can engender feelings of anxiety, fear, and mistrust; their baby may see the world as unpredictable. If infants are treated cruelly or their needs are not met appropriately, they will likely grow up with a sense of mistrust for people in the world.
Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt
As toddlers (ages 1–3 years) begin to explore their world, they learn that they can control their actions and act on their environment to get results. They begin to show clear preferences for certain elements of the environment, such as food, toys, and clothing. A toddler’s main task is to resolve the issue of autonomy vs. shame and doubt by working to establish independence. This is the “me do it” stage. For example, we might observe a budding sense of autonomy in a 2-year-old child who wants to choose her clothes and dress herself. Although her outfits might not be appropriate for the situation, her input in such basic decisions has an effect on her sense of independence. If denied the opportunity to act on her environment, she may begin to doubt her abilities, which could lead to low self-esteem and feelings of shame.
Initiative vs. Guilt
Once children reach the preschool stage (ages 3–6 years), they are capable of initiating activities and asserting control over their world through social interactions and play. According to Erikson, preschool children must resolve the task of initiative vs. guilt. By learning to plan and achieve goals while interacting with others, preschool children can master this task. Initiative, a sense of ambition and responsibility, occurs when parents allow a child to explore within limits and then support the child's choice. These children will develop self-confidence and feel a sense of purpose. Those who are unsuccessful at this stage—with their initiative misfiring or stifled by over-controlling parents—may develop feelings of guilt.
Industry vs. Inferiority
During the elementary school stage (ages 6–12), children face the task of industry vs. inferiority. Children begin to compare themselves with their peers to see how they measure up. They either develop a sense of pride and accomplishment in their schoolwork, sports, social activities, and family life, or they feel inferior and inadequate because they feel that they don’t measure up. If children do not learn to get along with others or have negative experiences at home or with peers, an inferiority complex might develop into adolescence and adulthood.
Identity vs. Role Confusion
In adolescence (ages 12–18), children face the task of identity vs. role confusion. According to Erikson, an adolescent’s main task is developing a sense of self. Adolescents struggle with questions such as “Who am I?” and “What do I want to do with my life?” Along the way, most adolescents try on many different selves to see which ones fit; they explore various roles and ideas, set goals, and attempt to discover their "adult" selves. Adolescents who are successful at this stage have a strong sense of identity and are able to remain true to their beliefs and values in the face of problems and other people’s perspectives. When adolescents are apathetic, do not make a conscious search for identity, or are pressured to conform to their parents’ ideas for the future, they may develop a weak sense of self and experience role confusion. They will be unsure of their identity and confused about the future. Teenagers who struggle to adopt a positive role will likely struggle to "find" themselves as adults.
Intimacy vs. Isolation
People in early adulthood (20s through early 40s) are concerned with intimacy vs. isolation. After we have developed a sense of self in adolescence, we are ready to share our life with others. However, if other stages have not been successfully resolved, young adults may have trouble developing and maintaining successful relationships with others. Erikson said that we must have a strong sense of self before we can develop successful intimate relationships. Adults who do not develop a positive self-concept in adolescence may experience feelings of loneliness and emotional isolation.
Generativity vs. Stagnation
When people reach their 40s, they enter the time known as middle adulthood, which extends to the mid-60s. The social task of middle adulthood is generativity vs. stagnation. Generativity involves finding your life’s work and contributing to the development of others through activities such as volunteering, mentoring, and raising children. During this stage, middle-aged adults begin contributing to the next generation, often through childbirth and caring for others; they also engage in meaningful and productive work which contributes positively to society. Those who do not master this task may experience stagnation and feel as though they are not leaving a mark on the world in a meaningful way; they may have little connection with others and little interest in productivity and self-improvement.
Integrity vs. Despair
From the mid-60s to the end of life, we are in the period of development known as late adulthood. Erikson’s task at this stage is called integrity vs. despair. He said that people in late adulthood reflect on their lives and feel either a sense of satisfaction or a sense of failure. People who feel proud of their accomplishments feel a sense of integrity, and they can look back on their lives with few regrets. However, people who are not successful at this stage may feel as if their life has been wasted. They focus on what “would have,” “should have,” and “could have” been. They face the end of their lives with feelings of bitterness, depression, and despair.
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Lawrence Kohlberg expanded on the earlier work of cognitive theorist Jean Piaget to explain the moral development of children. Kohlberg believed that moral development, like cognitive development, follows a series of stages. He used the idea of moral dilemmas—stories that present conflicting ideas about two moral values—to teach 10 to 16 year-old boys about morality and values. The best known moral dilemma created by Kohlberg is the "Heinz" dilemma, which discusses the idea of obeying the law versus saving a life. Kohlberg emphasized that it is the way an individual reasons about a dilemma that determines positive moral development.
After presenting people with various moral dilemmas, Kohlberg reviewed people’s responses and placed them in different stages of moral reasoning. According to Kohlberg, an individual progresses from the capacity for pre-conventional morality (before age 9) to the capacity for conventional morality (early adolescence), and toward attaining post-conventional morality (once Piaget's idea of formal operational thought is attained), which only a few fully achieve. Each level of morality contains two stages, which provide the basis for moral development in various contexts.
Kohlberg identified three levels of moral reasoning: pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional. Each level is associated with increasingly complex stages of moral development.
Level 1: Preconventional
Throughout the preconventional level, a child's sense of morality is externally controlled. Children accept and believe the rules of authority figures, such as parents and teachers. A child with pre-conventional morality has not yet adopted or internalized society's conventions regarding what is right or wrong, but instead focuses largely on external consequences that certain actions may bring.
Stage 1: Obedience-and-Punishment Orientation
Stage 1 focuses on the child's desire to obey rules and avoid being punished. For example, an action is perceived as morally wrong because the perpetrator is punished; the worse the punishment for the act is, the more "bad" the act is perceived to be.
Stage 2: Instrumental Orientation
Stage 2 expresses the "what's in it for me?" position, in which right behavior is defined by whatever the individual believes to be in their best interest. Stage two reasoning shows a limited interest in the needs of others, only to the point where it might further the individual's own interests. As a result, concern for others is not based on loyalty or intrinsic respect, but rather a "you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours" mentality. An example would be when a child is asked by his parents to do a chore. The child asks "what's in it for me?" and the parents offer the child an incentive by giving him an allowance.
Level 2: Conventional
Throughout the conventional level, a child's sense of morality is tied to personal and societal relationships. Children continue to accept the rules of authority figures, but this is now due to their belief that this is necessary to ensure positive relationships and societal order. Adherence to rules and conventions is somewhat rigid during these stages, and a rule's appropriateness or fairness is seldom questioned.
Stage 3: Good Boy, Nice Girl Orientation
In stage 3, children want the approval of others and act in ways to avoid disapproval. Emphasis is placed on good behavior and people being "nice" to others.
Stage 4: Law-and-Order Orientation
In stage 4, the child blindly accepts rules and convention because of their importance in maintaining a functioning society. Rules are seen as being the same for everyone, and obeying rules by doing what one is "supposed" to do is seen as valuable and important. Moral reasoning in stage four is beyond the need for individual approval exhibited in stage three. If one person violates a law, perhaps everyone would—thus there is an obligation and a duty to uphold laws and rules. Most active members of society remain at stage four, where morality is still predominantly dictated by an outside force.
Level 3: Postconventional
Throughout the postconventional level, a person's sense of morality is defined in terms of more abstract principles and values. People now believe that some laws are unjust and should be changed or eliminated. This level is marked by a growing realization that individuals are separate entities from society and that individuals may disobey rules inconsistent with their own principles. Post-conventional moralists live by their own ethical principles—principles that typically include such basic human rights as life, liberty, and justice—and view rules as useful but changeable mechanisms, rather than absolute dictates that must be obeyed without question. Because post-conventional individuals elevate their own moral evaluation of a situation over social conventions, their behavior, especially at stage six, can sometimes be confused with that of those at the pre-conventional level. Some theorists have speculated that many people may never reach this level of abstract moral reasoning.
Stage 5: Social-Contract Orientation
In stage 5, the world is viewed as holding different opinions, rights, and values. Such perspectives should be mutually respected as unique to each person or community. Laws are regarded as social contracts rather than rigid edicts. Those that do not promote the general welfare should be changed when necessary to meet the greatest good for the greatest number of people. This is achieved through majority decision and inevitable compromise. Democratic government is theoretically based on stage five reasoning.
Stage 6: Universal-Ethical-Principal Orientation
In stage 6, moral reasoning is based on abstract reasoning using universal ethical principles. Generally, the chosen principles are abstract rather than concrete and focus on ideas such as equality, dignity, or respect. Laws are valid only insofar as they are grounded in justice, and a commitment to justice carries with it an obligation to disobey unjust laws. People choose the ethical principles they want to follow, and if they violate those principles, they feel guilty. In this way, the individual acts because it is morally right to do so (and not because he or she wants to avoid punishment), it is in their best interest, it is expected, it is legal, or it is previously agreed upon. Although Kohlberg insisted that stage six exists, he found it difficult to identify individuals who consistently operated at that level.
Critiques of Kohlberg's Theory
Kohlberg has been criticized for his assertion that women seem to be deficient in their moral reasoning abilities when compared to men. Carol Gilligan (1982), a research assistant of Kohlberg, criticized her former mentor’s theory because it was based so narrowly on research using white, upper-class men and boys. She argued that women are not deficient in their moral reasoning and instead proposed that males and females reason differently: girls and women focus more on staying connected and maintaining interpersonal relationships.
Kohlberg's theory has been criticized for emphasizing justice to the exclusion of other values, with the result that it may not adequately address the arguments of those who value other moral aspects of actions. Similarly, critics argue that Kohlberg's stages are culturally biased—that the highest stages in particular reflect a westernized ideal of justice based on individualistic thought. This is biased against those that live in non-Western societies that place less emphasis on individualism.
Another criticism of Kohlberg’s theory is that people frequently demonstrate significant inconsistency in their moral judgements. This often occurs in moral dilemmas involving drinking and driving or business situations where participants have been shown to reason at a lower developmental stage, typically using more self-interest driven reasoning (i.e., stage two) than authority and social order obedience driven reasoning (i.e., stage four). Critics argue that Kohlberg's theory cannot account for such inconsistencies.