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John Bowlby's Attachment Theory Research Paper

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The development and importance of attachment in early life
Most people believe there is nothing more precious and fulfilling in life than having a family of their own. But what happens if the new parents are unable to form a healthy, loving attachment with their newborns? This essay will explore the development and importance of attachment, its theory, and the significance of a parent nurturing a loving attachment with their baby.
Formation of attachment
Although the British psychiatrist John Bowlby was not the first to study the psychological effects of having a kind and present caregiver in babies early developmental stages, he was revolutionary in his attachment theory (Goldberg, 2000). His theory is based on the innate relationship that customarily grows between a mother and her newborn. He believed the quality of the time the caregiver commits to the infant and the more sensitive they are to the child’s needs the better a child’s positive expectations of self and others will evolve. This, in turn, will lead the child to have a healthier emotional, mental, and social development …show more content…

Some of these were an analysis of studies that were carried out on children in orphanages and also clinicians monitoring of children in care or children who were hospitalised away from their parents in the 1930s and 40s. He combined these evaluations with his own previous studies that he carried out when practising in the London Child Guidance Clinic. The study was on linking adolescent thieves behaviours to their maternally deprived infancies (Bowlby, 1988).
Not only did Bowlby draw on the research that was carried out on human infants to construct his theory but he also took into account the work done by the psychologist Harry Harlow and the ethologist Konrad Lorenz. Both of these men studied the attachment that develops in different breeds of baby animals.
Attachment in different

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