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In attachment theory
Attachment theory

Attachment theory, originating in the work of John Bowlby, is a psychological, evolutionary and Ethology theory that provides a descriptive and explanatory framework for understanding interpersonal relationships between human beings....
 psychology, attachment is a product of the activity of a number of behavioral systems that have proximity to a person, e.g. a mother, as a predictable outcome. The concept of there being an "attachment" behavior, stage, and process, to which a growing person remains in proximity to another was developed beginning in 1956 by British developmental psychologist John Bowlby
John Bowlby

John Bowlby was a United Kingdom psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and his pioneering work in attachment theory....
. According to Bowlby, the concept of proximity attachment has its origins in Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin Royal Society was an English people natural history who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolution over time from common descent, through the process he called natural selection....
's 1856 Origin of Species, which "sees instinctive behavior as the outcome of behavioral structures that are activated by certain conditions and terminated by other conditions", Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalysis of psychology. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of Psychological repression and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for curing psychopathology through dialogue...
's 1905 Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality is a 1905 work by Sigmund Freud which advanced his theory of Human sexuality, in particular its relation to childhood....
 and his 1915 Instincts and their Vicissitudes, which according to Bowlby "postulates part-instincts, differentiates the aim of an instinct, namely the conditions that terminate instinctive behavior, and its function, and notes how labile are the objects towards which any particular sort of instinctive behavior is directed”, and Konrad Lorenz
Konrad Lorenz

Konrad Zacharias Lorenz was an Austrian zoology, animal psychology, ornithologist and Nobel Prize winner. He is often regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology, developing an approach that began with an earlier generation, including his teacher Oskar Heinroth....
's 1937 theory of imprinting
Imprinting (psychology)

Imprinting is the term used in psychology and ethology to describe any kind of phase-sensitive learning that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior....
.






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In attachment theory
Attachment theory

Attachment theory, originating in the work of John Bowlby, is a psychological, evolutionary and Ethology theory that provides a descriptive and explanatory framework for understanding interpersonal relationships between human beings....
 psychology, attachment is a product of the activity of a number of behavioral systems that have proximity to a person, e.g. a mother, as a predictable outcome. The concept of there being an "attachment" behavior, stage, and process, to which a growing person remains in proximity to another was developed beginning in 1956 by British developmental psychologist John Bowlby
John Bowlby

John Bowlby was a United Kingdom psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and his pioneering work in attachment theory....
. According to Bowlby, the concept of proximity attachment has its origins in Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin Royal Society was an English people natural history who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolution over time from common descent, through the process he called natural selection....
's 1856 Origin of Species, which "sees instinctive behavior as the outcome of behavioral structures that are activated by certain conditions and terminated by other conditions", Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalysis of psychology. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of Psychological repression and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for curing psychopathology through dialogue...
's 1905 Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality is a 1905 work by Sigmund Freud which advanced his theory of Human sexuality, in particular its relation to childhood....
 and his 1915 Instincts and their Vicissitudes, which according to Bowlby "postulates part-instincts, differentiates the aim of an instinct, namely the conditions that terminate instinctive behavior, and its function, and notes how labile are the objects towards which any particular sort of instinctive behavior is directed”, and Konrad Lorenz
Konrad Lorenz

Konrad Zacharias Lorenz was an Austrian zoology, animal psychology, ornithologist and Nobel Prize winner. He is often regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology, developing an approach that began with an earlier generation, including his teacher Oskar Heinroth....
's 1937 theory of imprinting
Imprinting (psychology)

Imprinting is the term used in psychology and ethology to describe any kind of phase-sensitive learning that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior....
. The 2001 book The Ontogeny of Human Bonding Systems by research psychiatrist Warren B. Miller and academic psychologist Joseph L. Rodgers offers an alternative approach to Bowlby, based on social bonding theory.

Attachment theory is concerned with the bond that develops between child and caretaker and the consequences this has for the child's emerging self-concept and developing view of the socialworld. Bowlby's theory (1969, 1973, 1980), which was the first formal statement of attachment theory, is an evolutionary-ethological approach (Ainsworth et al., 1978). According to this view, infant attachment behaviors are controlled by a distinct, goal-corrected behavioral system, which has a "set goal" of maintaining proximity to a nurturing adult and a biological function of promoting the child's security and survival (Bowlby, 1969)

Behavior analysts have done extensive research on attachment (see Child development
Child development

Child development stages describe theoretical milestones of child development. Many stage models of development have been proposed, used as working concepts and in some cases asserted as nativism theories....
) and in particular the role of and importance of contingency. This research supports the notion of attachment as operant based learning

See also

  • Attachment theory
    Attachment theory

    Attachment theory, originating in the work of John Bowlby, is a psychological, evolutionary and Ethology theory that provides a descriptive and explanatory framework for understanding interpersonal relationships between human beings....

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