Development Theory

Child Development, 1969, 40, 969-1025

OBJECT RELATIONS, DEPENDENCY, AND
ATTACHMENT: A THEORETICAL REVIEW OF THE
INFANT-MOTHER RELATIONSHIP
MARY D. SALTER AINSWORTH
Johns Hopkins University
3 theoretical approaches to the origin and development o f the infant-mother relationship are reviewed: psychoanalytic theories of object relations, social learning theories of dependency
(and attachment), and an ethologically oriented theory o f attachment. "Object relations,"
"dependency," and "attachment," although overlapping, are seen to differ substantially.
Among the concepts in regard to which there are significant inter-theoretical differences, the following are discussed: genetic "biases," reinforcement as compared with activation and termination of behavioral systems and with feedback, strength o f attachment behavior versus strength of attachment, inner representation of the object, intra-organismic and environmental conditions of behavioral activation, and the role of intra-organismic organization and structure. Finally, the relation between theory and research methods is considered.
Three terms have been commonly used to characterize the infant 's relationship with his mother: "object relations," "dependency," and "attachment." Although they overlap somewhat in their connotations, these terms are not synonymous. Each is more or less closely tied to a distinctive theoretical formulation of the origin and development of early interpersonal relations. The concept of object relations stems from psychoanalytic instinct theory. The "object" of an instinct is the agent through which the instinctual aim is achieved, and the agent is usually conceived as being another person. It is generally agreed that the infant 's first object is his mother. The origin of object relations lies in the first year of life, and most, although not all, psychoanalysts have viewed the infant 's initial relationship with his mother as being essentially oral in nature.

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