Sociability Vs Attachment

Sociability is the desire to seek out and interact with others whereas attachment refers to the formation of a relatively strong and enduring emotional relationship between people. While these appear to be separate behaviours they are in fact interdependent. In that if someone responds in an unsociable manner to another then it is highly unlikely that an emotional relationship will be formed. Conversely if someone responds sociably towards another and this is reciprocated then it is probable that they will choose to interact on future occasions thus increasing the probability that they will form a strong enduring emotional relationship. Thus sociability is a prerequisite for attachments.

Both sociability and attachment are very important behaviours
For example crying behaviour is displayed from birth and is thought to gain the attention of potential caregivers and if the caregiver is able to pacify the infant this acts as a positive reinforcer that increases the probability of future interaction and the opportunity for an emotional relationship to develop. Research by Fantz has shown that from birth to two months babies increasingly show a preference for gazing at human faces above any other object. Condon and Sanders have shown an increasing preference for an animated speaking human face towards the end of this stage and that babies as young as 2 days orientates their gaze toward the source of a anxious-avoidant attachment exhibited in 20% of her sample, and anxious-resistant attachment - exhibited in 10% of her sample. Moreover the type of attachment appears to result in different behaviours. The securely attached infants explore their environment and largely ignore the mother, apart from seeking comfort by looking towards them periodically, showing no distress towards strangers instead simply looking to the mother for reassurance when they enter the situation. However they do show distress when the mother leaves and immediately seek the mother for comfort when she returns upon which she is easily able to pacify the infant. The anxious-avoidant attached or detached infants appear to be
Indeed research has shown that securely attached infants are much more sociable than anxious-avoidant and -resistant attached infants (e.g. Pastor, 1981). Nevertheless this conclusion may well be erroneous for a number of reasons. Firstly Vaughn et al's (1980) research has shown that attachment types exhibited can change if the circumstances of the caregiver change. Thus challenging the permanent nature of attachment type claimed by Ainsworth et al. Secondly because the use of the strange situation technique together with a controlled observation method of research may have resulted in behaviours that are not ecologically valid and therefore may not be representative of infants' behaviour in real life settings. Thirdly because cross cultural research has shown that the type of attachment reflects child rearing practices rather than whether the infant has a secure or insecure emotional relationship with their caregiver. For example research has shown that Japanese mothers are rarely if ever separated from their infants and such infants exhibit anxious resistant attachment behaviour. German mothers encourage their infants to be independent from a very early age and not to rely on them - such infants' exhibit behaviour that implies that they have not formed an attachment but this is clearly not the