Theories of Attachments
Theories of attachment 1) “cupboard love” theories – psychodynamic/behaviourists 2) The ethological approach 3) Bowlbys evolutionary theory 4) Social learning theory
Studying attachments and their loss can help us understand how early relationship experiences can affect later development
What is attachment?
An intense emotional relationship that is specific to two people that endure over time. Prolonged separation brings stress and sorrow
1, “cupboard love” theory – psychodynamic theory
Sigmund Freud developed a theory of personality, to explain how each person’s personality develops he proposed that attachment grew out of the feeding relationship
Key
The psychodynamic approach analyses the psyche (your mind) i.e. it breaks down into constituent parts such as the id/ego/superego
Psychoanalysts (like Freud) believe that:
All babies are born with an innate drive to seek pleasure; Freud called this the pleasure principle Freud said there is a particular structure of the personality that is motivated by this principle: the id
The id is the primitive part of our personality, which demands immediate satisfaction; all people pass through psychosexual stages. First stage of psychosexual development is oral, thus babies demand oral satisfaction
The mother is the first love object because she feeds the child and so an attachment is formed. Freud saw this the first relationship as the foundation the foundation of all others. Infants attach to their caregivers (usually the mother) because of the caregivers ability to satisfy its instinctual needs.
Quality of attachment and future relationships
Healthy attachments are formed when the feeder practices to satisfy the infants needs, unhealthy attachments are formed when infants are deprived or over indulged.
If the child’s first relationship is loving, the child develops the ability to love, if not, adult relationships will be unsatisfactory
Consequences
If an infant is deprived
Studying attachments and their loss can help us understand how early relationship experiences can affect later development
What is attachment?
An intense emotional relationship that is specific to two people that endure over time. Prolonged separation brings stress and sorrow
1, “cupboard love” theory – psychodynamic theory
Sigmund Freud developed a theory of personality, to explain how each person’s personality develops he proposed that attachment grew out of the feeding relationship
Key
The psychodynamic approach analyses the psyche (your mind) i.e. it breaks down into constituent parts such as the id/ego/superego
Psychoanalysts (like Freud) believe that:
All babies are born with an innate drive to seek pleasure; Freud called this the pleasure principle Freud said there is a particular structure of the personality that is motivated by this principle: the id
The id is the primitive part of our personality, which demands immediate satisfaction; all people pass through psychosexual stages. First stage of psychosexual development is oral, thus babies demand oral satisfaction
The mother is the first love object because she feeds the child and so an attachment is formed. Freud saw this the first relationship as the foundation the foundation of all others. Infants attach to their caregivers (usually the mother) because of the caregivers ability to satisfy its instinctual needs.
Quality of attachment and future relationships
Healthy attachments are formed when the feeder practices to satisfy the infants needs, unhealthy attachments are formed when infants are deprived or over indulged.
If the child’s first relationship is loving, the child develops the ability to love, if not, adult relationships will be unsatisfactory
Consequences
If an infant is deprived