Attachment is defined as the strong affectionate tie that we feel for the special people in our lives. It leads us to feel pleasure and joy when we interact with them and comfort when they are near us during stress. The infant's desire for closeness to other people is considered one of the most striking characteristics of infancy. Beginning manifestations of attachment include the infant's tendency to send positive emotional signals and seek physical closeness preferably to the primary caregiver; these behavior are evident by the middle to the end of the first year of the child's life. The infant's attachment to the caretaker serves as the prototype for later social relationships. Attachment provides closeness and comfort, and assists in social relationship development (Berk, 1991; Segal & Yahraes, 1978). Since these functions are such a consequential part of human development and quality of the life experience, the study of attachment is meaningful. The development of attachment, as well as the functions and styles of attachment are discussed.
Until approximately thirty years ago, it was thought that love for the mother was a consequence of her association with creature satisfactions such as alleviation of hunger, thirst, and pain. Sigmund Freud believed that the infant's upset at the mother's absence was based on fear that bodily needs would go unsatisfied; John Bowlby called this the cupboard theory of mother love. This theory was challenged, since babies show great interest in playing peek-a-boo or smiling which shows them to be predisposed to seek social satisfaction. Harry Harlow demonstrated that newborn monkeys preferred terry-cloth figures to wire figures, for contact comfort. It is now believed that attachment provides comfort and social development (Gleitman, 1995).
The ethological theory is currently the most accepted theory of attachment. John Bowlby formulated the view of human attachment to include ...