Attachment Theory
The developmental theory that early bonds between infants and caregivers shape later social and emotional development.
Attachment theory, developed by John Bowlby and extended by Mary Ainsworth, holds that infants form emotional bonds with their caregivers that shape later social and emotional development. Bowlby argued that the attachment system is an evolved survival mechanism: proximity to a caregiver protects the infant from danger, and separation triggers distress and proximity-seeking behavior.
Ainsworth's Strange Situation procedure, introduced in 1978, classifies infant attachment by observing behavior across brief separations and reunions with the caregiver. Securely attached infants explore while the caregiver is present, show distress on separation, and are comforted on reunion. Anxious-ambivalent infants are clingy and not easily comforted; avoidant infants ignore the caregiver; a fourth category, disorganized attachment, describes contradictory behaviors and is associated with maltreatment. Bowlby proposed that these experiences build an internal working model — expectations about the self and others — that guides later relationships.
Longitudinal studies find moderate stability of attachment patterns, and secure attachment correlates with better peer relationships, emotion regulation, and school adjustment. Insecure patterns are associated with higher average risk of later difficulties, but the associations are modest, and the causal interpretation is debated: parenting and child temperament both contribute.
Attachment is not destiny. Later experiences, therapy, and supportive relationships can revise working models, and cross-cultural research in Japan, Germany, and elsewhere shows different distributions of patterns, reflecting cultural norms of caregiving rather than a single universal standard. The framework also extends to adult romantic relationships (Hazan and Shaver, 1987) and remains widely used in clinical and child-welfare practice.
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attachment child development psychology relationships
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