Early social development

Early social development

1. What is an attachment?

   • Schaffer (1993)
     • A close emotional relationship between two persons, characterised by mutual affection and a desire to maintain proximity
   • Maccoby (1980) describes four characteristics of an attachment
     • 1) Seeking proximity, the desire to be close to the person to whom you are attached
     • 2) Separation anxiety, the distress that results from being separated from that person
     • 3) Pleasure when reunited, relief and observable joy when reunited with them
     • 4) General orientation of behaviour towards the caregiver, the child’s awareness of where the person is, and the reassurance they feel by them being close.

2. Why do we form attachments?

   • This is best broken into short term (immediate) benefits and longer term benefits
   • Short Term Benefits
     • Infants require lots of assistance in the early stages of life
     • Forming a close attachment with a caregiver therefore ensures that the offspring will be fed, protected from harm, educated in various techniques of survival and kept warm
     • it is also in the interests of the parent(s) to protect their offspring from harm
   • Long Term Benefits
     • Bowlby (1969) proposed that early attachments provide a template or schema, or a set of expectations that allow us to build other attachments later in life. ‘internal working model'.
     • It seems they also act as an anti-incest device. Incest, as well as being morally repugnant in all societies, is biologically very dodgy, leading to greatly increased risk of genetic abnormality.