PSYC21H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Maternal Bond, Attachment In Adults, Harry Harlow
Document Summary
The development of attachment relationships is a major achievement in the infant"s early social life. Attachment = a strong emotional bond that forms between infant and caregiver in the second half of the child"s first year. Infants become attached to their mother because they associate her with gratification of their instinctual drive to obtain pleasure through sucking and oral stimulation. The mother who breast-feeds her baby = important attachment figure: baby becomes attached first to the mother"s breast and then to the mother herself during freud"s oral stage of development. It can"t explain why children form attachments to an abusive parent if that person is the only caregiver available: cognitive developmental theory. Infants must have the ability to remember what ppl look like and the knowledge called object permanence (piaget) understanding that objects, including ppl, have a continuous existence apart from the baby"s own interactions with them.
