PSY311H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: John Bowlby, Object Permanence, Ethology
Document Summary
The child"s first relationship is generally referred to as an attachment. This relationship us usually very strong and reciprocal; for children were generally just talking about one specific relationship which is the first one and normally with the mother. Attachment: internal system which organizes the child"s feelings. Attachment behavior: external needs the child is expressing to meet the internal needs. Distinction between attachment as a biologically based system within an individual. Psychoanalytic theory: according to freud, infants become attached to their mother because they associate her with gratification of their instinctual drive to obtain pleasure through sucking and oral stimulation. Learning theories: some also associate mother-infant attachment with mother-infant feeding: drive-reduction learning theorists suggested that the mother becomes an attachment object because she reduces the baby"s primary drive of hunger. This view was challenged by harlow and his experiment with rhesus monkeys.
