Attachment in social

development
By: Rameen Babar
Social development

• Social development involves learning the values, knowledge and skills

that enable children to relate to others effectively and to contribute in
positive ways to family, school and the community.
• This kind of learning is passed on to children directly by those who
care for and teach them, as well as indirectly through social
relationships within the family or with friends, and through
children’s participation in the culture around them.
• As children develop socially, they both respond to the influences
around them and play an active part in shaping their relationships.
Attachment

• According to Bowlby (1969), people who are securely attached take

pleasure in their interactions and feel comforted by their partner’s
presence in times of stress or uncertainty.
• so, 10-month-old baby may reflect the attachment relationship he
shares with his mother by reserving his biggest grins for her and by
crying out to her or crawling in her direction whenever he is upset,
discomforted, or afraid.
Attachments as Reciprocal Relationships

Bowlby (1969) also stressed that parent–infant attachments are

reciprocal relationships:

• infants become attached to parents,

• and parents become attached to infants.
• genuine emotional attachments build slowly from parent–infant
interactions that occur over the first several months and can become
highly intimate, even when there is no early contact between parents
and their newborn.

• The likelihood that a mother and her infant will become securely
attached is just as high in adoptive families as in nonadoptive ones and
in families formed through surrogacy arrangements (golombok et al.,
2004).
Establishment of Interactional Synchrony

• One important contributor to the growth of attachments is the

synchronized routines that caregivers and infants often establish over
the first few months of a baby’s life (Tronick, 1989).
Table 1

Age Milestones

4 and 9 weeks of age Infants normally begin gazing quite intently and
showing more interest in their mother’s face

2 to 3 months beginning to understand some simple social

contingencies
e.g. smile back when they see their mother smiling at
them
2- to 6-month-olds smile briefly at the parent to regain her attention
before becoming distressed by her lack of
responsiveness

10-month-old baby reflect the attachment relationship reserves

his biggest grins for her
crying out to her or crawling in her direction
whenever he is upset, discomforted, or afraid.
How Do Infants Become Attached?

• Schaffer and Emerson found that infants pass through the following
phases as they develop close ties with their caregivers.
Phases of attachment Age Characteristics

Asocial phase birth to about 6 weeks infants respond in an equally favorable way
to interesting social and nonsocial stimuli.

Indiscriminate attachments About 6 weeks to 6-7 months infants prefer social to nonsocial
phase stimulation and are likely to protest
whenever any adult puts them down or
leaves them alone.
The Specific Attachment Phase about 7 to 9 months infants are attached to one close
companion (usually the mother).
Secure base the use of a caregiver as a
base from which to explore the
environment and to which to return for
emotional support.

Multiple Attachments phase about 9 to 18 months infants are forming attachments to

companions other than their primary
attachment object.
Early Theories of Attachment
Attachment theory Basis of attachment formation Attachment-related behaviors

Psychoanalytic theory Feeding and responsiveness to Caregiver’s responsiveness to

infant’s needs infant’s hunger and other basic
needs

Learning theory Caregiver becomes secondary Feeding and responsiveness to

reinforcer following basic learning infant’s needs providing pleasant
principles. and rewarding experience to infant.
Cognitive-developmental Level of cognitive development Infant discriminates between
theory caregivers and strangers. Infant
attains object permanence,
recognizing that caregivers
continue to exist even when
absent from view.

Ethological theory Innate behavioral tendencies Imprinting in animals

ensure attachment and Infants have characteristics that
attachment ensures survival of elicit attachment from
infants. caregivers.
Attachment related fear of infancy
Table 4: Attachment-Related Fears of Infancy

Stranger anxiety

8- to 10-month-old Wary reactions to strangers

Turn away from stranger, whimper, and crawl toward her
mother or other familiar companion

Separation anxiety

10-month-old Cry when sees mother leaving

15- months old Follow her and pleads not to leave him behind
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