Until some forty years ago it was widely believed that the love for the mother was a direct consequence of the fact that she provided the means to satisfy basic biological needs-she provided food, warmth, physical protection and relief from pain. The most influential version of this approach was probably that of Sigmund Freud, who believed that the terror of infants at their mother’s absence is based on the expectation that they would go unfed. Because mothers were seen primarily as a food repository. Freud’s view became known as the cupboard theory of mother love (Bowlby,1969,1973).

The cupboard theory has been criticised on several grounds, one being the fact that babies often show great interest in people other than those who feed them. For example infants seem to enjoy being cuddled, smiled at, and played with and there is not one shred of evidence to indicate that babies enjoy pee

Separation for young infants can be quite difficult some children show separation anxiety and this reaction to separation provided a means for examining the attachment infants have with their mothers. A widely used procedure is the strange situation devised by Mary Ainsworth and her colleagues for children of about one year of age. A child is first brought into an unfamiliar room that contains many toys and then allowed to explore and play with the mother present. After a while a stranger enters, talks to the mother, and then approaches the child. The next step is a brief separation-the mother leaves the child alone with the stranger. After a few minutes though the mother returns and the stranger leaves. According to Ainsworth and her colleagues, the behaviour of one year olds in this situation falls into one of three major categories. The children described as “securely attached” explore, play with the toys and even make wary overtures to the stranger so long as the mother is present. They show some distress when the mother leaves, but greet her return with great enthusiasm. The remaining children show behaviour patterns that Ainsworth and her colleagues regard as signs of insecure attachment. These children are described as anxious and resistant. They don’t explore even in the mothers presence, become upset and panicky when she leaves and act ambivalent during the reunion running to her to picked up and the struggling to get down. Other children show a pattern called “anxious/ avoidant”. They are distant and aloof from the very outset, show little distress when the mother leaves and ignore her when she returns. Children in this experiment who show the most stable attachments, at age one are likely to be well adjusted years later; children who show unstable attachments at age one are likely to be poorly adjusted y

Some topics in this essay:
John Bowlby, According Ainsworth, , Sigmund Freud, Ray1996 Infants, Furstenberg Cherlin1991, Lipton1962 Dennis1973, Mary Ainsworth, Maccoby Dornbusch1996, Belsky Braungart1991, emotional development, children divorced, ainsworth colleagues, mother leaves, divorced parents, children divorced parents, social emotional, childhood emotional development, loving caring, childhood development, john bowlby, cupboard theory, role attachment childhood, distress mother leaves, social emotional development,