Comparing Bowlby And Ainsworth's Attachment Theory

The works of British psychologist, psychoanalyst, and psychiatrist John Bowlby, and Canadian developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth revolutionized the idea of attachment. Bowlby came up with the basic ideas on child attachment and their ties to the caregiver, and Ainsworth developed the way we test the attachment of infants in a observational measure she coined the “The strange situation”. This test is now an accepted way of assessing and measuring an infant’s level of attachment to the primary caregiver. The idea of attachment explains how the first close relationship an infant has can have lifelong implications and affect the quality of all other relationships (Fitton, V.A. 2012). Both Bowlby and Ainsworth’s research tried to reveal and

The first is a responsible caregiver creates a secure base for a child’s development, and this is crucial for cognitive, social, and physical growth. The second assumption made is that the first relationship becomes a model for all future love, friendships, and relationships in general, and this is how people first learn how relationships work (Meyer, D. et al, 2013). A child’s relationship with the primary caregiver is without a doubt an important factor of child development but only looking at attachment theory sidelines the role that genetic, biological, and other environmental factors play as a part of the big picture of human development (Dejong, 2014). Another issue that arises with attachment theory is individual differences children and infants have that influence attachments. For example Oppenheim et at. (2009) noted how secure patterns of attachment in children that have autism were different than the ones that Ainsworth originally described. Individual differences are crucial elements for social workers to take into account with working with children and families. Therefore, attachment is something that cannot be measured identically among all families from all