Talk:Applied History of Psychology/Attachment

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I'm working from a community college computer lab, which means working on whatever computer is available. This makes cookies a problem. What can I do about this? I've been editing Wikipedia for over 2 years as Margaret9mary --especially Double bind--and as Hijasegunda on Morris Swadesh--my father. Both my parents were scientists and I was trained in scientific methodology and thinking from earliest childhood. But as a visual/nonverbal nonlinear-thinker didn't become a scientist. I've a long-term interest in Attachment because my mother came from a family that believed children shouldn't be held or comforted, but left in their rooms alone most of the time until they began to walk and talk. Therefore I have considerable experience with the subject and recovery in adulthood. 205.167.120.201 (talk) 22:12, 19 November 2010 (UTC)


 * Regarding your problems with cookies, I suggest you ask in the Reading Room where someone should be able to advise you. I would expect you to be able to log in using either of your Wikipedia IDs. Recent Runes (talk) 23:53, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

COMMENTS on this Wikibook
Something crucially important is missing from this entry--the role of neurological development in attachment. When Bowlby began developing his theory of attachment he was in a similar situation as Darwin--he didn't have all the evidence (which would take thousands of scientists over various generations to amass) but he did have enough evidence to state a basic overview and he was aware of many things he couldn't clearly describe. His interest in ethology is key to what he was trying to say. He was aware of neurological issues. Look for it and you'll find it. Bowlby gave the (glaringly obvious) example of Lorenz's goslings because imprinting is a primitive form of attachment found in ground-dwelling birds, etc. Ground-dwelling birds must, on hatching, stay at all times close to their mother as a protection against predators. Tree-nesting birds, who have secondary altriciality (as do primates, including humans), are far more helpless. Primates cling to their mothers continuously for the first weeks or months. Human babies are even more helpless and must be carried.

Nursing is common to all mammals and, as Harlow was well aware, it was not just about food. Frequent nursing requires proximity, triggers bonding hormones in the mother and establishes a bond. This supports not just protection, but learning, both life skills and social skills--a situation in which the infant can observe, imitate and interact with others. Attachment also promotes the development of set points in physiological systems of homeostatic regulation.

Consider rats: born blind and helpless. Their mother leaves them to seek food and when she returns she grooms her babies, which provides sensory stimulation and social interaction. And, as Harlow found to his dismay while doing the research for his PhD at Stanford, the mother is essential to the development of the regulation of food intake in her babies. (See Deborah Blum (2002) Love at Goon Park, chapter 1).

Touch is essential to developing attachment. (See Mary Carlson at Harvard Medical School, for e.g.) Harlow's rhesus babies who could observe other monkeys but not physically and socially interact with them continued to have severe behavior problems. Touch and social interaction stimulate neurological programming.

Attachment begins developing from birth--it only becomes glaringly obvious beginning around 6 months (with separation anxiety and stranger anxiety) in preparation for the infant beginning to become mobile. But without the previous months of early attachment there would be no 2nd stage of attachment.

While it's formally outside the sphere of attachment theory at this time, Barbara King's discussion of a Social Information Continuum, which involves sensory perception and begins at birth, and is THE original transmissor of culture, will probably someday become a part of attachment theory. She was doing field work on monkeys in the wild.

I would like to add some things to the text--and have some questions--is it still taboo to say that Bowlby was originally sensitized by the loss of his nanny with whom he had a primary attachment? And that while doing his early work with delinquent children, especially the two boys mentioned, he was better able to perceive their dilemma because of his own experience? One can have deeply emotional experiences and still remain objective. And thank goodness he could. 205.167.120.201 (talk) 23:24, 19 November 2010 (UTC)


 * I get the impression from the main talk page that this book was produced for a class project which finished in June 2007, and nothing much has happened since then. You could advertise for new contributors on our project page, but most people here have other interests so advertising as well somewhere beyond our little community is probably advisable. Recent Runes (talk) 00:07, 20 November 2010 (UTC)