The Significance of Early Attachments for Later Peer Relationships and Adjustment

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The Significance of Early Attachments for Later Peer Relationships and Adjustment Attachment is a key area when studying the development of children. Attachment is a secondary drive that is derived from primary drives such as hunger. When a child is hungry they want feeding, this is the primary drive, they look to the mother for food, she provides it and the attachment made is the secondary drive. There are many different approaches, studies and theories concerned with attachment. I intend to look at the attachment stages, categories of secure and insecure attachment, theories of attachment, maternal deprivation and privation and the ways in which they may affect later peer relationships and adjustment. Overall I will discuss whether attachment in the first years of life is significant in determining later peer relationships and adjustment. According to Shaffer (1993) an attachment is: "A close emotional relationship between two persons characterised by mutual affection and a desire to maintain proximity." Within the first year of life a child is said to go through three stages of attachment. The first occurs between 0-6 weeks, in this time the child's smiling or crying is not directed at any particular individual. During the second stage, which is between 6 weeks and Seven months of age, the child seeks attention from different individuals; this is the indiscriminate attachment stage and is followed by the specific attachments stage, which occurs between 7 and 11 months old. In this last stage the child develops a strong attachment towards one individual, which is usually the mother. It is these stages that most theorists... ... middle of paper ... ...le. New Jersey. Bee, H. (2000). The Developing Child. (9th Ed). Allyn and Bacon. London. Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: parent-child attachment and healthy human development. Routledge. London. Eysenck, M.W. (2000). Psychology: A Students Handbook. Psychology Press. East Sussex. Goldberg, S. (2000). Attachment and Development. Arnold. London. Gross, R. (1996). Psychology: The science of mind and behaviour. Hodder and Stoughton. London. Holmes, J. (1993). John Bowlby and attachment theory. Routledge. London. Journals Bretherton, I. (1992). Origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmental Psychology ( p759-775). Websites. http://www.futureofchildren.org/information2827/information_show.htm?doc_id=79338 www.questia.com www.psychclassics.yorku.ca

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