Describe and Evaluate Bowlby’s and Ainsworth’s ideas about parent-child relationships.

Attachments represent an important feature of an infant’s early experience; there are many reasons why they can be considered to be of vital importance in the development of infants. Three major reasons why development of successful attachments during infancy can be argued to be of paramount importance are:

• The quality of early relationships enhance an individual’s likelihood to enter into successful relationships in later life. Early relationships can be seen as a prototype for all relationships to follow.

• An infant’s learning experience is enhanced through interaction with adults and


• The primary attachment figure can form a secure base for exploration of novel stimuli leading to the enhancement of the child’s development.

Bowlby and Ainsworth are two of the most important figures in the field of the development of attachments. Ainsworth et al developed ‘The Strange Situation’ which is the most widely used, standardised procedure ...