Attatchment Theory

Attatchment Theory by John Bowbly discusses child attatchment to mother and how it effects the social, emotional, and the cognitive development of a child.
John Bowbly, a psychiatrist in a Child Guidance Clinic in London observed several cases on the significance of the relationship between the mother and the child.
Bowbly and James Robertson both observed the distress level of children when they were seperated from their mother. This observation also stated that even with another care giver present to take care of the child, the distress did not go away initially.
This theory went against the theory of Dollard and Miller in their Dominant Behavioral Theory of Attachment. This particular theory stated that the child became attatched to the mother because she fed and cared for that child not because that particular individual was that child's mother.
Bowlby described his theory of attachement as a "lasting psychological connectedness between human beings".

Besides the theory of Bowlby and Robertson, the attatchment theory is understood by many other researchers in stages.
According to Rudolph Scaffer and Peggy Emerson, their research of 60 babies for the first 18 months studied longitudinally showed changes in the child in attatchment with time.

Up to 4 months, the infants begin distinguishing certain people and accepts them as care givers. However, from 7 months of age, the child begins to have special preferences for one care giver figure. They begin to show seperation anxiety when seperated from that figure and they also begin to develop fear for strangers. By 9 months of age, the child begins to become more independent.

Reading all these researches and theories, I began to become very interested in childrens' behavior when there is no particular care giver or care to even begin to develop an attachment. I wanted to look furthur if they could develop like the attachment theory at all. It was very interesting to see certain stages babies take in order to learn, develop, and awknowledge their surroundings.

http://www.simplypsychology.org/attachment.html