Attachment and Health
John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth developed attachment theory in the 1960s while investigating the effects of maternal separation on infant development. The development of the Strange Situation task in 1965 by Ainsworth and Wittig allowed researchers to systematically investigate the attachment system operating between children and their parents. The Strange Situation involves separating infant-parent dyads and observing infant behaviours upon reunion. Infant behaviour tended to follow patterns, leading to the development of three attachment categories: Secure, Anxious-Avoidant, and Anxious-Resistant. In 1990, Ainsworth added a new category, championed by Mary Main, called Disorganized/Disoriented attachment, characterized by its less reliable pattern of behaviour.
History of attachment theory
Bowlby's first official representations were carried out for the relationship theory in three very controversial lectures in 1957 by the British Psychoanalytical Society in London. The formal origin of attachment theory can be traced to the publication of two 1958 papers, one being Bowlby's "The Nature of the Child's Tie to his Mother", in which the precursory concepts of "attachment" were introduced, and Harry Harlow's "The Nature of Love", based on the results of experiments which showed, approximately, that infant rhesus monkeys spent more time with soft mother-like dummies that offered no food than they did with dummies that provided a food source but were less pleasant to the touch. Bowlby followed this up with two more papers, "Separation Anxiety" (1960a), and "Grief and Mourning in Infancy and Early Childhood" (1960b). At about the same time, Bowlby's former colleague, Mary Ainsworth was completing extensive observational studies on the nature of infant attachments in Uganda with Bowlby's ethological theories in mind. Mary Ainsworth's innovative methodology and comprehensive observational studies informed much of the theory, expanded its concepts and enabled some of its tenets to be empirically tested. Attachment theory was finally presented in 1969 in "Attachment" the first volume of the "Attachment and Loss" trilogy. The second and third volumes, "Separation: Anxiety and Anger" and "Loss: Sadness and Depression" followed in 1972 and 1980 respectively. "Attachment" was revised in 1982 to incorporate more recent research.