Attachment to a caregiver is an evolutionary survival necessity for human infants

Evidence

Bowlby proposed that if an infant is to survive, he or she needs to be emotionally attached to a responsive caregiver. Because of their helplessness and vulnerability, fledgling humans are especially prone to anxiety, and separation from attachment figures, literally or figuratively, is the ultimate threat to them. Hence, he observed, it was vitally important for infants to develop “basic trust,” the sense that they are safe and sound, in the first year of life. And they could do this only through the seemingly omnipresent and omnipotent help of people who cared about them. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 107

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Bowlby’s attachment theory core: survival through caregiver attachment and ‘basic trust’.
• XREF: connects to: Nursing establishes the first reciprocal bond a child knows — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 335

Related

• Nursing establishes the first reciprocal bond a child knows (similarity 0.82)