Twentieth-century psychology long held that babies bond only through feeding

Evidence

For most of the twentieth century, psychologists believed that babies love their parents for one reason only: their parents feed them. According to Sigmund Freud, milk produces pleasure, which causes the baby to form an attachment to its mother and to develop affection for her. Basically, Freud thought that as infants, we love those who make us feel this pleasure. Later on, behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner theorized that bonding in infancy was all about reinforcement: whoever shows up with milk, over and over, receives the baby’s attachment and affection because she or he is reliably associated with getting fed. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 103

Categorization

• XREF: Sets up the Harlow evidence overturning Freudian and Skinnerian models of attachment.

Related

• Physical contact comfort, not feeding, is the root of parental love (similarity 0.83)