John Bowlby Research Paper

Sadly, both Adler (1969) and Maslow (1970) saw the goal of striving as unattainable whereas the Apostle Paul knew it to be the culmination of a life lived for the eternal rather than the temporary (2 Corinthians 4:18). John Bowlby, along with Mary Ainsworth, is considered the founder of attachment theory (van Dijken, 1998). Bowlby grew up in London as an upper middle class son of a renowned surgeon. In keeping with the tradition of the day, a nanny raised him rather than his mother. (van Dijken, 1998). Though considered his mother’s favorite, John’s most meaningful relationships were with his older brother Tony and his beloved nanny, Winnie rather than either of his parents. His most traumatic childhood memory is associated with the departure of his beloved Winnie who was replaced by a harsher, sarcastic Nanna (van Dijken, 1998). All in all, John viewed his childhood as uneventful and typical stating in his personal communications that he had been “sufficiently hurt, but not sufficiently damaged” (van Dijken, 1998, p.11). Following Bowlby’s early boarding school years and Dartmouth military academy, he was free to explore the natural sciences and moral sciences at Cambridge. Though he began his study intent on medicine, two years into school Bowlby’s interest in psychology led him to study developmental psychology (van …show more content…
The conclusions drawn from fieldwork conducted with infants and families in Uganda and Baltimore by his student and colleague, Mary Ainsworth, offered both support and credibility to Bowlby’s theory. (Bretherton article: Origins of AT). Bowlby’s extensive work with the World Health Organization gave more credibility to his convincing theory that a healthy child is one whose childhood experience includes a “warm, intimate, and continuous