ABSTRACT
Attachment theory, as commonly understood, holds that the young and vulnerable are drawn to seek care from parental figures by displaying attachment behaviour. John Bowlby considered such behaviour to be instinctive and opened a chapter on a theoretical model for instinctive behaviour with two quotations from Freud. Bowlby's model has different roots. Bowlby saw instinctive behaviour as a sequence of behaviour that is activated by specific signals. Bowlby also discusses factors that activate maternal behaviour in several species, noting the dependence of maternal behaviour on hormonal factors and on the age of child. Bowlby considered that the development of behavioural systems is closely affected by environmental experience. To understand the capacity to plan to reach a goal, Bowlby used the concept of the representational or working model. Bowlby presents the thesis that most of what are termed affects, feelings and emotions are phases in the intuitive appraisal of organismic states and of the environmental situations in which individuals find themselves.
