ABSTRACT
The success of attachment theory is due in large measure to John Bowlby’s eclecticism. In his trilogy (Bowlby 1969 (revised 1982), 1973, 1980), Bowlby integrated ideas from psychoanalysis, ethology, experimental psychology, learning theory, and other sources to produce a theory that is having a major impact on studies of child development and has implications for many areas of psychology and psychiatry. For example, early on, attachment theory contributed to the abandonment of the view that food reinforcement is critically important for the development and maintenance of the motherinfant relationship. More recently, attachment theorists have contributed to the demise of the view that the child develops autonomously, with the social environment playing a merely supportive role.
