ABSTRACT

Attachment was originally used to describe be­ haviors associated with separation from rearing objects and with proximity seeking (e.g., Kuo, 1930). After the development of attachment theory (Bowlby, 1958), the term referred to a psychosocial bond formed between an infant and its mother. Attachment currently connotes an affectional or emotional investment in any organism, object, or place. Attachment theory grew out of applying animal behavior studies to human observations, and yet, animal research­ ers have been reluctant to explain their obser­ vations of early social behaviors with the term attachment, apparently because the word has become too presumptive and diluted to be either descriptive or explanatory.