What causes the differences in attachment types – sensitivity of the mother or temperament of the baby?
Ainsworth argued that the reason for differences in attachments was due to the sensitivity of the mother. By this, she argued that mothers who were sensitive to their infants’ needs, who read their moods correctly, were likely to produce babies who were securely attached. In comparison, mothers who were less sensitive or responsive to their babies, who ignored them, or became impatient with them, were said to be more likely to have insecurely attached infants. These babies would be likely to feel less safe and would be unsure if their needs would be met at any time.
In support of this, De Wolff & van Ijzendoorn (1997) carried out a meta-analysis to assess this relationship. They found a weak positive correlation between parental sensitivity and security of the babies’ attachment. This does support the view that Ainsworth put forward, although it needs to be considered that such a review of findings has only found a weak relationship.
However, others such as Kagan have argued that Ainsworth has placed too much emphasis on the role of the mother. Kagan argues that it’s the temperament of the baby which determines the attachment. It’s suggested that temperament is inborn and involves aspects such as activity (how much time the baby spends awake and alert), emotionality (how much they become upset or aroused by events) and sociability (how much the baby seeks human company).
If the temperament hypothesis is correct, and that attachment is based upon the child’s manner rather than how their parent responds to them, then the child should show the same attachment type regardless of the parent being assessed, i.e. they should show similar attachments to both parents. Fox (1991) found that there was a strong relationship between the attachment types of a child to both parents, supporting the claim that attachments may well relate to inbuilt temperament.
Belsky and Rovine (1987) however, argued that individual differences in attachment may relate to both the inborn temperament and the sensitivity of the caregiver. They argue that babies with different temperaments present different types of challenges to their caregivers.
Consequently, one could claim that Belsky’s theory is the most logical of the three in that it recognises that a combination of factors is the likely cause of individual differences in attachments.