Parent preference in the attachment exploration balance in infancy: An experimental psychoanalytic approach

Abstract

Fifteen 15-month old infants with mother as primary caretaker were observed in Ainsworth's Strange Situation modified to provide a simultaneous choice of mother or father during post-separation reunion episodes. Both exploratory and attachment behaviors were more significantly affected by separation from mother than from father, suggesting the greater importance of the mother as a secure base for exploration and as an attachment figure. The intrapsychic version of the parent most crucial to exploration and attachment at this age is that of mother, in whose absence the infant is not yet able to evoke the memory of the mother to sustain either exploratory behavior or the attachment bond adequately.