 We all remember feeling a sense of separation anxiety when we were kids. Whether it would be your parents dropping you off at school or having your favorite stuffed animal taken away from you, we only got a sense of relief when the person or thing that was taken away is brought back. This is the beginning of attachment theory. The separation anxiety can continue into adulthood, like when you get anxious about having your cell phone taken away. But why do humans behave like this? Psychologists have labeled the reason behind these early childhood anxieties as attachment and have explored human connection through parent-child bonding. Daniel Goleman states that attachment provides the glue that keeps not just a couple but a family together and caregiving adds the impulse to look after offspring so our children can grow up to have their own. The early stages of childhood are the most crucial in development. This time in a child's life is when they have experiences that shape how we relate to other people. Having a healthy relationship with the child's parents is key in this development. It is hard in some families though for the child to get a sense of attachment to their mother. There are a few reasons for this. Sometimes the mother has postpartum depression and withdraws from the baby or there's a lack of resources that makes the family less ready to focus on building an attachment. A study done by Mary Ainsworth called Strange Situation in which she put a parent and a child between the ages of 9 to 18 months in a room. She would then bring in a stranger. While the child was preoccupied with the stranger, the parent would leave. Afterwards the child would react to the missing parent and said parent would come back. Ainsworth pegged three types of attachment. Secure, anxious avoidant attachment and anxious ambivalent attachment. A fourth type of attachment was introduced later on by Ainsworth's colleague Mary Main. She brought in the disorganized, disoriented attachment. This is when a child avoids their parent or caregiver but is also clingy. When the parent or caregiver leaves and comes back, the child looks dazed and disoriented. Our attachment style with what our parents or caregivers growing up plays a huge role in how we live our lives today. What do you think your attachment style is? Don't forget to like this video and subscribe to our channel.