AINSWORTH: Child-mother attachment The concept of child-mother attachment is as important to the child as the birth itself. The effect this relationship has on a child will affect that child for their entire life. A secure attachment to the mother or caregiver is critical to the child's development. Ainsworth's study shows that a mother responds to her baby's behavioral cues which will develop into a strong baby-mother attachment. The result will be a child who can easily, without stress, separate from his mother and without any anxiety. Of course the study shows that a child with a weak mother-child relationship will lead to mistrust, anxiety and will never be as close to the mother. Without the right help, this child may harbor these negative feelings about life. The child who has developed a good and strong child-mother attachment can easily explore his world thanks to the trust acquired during childhood. And exploring means that their cognitive and emotional skills will develop naturally simply by playing, as a child should. The child who is not given this very important mother-child bond will severely lack the ability to learn and explore. Furthermore, it will lead to permanent disability as a troubled adult. Emotional development (or lack thereof) alone can be very detrimental as the adult child seeks friends and possibly an intimate relationship. A child who has developed a secure child-mother attachment is confident, less aggressive, more interested in exploration and capable of solving problems (Diessner, 2008). Ainsworth's article states that if multiple caregivers are involved and the attachment to the mother is weak or strained, the child may show favoritism toward... middle of paper... women, in general. Experiments are the only means by which cause and effect can be established. Therefore it could be shown that the model had an effect on the child's subsequent behavior, because all variables other than the independent one are controlled (Diessner, 2008). Children who were exposed to the aggressive model later showed a remarkable amount of the model's physical characteristics. and verbal aggression. The responses were almost identical to the original behavior. Children who were exposed to nonaggressive models or who were not exposed to any models rarely produced such responses. The ways in which the children expressed their aggression in ways that clearly resembled the model's new behavior showed strong evidence of imitation learning. Diessner, R. (ed.) (2008). Classic Edition Sources: Human Development (3rd ed.). Dubuque, IA: McGraw-Hill.