ERIKSON
An ethological perspective
Erikson and Joan Stevenson-Hinde's "An ethological perspective"
According to Joan Stevenson-Hinde's 1994 study entitled "An ethological perspective," attachment-related behavior is stress-related behavior (such as the crying of a child) that is alleviated when the stressed individual once again retains proximity to another individual, such as a caregiver. Attachment-related behaviors do not directly relate to needs such as food or sex. In other words, the stressed behavior of a hungry customer in a restaurant who is satiated by the food brought by a waiter is not in an attachment-based relationship, unlike the crying child whose suffering is alleviated by a mother. These attachment-based behaviors are not exclusive to the human species, as many other animals manifest attachment-related anxiety.
Within Erikson's theory of development, attachment-related crises form part of his famous 'eight stages' of the human psychological growth cycle. Each stage is characterized by a social conflict the child must resolve to move on to the next stage in a healthy fashion. The first stage (which occurs between birth and age one), that of 'trust vs. mistrust,' is intimately related to the development of attachment-related behavior...
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