... attachment system; the infant would vocalise, cling or cry out to their mother, thus displaying attachment behaviour. Also using this same example, Bowlby specified the importance of an infant's environment and the need to explore it, whist maintaining a balance between attachment and innate needs. Here infants will actively interact within their environment with the reassurance of the mother being in close proximity, once this changes and the mother leaves the room, again the attachment system launches and activates the attachment behaviours, as described above. The World Health Organisation asked Bowlby to elaborate on theories of attachment and he conducted a study in 1950 of the childhood experiences of delinquent adolescent boys who had grown up institutionalised and without a permanent mother figure. His results were published in 1951 and was called The maternal deprivation hypothesis .Bowlby believed there was a critical period between the ages of 6 months and ...

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