Object relations, dependency, and attachment: a theoretical review of the infant–mother relationship

3 theoretical approaches to the origin and development of the infant-mother relationship are reviewed: psychoanalytic theories of object relations, social learning theories of dependency (and attachment), and an ethologically oriented theory of attachment. "Object relations, " "dependency, " and "attachment, " although overlapping, are seen to differ substantially. Among the concepts in regard to which there are significant intertheoretical differences, the following are discussed: genetic "biases, " reinforcement as compared with activation and termination of behavioral systems and with feedback, strength o f attachment behavior versus strength of attachment, inner representation of the object, intra-organismic and environmental conditions of behavioral activation, and the role of intra-organismic organization and structure. Finally, the relation between theory and research methods is considered. Three terms have been commonly used to characterize the infant's relationship with his mother: "object relations, " "dependency, " and "attachment. " Although they overlap somewhat in their connotations, these terms are not synonymous. Each is more or less closely tied to a distinctive theoretical formulation of the origin and development o