<P> Bowlby's attention was first drawn to ethology when he read Konrad Lorenz's 1952 publication in draft form (although Lorenz had published earlier work). Other important influences were ethologists Nikolaas Tinbergen and Robert Hinde . Bowlby subsequently collaborated with Hinde . In 1953 Bowlby stated "the time is ripe for a unification of psychoanalytic concepts with those of ethology, and to pursue the rich vein of research which this union suggests ." Konrad Lorenz had examined the phenomenon of "imprinting", a behaviour characteristic of some birds and mammals which involves rapid learning of recognition by the young, of a conspecific or comparable object . After recognition comes a tendency to follow . </P> <P> Certain types of learning are possible, respective to each applicable type of learning, only within a limited age range known as a critical period . Bowlby's concepts included the idea that attachment involved learning from experience during a limited age period, influenced by adult behaviour . He did not apply the imprinting concept in its entirety to human attachment . However, he considered that attachment behaviour was best explained as instinctive, combined with the effect of experience, stressing the readiness the child brings to social interactions . Over time it became apparent there were more differences than similarities between attachment theory and imprinting so the analogy was dropped . Ethologists expressed concern about the adequacy of some research on which attachment theory was based, particularly the generalization to humans from animal studies . Schur, discussing Bowlby's use of ethological concepts (pre-1960) commented that concepts used in attachment theory had not kept up with changes in ethology itself . Ethologists and others writing in the 1960s and 1970s questioned and expanded the types of behaviour used as indications of attachment . Observational studies of young children in natural settings provided other behaviours that might indicate attachment; for example, staying within a predictable distance of the mother without effort on her part and picking up small objects, bringing them to the mother but not to others . Although ethologists tended to be in agreement with Bowlby, they pressed for more data, objecting to psychologists writing as if there were an "entity which is' attachment', existing over and above the observable measures ." Robert Hinde considered "attachment behaviour system" to be an appropriate term which did not offer the same problems "because it refers to postulated control systems that determine the relations between different kinds of behaviour ." </P> <P> Psychoanalytic concepts influenced Bowlby's view of attachment, in particular, the observations by Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham of young children separated from familiar caregivers during World War II . However, Bowlby rejected psychoanalytical explanations for early infant bonds including "drive theory" in which the motivation for attachment derives from gratification of hunger and libidinal drives . He called this the "cupboard - love" theory of relationships . In his view it failed to see attachment as a psychological bond in its own right rather than an instinct derived from feeding or sexuality . Based on ideas of primary attachment and Neo-Darwinism, Bowlby identified what he saw as fundamental flaws in psychoanalysis: the overemphasis of internal dangers rather than external threat, and the view of the development of personality via linear phases with regression to fixed points accounting for psychological distress . Bowlby instead posited that several lines of development were possible, the outcome of which depended on the interaction between the organism and the environment . In attachment this would mean that although a developing child has a propensity to form attachments, the nature of those attachments depends on the environment to which the child is exposed . </P> <P> From early in the development of attachment theory there was criticism of the theory's lack of congruence with various branches of psychoanalysis . Bowlby's decisions left him open to criticism from well - established thinkers working on similar problems . </P>

The most common category of attachment formed by infants in the united states is the