The Evolution of Caregiving and Attachment

Choi, SungKu

Abstract

Caregiving for the children seems to be one of the most challenging tasks for the parents who should devote themselves totally despite endangering them. From the evolutionary perspective, this human behavior must have been the advantage in the survival of the species and rooted in ethological origin. John Bowlby, a child psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and great developmental researcher, had formulated the attachment theory linking psychoanalysis and ethology through evolutionary biology. His and later following researchers' outcomes have provided enormous influence on viewing parental caregiving and the insight of human relationships and interventions. This article overviews the attachment theory in terms of the goal oriented cybernetic system to gain the survival advantage of the offspring and investigates the evolutionary origin of the caregiving and attachment from the retiles of the Mesozoic era to the mammalian revolution and finally to the human being. Deeper understanding of the nurturance and adult relationships from the standpoint of evolution can provide clinical utility of awareness of clients' lives.