Summary of John Bowlby's A Secure Base

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Sample Book Insights:

#1 The society we live in is not only a product of yesterday, but it is also very peculiar. There is a great danger that we will adopt mistaken norms. For, just as a society in which there is a chronic insufficiency of food may take a deplorably inadequate level of nutrition as its norm, so may a society in which parents of young children are left on their own take this state of affairs as its norm.

#2 The child’s tie to his mother, referred to as dependency, is the result of a distinctive and in part pre-programmed set of behavior patterns that develop during the early months of life and keep the child close to his mother figure.

#3 The modern view of behavioral development is that parenting behavior is preprogrammed and is developed along certain lines when conditions elicit it. This means that the parent of a baby experiences a strong urge to behave in certain typical ways.

#4 The four types of behavior are protection, reproduction, nutrition, and knowledge of the environment. They serve different biological functions, and they are influenced by different factors. Keeping them distinct allows us to study their differences and their interactions.