ary goal of maintaining the mother's proximity. The baby processes information about the mother's location and changes his behaviour based on this fact. Thus...instinct or a fixed pattern is the primary force for developmental change, but is transformed through social experience.' This reciprocal tie of mother and infant is a state that ensures care and protection during the most vulnerable period of development.
             This attachment to the mother has a clear biological survival value, explaining the significance of the mother-infant interaction within the overall framework of attachment behaviour. Sroufe (1991) supports this view, he maintains that attachment refers to a behavioural system, which is 'selected for its effect on the reproductive success of individuals in the environment in which they evolved.' Bowlby argued that different attachment behaviours, such as crying, following etc, are functionally related, in that all may lead to the same outcome - the caregiver-infant proximity (Sroufe 1991). Bowlby argues that attachment, is therefore a primary process, which is innate, and is mediated by social interchange. Here the visual channel plays an important role, i.e. through smiling and eye to eye contacts.
             Bowlby outlined four phases of the development of attachment as an integrated system of behaviours in infants:
             The infant directs his attachment to human figures on an instinctual bias; all are equally likely to elicit smiling or crying because the infant is not discriminating.
             The infant's attachment focuses on one figure, typically the primary caregiver.
             The intensity of attachment to the mother or caregiver increases. Due to this and newly acquired motor skills, the infant now readily seeks the proximity to the caregiver.
             The elements of attachment listed above become integrated into a mutual system of attachment to which both infant and mother contribute.
             Bowlby argued that communication between the infant an...