attachment

attachment

1. 

a. the arrest of a person for disobedience to a court order

b. the lawful seizure of property and placing of it under control of a court

c. a writ authorizing such arrest or seizure

2. Law the binding of a debt in the hands of a garnishee until its disposition has been decided by the court

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

attachment

1. the emotional bond between infant and mother.
2. the types of behaviour displayed by the infant to indicate an attachment, e.g. following parents, crying, smiling.
3. the more abstract psychological tie felt towards a nurturing figure involving a mutual dependency for emotional satisfaction.

A theory of attachment was first proposed by BOWLBY (1958,1969) who was primarily concerned with the first two interpretations, citing ethological evidence to support his claims about how human infants use certain types of behaviour to elicit psychological as well as physical care from their mothers. Attachment merely refers to whether the child has formed a tie to a caregiver, but more recently the notion of security of attachment (Ainsworth et al., Strange Situation Behaviour of One-year Olds, 1978) was established to assess the quality of the attachment relationship once it has been formed.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000

attachment

[ə′tach·mənt]

(computer science)

An additional file sent with an e-mail message.

(organic chemistry)

The conversion of a molecular entity into another molecular structure solely by formation of a single two-center bond with another molecular entity and no other changes in bonding.

(psychology)

The behavior of an individual who relates in an affiliative or dependent manner to another individual or object.

(virology)

The initial stage in the infection of a cell by a virus that follows a chance collision by the virus with a suitable receptor area on the cell.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

attach a file

To link a file to an email message so that they travel together to their destination. File attachments are a very common way of sending a file to someone. See email attachment and how to transfer a file over the Internet.

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