In the early stages, babies do not focus their attention exclusively on their mothers and respond positively to anyone. They behave in ways that are important for the development of an attachment relationship with the caregiver.
Infants, have built in responses like crying, smiling to keep the caregiver close at hand. Caregivers too very quickly learn to recognize their babies. One essential difference, however, is that although, the infant displays attachment only after some months, the mother's emotional bond to the infant develops very quickly.
Phase 2 (2 - 7 months) - Discriminate Social Responsiveness.
During this stage, infants become more interested in the caregiver and other familiar people and direct their social responses to them. Strangers continue to attract the infant's attention but this takes a back seat. Across, this period of time the caregiver and infant develop interactional patterns, which help them to communicate and establish a unique bond. The child develops a cognitive representation of the caregiver based on trust and reliability. Important to the attachment process, babies begin to develop a sense of self-existence.
Phase 3 (8 - 24 months) - Focused Attachment.
The attachment bond is the clearest in this phase. The appearance of attachment behavior is very much tied to development in two other areas- one of these is emotional. Fear emerges as a dominant emotion. With the improvement of cognitive functions and memory, infants recognize what is unfamiliar and react to it negatively. Wariness of strangers becomes common, often causing the baby to cry and retreat to the mother. K.F. Geisinger says, "The appearance and intensity of protest behavior arising from separation also depends on the security of attachment, age level and the presence of people." (176).
The other related development is physical. The babies in this stage begin to crawl; this gives them a sense of control.