Abstract

The concept of 'child' or 'childhood' is not a natural one, but a product of social construction. The psychological approach in which 'childhood' is regarded as natural and universal (especially in the theories of developmental psychology) roots ideological assumptions. In this regard, the sensible analysis of the concept 'maternal sensitivity' in the attachment theory shows hew the two concepts - motherhood and childhood - are interrelated, or rather, how the latter is produced by the former in the social and cultural context. In the first part of this research, a monthly magazine of preschool education was analysed in order to show how the images of mother-child interaction and the contents that is related with the way of bringing up children would construct the so-called nature of motherhood. In addition, the everyday consumption of the psychological concept such as 'maternal sensitivity' and its hidden ideological functions were discussed. In the second part of this study, the socio-cultural production of the attachment theory was discussed. That is, the attachment theory itself is not a universal theory, but a result of concrete social demands in Europe and North-America. The adoption of the attachment theory to other socio-cultural context without any careful consideration has some critical results, especially in relation to the development of social system such as 'day care'. For the reason, the psychological theories about childhood, motherhood, family, and the child education should be re-discussed in the concrete socio-cultural context, not in the universal context, because the universal context means merely a vacuum.