Harald A. Euler and Barbara Weitzel

If asked whether you had a favorite grandparent, we would assume that most
of you would say yes, and further we would predict that the majority with a
favorite, the maternal grandmother would be the most cherished grandparents.
For example, the senior author here belongs to that majority. His maternal grand-
mother died over forty years ago, but she is still in his heart because she took
care of him in a most loving way, although he was not her only grandchild. He
grew up as a single child and has four children himself. His own mother, how-
ever, the paternal grandmother, of his offspring although once a loving mother,
does not show much interest in her grandchildren, which he has often saddened
him and for which he has reproached her at times. He tended to think that his
mother was a special case, but found out that instead, this situation appears more
common than might be assumed.

From the grandchild's viewpoint, discrimination between grandparents seems
to be the rule. People often feel close to one grandparent, usually to the maternal
grandmother. How can this discrimination be explained? Early childhood ex-
perience may be a possible answer. The influential attachment theory of the
London psychiatrist John Bowlby ( 1969) specifies how persons become "mother
figures," namely, through unconditional, responsive, and available care. But are
grandparents themselves discriminatory in their love for grandchildren? Bowlby
does not elaborate this point. In the ethological tradition, he considers the in-
clination for care of offspring as a general primate endowment. Discriminative
caregiving, in his theory, is not part of this endowment, but instead is due to
particular circumstances ( Porter & Laney, 1980). So he probably would have
argued that a grandparent might become the grandchild's favorite because he or

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