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Attachment developmental psychology
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Attachment is an enduring emotional tie between people that begins before birth and becomes strong by the age of one. Attachment types are important because they influence a person’s relationships throughout life. For example, an adults’ attachment to their parents that was formed in their infancy, will affect their behavior with their partner as well as their children. There are four attachment styles called A, B, C, and D. Type A is named insecure-avoidant attachment and in this attachment the child will avoid or ignore their caregiver and show very little emotion when the caregiver leaves or returns. Type B is named secure attachment and in this attachment the child feels comfortable and confident. The child in this category show some distress
Attachment is an important aspect through the developmental stages of a child. It is the process through which an individual develops specific bonds with others (). John Bowlby theorized Attachment Theory, which focuses on a behavioral system that demonstrates the response of an adult when a child signals which can lead to a strong trusting relationship (). Through attachment infants develop strong emotional bonds with others, which can result in a more positive outcome later in life.
Developing secure attachments is a process that is supported by a caring and nurturing environment. Babies and young children make emotional attachments and form relationships that lay the foundation for future mental health and well-being. Attachment relationships are particularly important and have far reaching effects on the development of personal, emotional, social and cognitive skills. In the first few months of life babies make attachments with their primary carers.
Criticisms of attachment theory have come mainly from the feminist schools of thought since the theory has been used to argue that no woman with a young child should work outside the home or spend time away from her baby (Goodsell and Meldrum, 2010). Children’s experience and development also depend on what happens after early years, whether bad or good later in life may change a child’s emotional development, e.g. lack of basic needs, diet, education, stimulation such as play might affect a child’s development (Rutter, 1981) Difference in cultures have to be taken into consideration as well. A study by Schaffer and Emmerson (1964) provided contradictory evidence from Bowlby’s attachment theory. They noted attachment was more prominent at eight months, and afterwards children became attached to more than one person. By one year six months only 13%of infants had one attachment. This study by Schafer and Emmerson (1964) concluded care giver can be male or female and mothering can be a shared responsibility. Social workers should therefore understand that parents are not totally responsible for the way the children develop. They did give them their genes and therefore do have some influence. Attachment theory also fails to consider the fact that the father and siblings, and other close relatives can also
The first topic that came up in the interview relates to idea of attachment theory. Attachment theory explains the human’s way of relating to a caregiver and receives an attachment figures relating to the parent, and children. In addition, the concept explains the confidence and ability for a child to free explore their environment with a place to seek support, protection, and comfort in times of distress (Levy, Ellison, Scott, and Bernecker, 2010, p. 193). Within attachment theory explains different types of attachment styles that children experience during early childhood. These attachment styles affect the relationships they continue to build in adulthood. The best attachment style happens when the parent is attuned to the child during his or her early childhood called secure attachment (Reyes, 2010, p. 174). In order for complete secure attachment, the child needs to feel safe, seen, and soothed. Any relationship that deviates from this model represents the anxious or insecure attachment. This means that parents or caregivers are inconsistently responsive to the children. Children who have these parents are usually confused and insecure. Some children experience a dismissive attachment where they
Attachments are formed with parents; this contributes to give a sense of who we are and who we will become in later life. However where these attachments are broken the child needs to have a secure attachment established with an alternative adult care giver,...
Attachment, the product of nature and nurture, is critical to human development. Children learn about important aspects of their physical, emotional and social world through experience. The value of this experience is directly proportional to the quality of the attachment children are forming with their caregivers. Through the positive experience of emotional connectedness, children learn to build and maintain loving, trusting and secure relationships with others. If the caregivers are available to them, sensitive to their signals, consistently responsive to their needs, infants develop secure style of attachment. If the caregivers are indifferent or neglectful, inaccessible, unresponsive and unreliable, infants are prone to developing anxious, avoidant or disorganized attachment style (Pearce, 2009). Difficulties in forming childhood relationships significantly increase likelihood of interpersonal conflicts in adulthood. Anxiety disorder, PTSD, dissociative identify disorder, borderline, narcissistic personality disorder are dysfunctions that are linked to attachment insecurities. Interpersonal adult conflicts, such as divorce, family abuse, child neglect, sexual abuse, substance abuse are responses to emotional dysregulation caused by deep wounds in
Admittedly, many psychologists define attachment as an enduring, affectionate bond that one person forms between himself and another person throughout life. Mary Ainsworth provided the most famous research: strange situation, offering explanations of individual differences in attachment. However, in this Adult Attachment Style questionnaire that I took, I found many factors relevant to attachment as defined in the textbook. For example, in the textbook, it defines attachment based on Ainsworth research, the strange situation by observing attachment forms between mother and infants. They are described in four attachment styles: securely attached, insecure avoidant, insecure resistant, and insecure disorganized.
Attachments involve connecting patters of behaviour. For example, the baby cries when he/she is hungry in order to let their parents know,(think it works with out this little bit) while the parents responds by feeding the baby. This is described as synchrony (an innate ability) and many of these behaviours are innate. During the first few weeks of a baby’s life, the parents tend to show their love for their baby in the same way. Although, research has shown that as the baby gets older (around six months) the mother and father seem to show different behaviours. The father would be more playful, while the mother reacts more to the baby’s needs. Even though they use different methods to express their love and care for the baby, they usually both have just as strong bonds.Although there methods of showing affection are different they are both capable of forming a strong bond (this sentence doesn’t quite
Attachment is an emotional bond between two people regardless of space and time. The father of the psychological theory of attachment, John Bowlby, once said,” Attachment is characterized by specific behavior in children, such as seeking proximity with the attachment figure when upset or threatened.” Although scientists believe a child's development depends on their parenthood, the theory of attachment explains how children are pre-exposed to form attachments.
Attachment is described as the close emotional bond between two people and Attachment Theory (AT) generally concentrates on the early bonds in a person’s development as well as the effects that these bonds have on later socio-emotional development. While emphasis on attachment as an antecedent for future behavior and personality has decreased somewhat in recent years, it is interesting to note that the DSM IV-TR includes a “reactive attachment disorder” which it states is caused when extreme circumstances prevent proper attachment development.
The relationship formed between a baby and their mother, and the baby and their father, is the first relationship of attachment a baby fosters as a new living being. The caregiving relationship is so important that studies have shown insecure attachments formed in early infancy may affect personal and social relationships throughout the infant’s entire life. Secure attachment promotes trust and confidence in other people (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2013). Insecure attachments formed in infancy may result in low quality relationships, and impaired social development. Mary Ainsworth discovered the four types of attachment by studying how an infant reacts to the separation, and union of their mother, in a procedure called the Strange Situation (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2013). Ainsworth discovered the infant forms one of four attachments; secure attachment, avoidant attachment, resistant attachment, or disorganized (disoriented) attachment. The baby formulates an internal working model to gauge the reliability of the parent, and the sensitivity
Attachment style is the way in which one related to others in the context of intimate relationships. According to the attachment theory, people can differ form one another in terms of attachment-related avoidance and attachment-related anxiety. People who have high attachment-related anxiety tend to have trust issues within their intimate relationships. People who have high attachment-related avoidance tend to keep to themselves and are less likely to open up in their intimate relationships. Both of these aspects of attachment relationships can be measured on a scale from 1 to 7, with 7 being the higher end of each scale. When these measures are placed on a graph, four different attachment styles can be determined in individuals. For instance, those with both low avoidance and low anxiety are considered to be secure in their attachment style. Those with low avoidance and high anxiety fall into the preoccupied style. Those with the complete
Attachment is an emotional bond that is from one person to another. The attachment theory is a psychological, an evolutionary and an ethological theory that is concerned with relationships between humans, specifically between mother and infant. A young infant has to develop a relationship with at least one of their primary caregivers for them to develop socially and emotionally. Social competence is the condition that possesses the social, emotional and intellectual skills and behaviours, the infant needs these to success as a member of society. Many studies have been focused on the Western society, but there are many arguments to whether or not this can be applicable to other cultures, such as the poorer countries.
“Attachment is as essential for the child’s psychological well-being as food is for physical health,” claimed Bowlby, B (2001, p.54). Bowlby claimed in this statement that attachment is a necessary thing that a child needs in order to develop healthily. There is evidence from other theorists who support Bowlby’s theory of attachment, such as Harlow, whose approach is based upon a caregiver’s sensitivity and attachment. Ainsworth is another theorist whose research supports Bowlby’s theory of attachment. In her strange situation study, she tested for the attachment types and what effects they had on a child’s behaviour.
During the first few stages of both theories, we see challenges in the development of the child and we also see challenges that a child might face during some, if not all forms of attachment theory. For example, a parent ignoring the child and speaking to them in a negative manner during insecure-avoidant attachment can be challenging for a child and lead to insecurities and the feeling of not being loved and/or wanted. Additionally, the theme of independence is seen throughout both theories and can also be related specifically to insecure-avoidant attachment where the child does not focus his or her attention on the parents but instead looks to the outside world for assistance. Both theories, as well as attachment theory, has an impact on childhood