Wornos Case Study

Wuornos’s abandonment by her mother, and the dysfunctional qualities of her grandparents would have been a contributing factor to the behaviours of her later life. The importance of attachment within the family unit is outlined in Ainsworth’s 1969 study of attachment between primary caregivers and infants (Bretherton, 1992). Ainsworth described three categories of attachment styles for infants (1) secure, a child showing secure attachment to their caregiver (2) ambivalent-insecure, the infant showing a “clingy” attachment to the caregiver, and (3) avoidant-insecure, a child avoids the caregiver. Wuornos’s treatment by her caregivers suggests that she would most likely be classified in the attachment style of avoidant-insecure. Ainsworth,

Being adopted by her grandparents together with Britta’s disdain for everything and Lauri’s violent and emotionally abusive ways would also suggest that Wuornos developed an avoidant attachment style (Arrigo & Griffen, 2004). This attachment style can be the result of neglectful or abusive caregivers that punish for any reliance shown towards them and as a result the child will learn to avoid seeking any help in the future (Simple Psychology, 2010). Subsequently, the loss of her mother, the extreme abuse from her grandfather and indifference from her grandmother are behaviours which can, and in the case of Wuornos most likely did, result in intense anger issues (Konishi & Hymel, 2014). The adoption of her baby and the death of her grandmother around the age of fifteen would further support Bowlby (1958) attachment theory principles. Bowlby proposes that “the loss of a parent gives rise not only to separation anxiety and grief to processes of mourning in which aggression the function of which is to achieve reunion, plays a major part” (Arrigo & Griffen, 2004). It is essential that humans have a secure connection to their care givers that provide love and support otherwise the result is an individual who may be described as damaged goods filled with anger

Along similar lines Lee and Choi (2014) argues that it is genetic factors that provide a biological explanation for the actions of the human individual, and can influence a person to delinquency. It should also be remembered that Wuornos was a prolific user of alcohol and drugs. Lee and Choi (2014) note that a “biological perspective draws upon drugs and alcohol as having some sort of causal relationship with criminal and violent behaviour, either though committing crime to pays for drugs, or committing the crime directly as a result of consuming being intoxicated”. Another factor among the possible accumulation of factors which contributed to Wuornos’s temper is Bandura’s approach. Bandura proposes that “aggression is learned through observation” (Promish & Lester, 1999). Bandura’s learning theory illustrates the modelling process requirements for learned behaviour to be adapted by the individual. Firstly, in order to learn you need to pay attention, Wuornos’s would have found it difficult to place her attention anywhere else but on the ferocity of the abuse that she was to receive. Secondly, Bandura suggests that retention is required to be able to pull up the information and act on it later. The emotional upheaval that Wuornos experienced during these violent