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A Basic Principle Of Attachment Theory Essay

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A parent-child interaction happens prenatal and continues throughout a child 's development soon after a child is born, an attachment begins. This attachment begins with imprinting which some call the sensitive period. During this time the child will become attached to the first caregiver seen (usually the mother) and look to it for any sort of comfort. This was discovered through Bowlby 's experiment with ducks in the 1970 's, Bowlby defined attachment theory as “Attachment theory conceptualizes "the propensity of human beings to make strong affectional bonds to particular others" (Bowlby, 1977, p. 201).” (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991 p. 226). “A basic principle of attachment theory is that attachment relationships continue to be important throughout the life span (Ainsworth, 1982,1989; Bowlby, 1977,1980,1982b).” (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991 p. 226). Many theories have been proposed to explain what motivates human interactions and behaviors in relationships. This literature review on Shelley A. Riggs, Angela M. Cusimano, and Karen M. Benson paper Childhood Emotional Abuse and Attachment Processes in the Dyadic Adjustment of Dating Couples and W. Steven Rholes, Ramona L. Paetzold, Jamie L. Kohn paper Disorganized attachment mediates the link from early trauma to externalizing behavior in adult relationships will primarily be looking at how childhood maltreatment leads to disorganized attachment which is thus exhibited in later life relations. Secondarily, this review will

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