Adult Attachment Theory

Each attachment style is divided along two dimensions – the fear of abandonment and the fear of closeness. Bartholomew and Horowitz define fear of abandonment as the model of self which describes the belief of an individual to be either “worthy of love and support or not” (1991). They also define fear of closeness as the model of other which describes an individual’s

Kim Bartholomew took Bowlby’s theory a step further and proposed four styles of adult attachment based on working models of self and others (Lyddon & Sherry, 2001). These styles were secure, preoccupied, dismissing and fearful. Secure adults feel self worth and expect other people to be trustworthy. Preoccupied adults feel unworthy but feel better about other people. Dismissing adults feel they are worthy but have a negative view of others. And fearfully attached adults tend to feel unworthy and untrusting of others (Lyddon & Sherry, 2001). All of the styles noted except for secure would also fall under the broader category of insecure.

What is attachment theory and why is it an important aspect of intimate relationships and love? The attachment theory of love maintains that the degree and quality of attachments one experiences in early life influence one’s later relationships (Strong & Cohen, 2014). John Bowlby proposed that, based on infants interactions with caregivers, infants construct expectations about relationships in the form of internal working models- cognitive representations of themselves and other people that guide their processing of social information and behavior in relationships (Sigelman & Rider, 2015). This research was further elaborated on by Mary Ainsworth and colleagues, who believed there were three styles of infant attachment: secure, anxious or ambivalent, and avoidant.

As in have mentioned in my introduction, there are mainly theorists in this field and all have there own perception of attachment. One such theorist, John Bowlby states

The Attachment theory is a psychological, ethological and evolutionary theory that gives a descriptive and explanatory framework of understanding interpersonal relationship between human beings. Presented by John Bowlby, the important tenet of this theory is that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and emotional development to progress generally.

To begin with attachment theory, first everyone should understand what the attachment is. According to attachment means bonding between a child and caregiver or vice versa. The attachment theory is the theory that describes the long term interpersonal relationship between the humans. Also, it can be defined as the strong bond between parent and child, and later in peer and romantic relationship (Metzger, Erdman, Ng 85). It generates a specific fact that how the humans react in relationships when they get hurt, separated from loved ones and perceiving a threat. Basically the two main types of attachment are secure and insecure. Secure attachment is the attachments where mother and father are available for their child and during that time child demonstrates his or her stress and reestablish the connection (Metzger, Erdman, Ng 87). Insecure attachment is the attachment where parents are not regularly in touch with their children or they ignore their child which built a failed emotion communication (Metzger, Erdman, Ng 87). Also, it may be repeated from one generation to another until it is not recovered. However, as a result of attachment theory, it is so important for children to know about it and there are also several emotional effects on children when their parents leave to go to another county due to their connections or bond between them.

The Development of Attachment Theory and Its Strengths and Limitations English psychiatrist John Bowlby is a leading and influential figure within the history of social reform. His work has influenced social work policies and legislation relating to child psychiatry and psychology. Bowlby was trained as a psychoanalyst, and was influenced by Freudians theories, but became influenced again in his attachment theory by the work of ethologists. The ethologists theory concentrates on looking at the role parents play rather than only the child. Bowlby believes that parenting has strong ties with biology and it explains why there are such strong emotions attached.

Attachment theory is an emotional bond that connects one person to another. Attachment theory deals with intimacy in relationships and the impact an attachment can have across a person’s lifespan. Attachment theory usually focuses on the relationships between a child and a parent/caregiver or between partners. John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth are responsible for the creation of attachment theory after they began to work on mother-infant interactions. There were three categories that were formed due to their findings; Secure, Insecure, Anxious attachment with 3 sub categories avoidant, ambivalent, and disorganized. According to the article on Attachment style and the Cognitive Representation of Communication Situation attachment theory is associated specifically with communicative behavior in relationships. The bond between a child and mother is the primary force of infant development as per Bowlby and Ainsworth.

Attachment research has predominately thought of attachment as a single personality trait constant across relationships. Early research on adult attachment was based on the thought that individual differences were categorical and that people fell into one of several different attachment styles, such as secure, avoidant, or anxious-ambivalent. Although the categorical model continues to guide much of attachment research, it is now challenged by the dimensional model of adult attachment styles. The current study uses modern taxometric methods to compare the two models to see if adults have a categorical attachment style or a dimensional attachment style.

After reading about the adult attachment style theory, I learned that children obtain their styles from their parents/caregivers. My scores reflect that I am secure in my attachment styles. I was not surprised, I had very loving, supportive parents that never failed me or left me in times of need. They provided for me in every aspect that a parent should. I was raised in a very structured environment and that is how I parented. My scores, although not as low as what I thought, reflect I could use some work on my self-confidence and I am aware of this. I have worked on it and I have gained more self-confidence than when I started this program. I did not always lack self-confidence, this was something that happened later in life for several reasons.

I really enjoyed your post as we both did similar topics regarding adult attachment theory. I definitely can see how not having a secure attachment style can negatively impact the adult regarding his confidence level and personal relationships. I also can agree that an adult can go through all three attachment styles when experiencing very traumatic circumstances as developing a level of mistrust toward relationships can make them depressed and isolated. When an adult develops an anxious attachment to relationships due to numerous disappointments, if this pattern continues to progress they can develop an avoidant attachment style. This can be very dangerous as this individual could contemplate suicide and pure loneliness due

Attachment theory is a relationship with a caregiver as a child impacts character in a romantic relationship as an adult. This is saying if you were the child, on the first day of school that did not want their parents to leave because you were so attached to them and felt as though they needed them to survive. This will filter into your romantic life as an adult. This is because when we are growing up and forming our identity as a child it sticks with us as adults. A clingy child tends to grow up and be a clingy adult.

Considerations on attachment were examined through the life span of a forty-seven-year-old white lesbian, who is a self-diagnosed alcoholic. During a developmental interview, correlations were observed amongst insecure attachment and with the subject’s unstable interpersonal relationships as well as with her personal intellect, career, social, emotional, and physical health developments. Conversely, secure attachment was noted to be compensated by a spiritual awakening for primary attachment experiences. Within the parameters of the interview, it was observed that the fundamental categories of adult attachment; autonomous (secure), dismissing (insecure), preoccupied (insecure), and unresolved (insecure) can be fluid over an individual’s life

The attachment theory goes into detail about our upbringing and how the connections with our parents played a big role in general. In the end, people now days want a prince charming and that is never the cause in life, you only see that in the movies and we just need

Bartholomew & Horowitz (1991) developed an adult attachment model conceptualized through the understanding that a person’s image of the self and the other is dichotomized as positive or negative. Through this framework they developed four dimensions, that range from a combination of understanding the self as worthy of love or not and seeing other people as trustworthy or unreliable. This paper will focus on one dimension, dismissive attachment, and how the behaviors, thoughts, and feelings associated with this group disrupts the fundamental need for meaningful connections to people. Baumeister & Leary (1995) developed the Need to Belong Theory, which states that people have a pervasive drive to form and maintain stable interpersonal