Attachment Theory : The Joint Work Of John Bowlby And Mary Ainsworth Essay

Within the outline of attachment theory, Mary Ainsworth was the first to provide a detailed description of maternal sensitivity. Maternal sensitivity is a mother 's ability to perceive and understand the meaning behind her infant 's behavioral signals, and to respond to them quickly and appropriately. In study with 73 mothers and their second-born child, stability and main-level differences between measures of maternal sensitivity across settings and over time were studied. Maternal sensitivity was considered at three and six months during bathing, free play on mother’s lap and the starting point and gathering episode of the Still Face Paradigm. Harsh discipline was predicted by maternal sensitivity at three months, which was fully mediated by maternal sensitivity at six months. The widespread attention for sensitive parenting behavior is certainly not without ground, since many studies have shown major relationships between maternal sensitivity and a variety of positive outcomes such as secure attachment, self-regulation, social functioning, and cognitive competence. What started with Ainsworth’s elaborate full-day observation developed into more well-organized methods used across a variety of settings ranging from natural daily routines to play and stress-encouraging patterns.

Attachment is an emotional bond that is created between one person to another across a life span. Attachment can be a connection between two individuals, but it is a bond that involves a regular contact with that person and also expressed distress when separated from that person. Also, attachment can play an important role during childhood, adolescent and romantic relationships. Attachment tends to be enduring and meaningful because it can last for a long time between people. However, being attached can motivate children to stay close to people that they love. Attachment can also help people build emotional bond between each others, that can have a secure base so that people can safely explore their environment. Although studies have shown that children who are securely attached can also develop an increase of independence and confidence. Meanwhile, children who are not securely attached can develop risks such as poor internal working models in life.

According to Simply Psychology, Bowlby’s attachment theory says an individual can have an attachment with someone that is not shared. Attachment is characterized by behaviors in children such as seeking proximity with their attachment figure when upset. Bowlby’s experiments led him to see the importance of a child and mother relationship. (Saul McLeod, 2009) With more research later came four phases of attachment. Phase one is from birth to two months, this stage is where babies seek comfort, and can attach to anyone. Phase two is from two months to seven months. Babies start to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar faces. Also, they can tell between primary and secondary caregivers. Phase three is seven to 24 months old. This phase is when babies have the knowledge of who their caregiver is, which causes separation anxiety when the caregiver has to leave. Phase four is from 24 months and after, which is when the child can reciprocate the relationship. (Maianu, 2015)

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.

John Bowlby had worked with residential school children as a volunteer early on in his career and had determined that the children who suffered the most from anger outbursts, aggressivity, and whom her termed “affectionless” were also the children who had suffered the most maternal deprivation (). Bowlby advanced that the loss of the mother figure was extremely distressing and damaging and could influence adults' behavior years later. Hence, where psychoanalysis had been concerned “solely with the imaginings of the childish mind, the fantasied pleasures and the dreaded retributions” (Fonagy), Bowlby showed that humans do not develop in a void or as “individual monads” but as members of interacting systems. Bowlby developed his theory on attachment for several decades, and at a time where any dealings with childhood trauma were still rigorously influenced by Freudian psychoanalysis through the likes of psychoanalysts such Anna Freud or Melanie Klein. Even Winnicott was “revulsed” upon reading Bowlby's papers (siegel). It certainly was a bitter pill to swallow for psychoanalysts who had been repeating since Freud that the newborn was a little tyrant fighting for oral gratification at the mother's breast and merely clinging on to fulfil sexual instinctual needs. Bowlby's work was thus eschewed for a considerable time, despite his involvement with the World Health Organisation and the considerable empirical weight that was added to his findings by Mary Ainsworth's studies in

Precious is a movie based on the novel Push by Sapphire (Daniels and Fletcher, 2008). It is on the life of an illiterate 16 year old African American girl, Claireece “Precious” Jones. (Natividad, 2010). I have applied John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory and Erik Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development on the film. These theories helped identify an understanding of the characters, family group, and community in the film. I have primarily assessed Precious as the chosen character. This paper will analyze the many factors in assessing her human behavior.

“a way of conceptualising the propensity of human beings to make strong affectional bonds to particular others and of explaining the many forms of emotional distress and personality disturbance, including anxiety, depression, and emotional detachment, to which unwilling separation and loss give rise” (Bowlby, 1984 p.27).

John Bowlby’s attachment theory (1991) argued that infants are motivated to engage in an organized behavioral system that ensures preferred others, usually the primary caregivers, remain close, provide support and function as a “secure base”. Bowlby, along with other theorists (e.g. Ainsworth, 1969, 1985, 1989, 1991; Main et al., 1985; Sroufe and Waters, 1977), argues that the ways in which adult individuals form intimate bonds with other individuals are influenced by the patterns of relationships with primary caregivers established in childhood. In attachment theory, it is a fundamental tenet that the security or lack of it, experiences in the child-parent relationship forms a template for the patterns of interpersonal relationships the child

Bowlby Attachment Theory states that that attachment was characterized by clear behavioral and motivation patterns. When children are frightened, they will seek proximity from their primary caregiver in order to receive both comfort and care. (Cherry, 2016). A 11 month girl just settled and get used to the room routines recently, she started exploring the curriculum within reaching distance by her primary caregiver. I tried to build relationship with her by engaging her in exploring the musical instrument. She was happy with my accompany and interaction. By accident, another child walked passing by and lost balance knocked on her, she was frightened and upset. I offer her a comfort cuddle while I was just next by, she refused and seeking a

Attachment theories look at the different ways in which children form attachments to others, usually their primary carer. This bond is usually formed very early on by a baby becoming attached to the adult who feed’s, changes and comforts them. John Bowlby’s believed that this primary carer did not have to be the child’s natural mother, but that they did need one central person. As a result of a close bond with their primary carer, from the age of 5 or 6 months, children who are separated from them experience emotions of loss and grief. Bowlbys findings have brought about many changes. It was this research that led to the introduction of the key worker system. Many Early Years settings have a settling in policy to help children during their

According to Smith et al (2011) the most dramatic developmental changes occur in the prenatal development, infancy and childhood, as new-borns develop into young adulthood capable of becoming a parent themselves. This assignment will discuss the developmental stage of a chosen child scenario and apply to John Bowlby’s theory of attachment. It will also discuss the key safeguarding issues within the child scenario and how they could have been prohibited.

Attachment refers to an affectional bond; a bond which is exclusive to an individual and cannot be exchanged to another. A particularly important bond is the emotional one between an infant and its primary care giver. When it comes to attachment it is often said that it is either down to nature or nurture. Nature is the belief that it is genetic based whilst nurture believes it is our environment and experiences.

Attachment theory constituted by John Bowlby suggested the child’s early attachment with a primary caregiver predicts their later adulthood relationship style. There are three patterns of adult attachment theory: secure, avoidant, and ambivalent relationship styles.

Bowlby's Attachment Theory Findings form animal studies were a powerful influence on Bowlby's thoughts. He suggested too that there was a critical period for the development of attachments between infant and care giver. According to Bowlby infants display an innate tendency to become attached to one particular individual. He called this monotropy. He suggested this tendency was qualitatively different from any subsequent attachment a child might form.

The Attachment theory claims that a person’s ability to form an emotional and physical attachment to another person is crucial for their development. This attachment that a person forms with another would enable the individual to grow and take risks as they would be given a sense of