Advances in technology and research methodology, have illuminated our understanding of brain development, across multiple scientific fields. What follows is a brief review of several important new understandings in contemporary attachment theory. These new understandings have been elucidated by research findings in multiple fields including epigenetics, right brain development, and the regulating versus dysregulating effects of early attachment. Finally, a number of important implications for clinical work are exemplified, by a brief discussion of the therapeutic alliance. We begin with a cursory description of early attachment theory, and several of its important positions.
Early Attachment Theory
Theorists such as John Bowlby and Erik
Attachment Theory for Childcare Providers: An Annotated Bibliography Mardell, B. (1992). A Practitioner’s Perspective on the Implications of Attachment Theory for Daycare Professionals. Child Study Journal, 22(3), 121-128. Retrieved from https://www.esc.edu/library/
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.
Evaluation of Research Into Factors that Influence the Development of Attachments in Humans During First Year of Life
The concepts of attachment and security are relevant as infants and relevant as adults. Particularly in children one year to three years’ attachment is formed very quickly. Human attachment is
Modern attachment theory, which has now shifted to a regulation theory, takes Bowlby’s original work on attachment and looks at how early experiences, such as prenatal stress, optimal/suboptimal stress, and the mother’s ability to regulate the child’s needs, help the child form an internalized working model for attachment style due to the brain being an “experience-dependent organ” (Cozolino, 2010c; J. Schore & A. Schore, 2012).
The attachment theory is a theory by Bowlby that refers to the joint mutual relationship that babies experience and develop with their primary caregiver (Bowlby, 1982). This theory is not supported by research in various sceneries. However, even though the attachment theory began as an initiative, the clinical application to the daily clinical understanding of adult mental health complications has penned red behind the current available research. I believe that the theory can give valuable insight into both the developing nature of recognized psychiatric disorders as well as in the development of the therapeutic relationship in adults. My position provides an overview of (a) the application of attachment theory to diverse psychopathologies
Attachment is the bond that links humans to vital people in their lives. This bond begins to develop early on in life. According to Berk (2012), infants can become attached to regular people in their lives before the second half of their first year of life. These early attachments are normally to the primary caregivers of the infant.
The environment is which an infant is raised plays a huge part on their social, emotional, and cognitive development. The child’s experiences and interactions can help them develop the beginning skills needed to be a successful adult or teach them negative coping strategies. Attachments children make with their parents, in early childhood, becomes the standard in which they view their relationships as adults and can influence martial relationships (Wittmer & Petersen, 2014 pg. 30).
Attachment theory concerns the psychological, evolutionary and ethological ideas that help us understand relationships between people. Theorists believe that a child has a need to form attachments with an adult care giver to ensure adequate growth and social and emotional development. This ‘bond’ has to be maintained by the care giver and mostly uninterrupted to ensure a child grows into a happy and confident, adapted adult.
comfort to be of more importance; it is hard to prove if this is the
Different types of love plays a huge impact on today’s society. There are unhealthy types of love typically found in teenagers, but that is also found in Mother to children love. Stated By Hazan, Cindy, Shaver and Phillip, “The possibility that romantic love is an attachment process—a biosocial process by which affectional bonds are formed between adult lovers, just as affectional bonds are formed earlier in life between human infants and their parents. Key components of attachment theory, developed by Bowlby, Ainsworth, and others to explain the development of affectional bonds in infancy, were translated into terms appropriate to adult romantic love. The translation centered on the three major styles of attachment in infancy—secure, avoidant,
This essay will look at the development of attachment theory since the time of Bowlby and the many theories proposed to determine which best describes attachment. The Attachment theory highlights the importance of attachment especially between mothers and infants in regards to the infants personal development, both physically and emotionally. Bowlby describes attachment as “lasting psychological connectedness between human beings”(Bowlby, 1969, p.194). Bowlby’s attachment theory suggested that mothers and infants have a biological need to be in contact with one another and there would only be one main attachment made with the infant (Bowlby, 1968, 1988).
There are many theories in regards to early infant attachment and subsequent development. One very common theory is John Bowlby’s theory, which describes the special relationship that develops over the first year of life between infants and the people who care for them (Gross, 2011). Bowlby’s theory focuses on the assumption that early life experiences will in advertently affect one’s development. Internal working models, coined by Bowlby, are defined as infants’ cognitive abilities increase and enable infants to form a representation of their relationship with the caregiver. Applying this theory, an infant uses memorable experiences, both negative and/or positive, to develop their relationship with a person. For example, if an infant experiences
In the discipline of developmental psychology, it is universally debated that the main influence on an infant’s development process and latter consequences are due to attachment relationships (Ainsworth, 1978). This paper will attempt to critically address this central developmental debate and will further analyse the mechanisms of attachment and their effects on infants across their life span. These mechanisms include cognition, emotion and biology. However before critically evaluating these mechanisms it is necessary to offer a definition of attachment and to outline some approaches of attachment theorists in order to gain context in how attachment theory has established and evolved.
The issue of attachment is one that influences an individual throughout their life, affecting many aspects of their development. It is first formed during infancy between the child and their primary care giver and is maintained over the course of their lifespan. The level of attachment that is formed during infancy creates a foundation for psychological development in the course of the individual’s life (Santrock, 2013). Attachment security can be an indication of the quality of an individual’s future relationships, as well as challenges that may arise from such interactions. The following will discuss the attachment theory, biological influences of attachment, factors that contribute to the type of attachment formed during infancy and early childhood, and its impact and complications throughout each stage of development from infancy through late adulthood.