Early Childhood Attachment Styles

They devised a ‘love quiz’ in a local newspaper, asking readers to describe their feelings and experiences about romantic relationships and their childhood relationships with parents. They found a strong correlation between childhood and adult relationship patterns: for example, insecure-avoidant types doubted the existence of love, feared closeness and found it hard to forgive; insecure-resistant types were intensely emotional, jealous and untrusting; and secure types believed in love, were very trusting and liked being close to others.

It been found that is psychologically healthy for adolescents to be attached to their parents. John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth argue that secure attachment in infancy is central to the development of social competence (pg. 274). Insecure attachments can lead to difficulties in relationship and developmental problems. The book defines secure attachment as an attachment pattern in which infants use their primary caregiver as a secure base from which to explore the environment. It also defines insecure attachment as an attachment pattern in which infants either avoid the caregiver or show

Attachment theory was originally proposed by Bowlby (1969) as an explanation of interpersonal relationships, with particular focus in his work on the parent-child relationships which are formed in early childhood. He noted that this was an evolutionary need within us as humans to form close attachments to improve our rate of survival (Bowlby, 1969). He later also theorized that these attachment styles would persist throughout life into adulthood (Bowlby, 1988). Further work on attachment theory by Bartholomew & Horowitz (1991) expanded on attachment styles and looked at the continuation of attachment style into adulthood. Using interviews with participants and the participants close friends they found evidence for four types of adult attachment styles: Secure, Preoccupied, Dismissing and Fearful (Bartholomew & Horowitz 1991). Further support for adult attachments styles is from Mikulincer & Shaver (2004) showing that attachments styles persist from childhood into adulthood demonstrating bowlby 's later hypothesis

Attachment is an integral part of the human condition, through it bonds are created between child and caregiver and these bond help contribute to a developing person’s sense of self and the world around them. These feeling of connection carry over from parent, to child, to later life from the person to their partner and then their own children. Attachment theory grew out of the understanding that young children in their early fragile stages of development require protection and security to increase their chance of survival, protection is present in the form of the parents from whom physical and a psychological sense of security comes. The infant sees their parents as a protector and a secure base through which they can always turn to in moments of stress when experiencing the world (Browne & Shlosberg, 2006).

Attachment style is a profound effect not only on our emotional development, but also upon the health of our relationships. A child forms a strong emotional bond with caregivers during childhood with lifelong consequences. It is important to be aware of attachment during infancy and early childhood in order to raise secure, independent and empathetic children. A secure, trusting attachment to parents during childhood forms the basis for secure relationships and independence as adults. It affects everything from our partner selection to how well our relationships progress to, sadly, how they end. That is why recognizing our attachment pattern can help us understand our strengths and vulnerabilities in a relationship. An attachment pattern is

Berzoff, Flangan, and Hertz (2008) recognize Ainsworth differentiated two types of attachment styles. The first type is avoidant infants, who did not protest their mother’s leaving and did not respond to her immediately upon her return. Ainsworth’s second type is insecurity, ambivalent infants (also called resistant) were upset when their mothers left and seemed to welcome their return, but did not calm down readily and they often resisted their mothers attempt to calm them down. Max is a four year old child, who experienced a full term labor. Holistically his biological functioning was determined as appropriate having met all of his developmental milestones. Unexpectedly, Max experienced repeated trauma in early childhood and he was separated from his biological mother.

Whether you grew up with organized or disorganized attachment, every type effects how you handle relationships as an adult. Rising studies show that connection early on has a sufficient role in adulthood bonds (Morris & Weiss, 1982). The process of studying infant to adult attachment was mainly started by two men named Hazan and Shaver in 1987. Shaver and Hazen (1988) connected their theory to past establishments of how we love. They also gave sufficient support for the three different attachment types. Positive characteristics in relationships correlate to secure attachment; Couples who show less intimacy and happiness tend to be involved in avoidant attachment; anxious-ambivalent attachment correlates to couples who show no satisfaction, except intimacy. (Feeney & Noller, 1990). Thanks to all the data and studies collects

Crittenden (1997) emphasised that; “interaction between maturation and current experience as underlying dynamic changes in attachment relationships, suggesting that periods of greater maturational change (e.g. during preschool) would be associated with changes in patterns of attachment. According to this view, rather than continuity, change in the quality of attachment relationships.”

We will be exploring the different styles of attachment, how parenting affects attachment style and in turn how it affects our love lives as adults. Built by close relationships, attachment can vary from one relationship to another, depending on how available that person is especially during infancy and childhood. As adults, we react to situations based on our attachment style, which is ingrained but not unchangeable. This not only affects our relationships with prospective partners but everyone we hold close throughout our lives. Attachment is an immensely valuable tool in the world of psychology, with it you can better understand how behavior is influenced by experience.

Max has different attachment styles with different people. Attachment is characterized by specific behaviors in children, such as seeking closeness with the attachment figure when upset or threatened (Bowlby, 1979). Max has a insecure avoidant attachment with his biological mother because he does not trust her to provide safety during stressful situations (Brandell, 2007). Max remembers being left with his mother 's boyfriend and being fondled. Max knows that his mother is the individual who usually separates him from his primary caregivers. When Max is scheduled to see his mother he begins to cry and cling to his Aunt Kelly. Kathleen was not sensitive to the needs of Max. Kathleen

Trauma and negative attachment experiences can cause different attachment styles. Longitudinal studies have shown that secure attachment is a protective factor for a child’s development (Sroufe, 2005). Children with secure attachments respond with greater psychological resilience to emotional stress. An insecure attachment development, however, is a risk factor, which can lead to the individual experiencing psychological decompression in stress situation or cause more difficulty dealing with conflicts in a socially competent way. Children with insecure attachment styles often show less pro-social behaviors at the kindergarten age and behave more aggressively than their playmates. In adolescence they are often more isolated, have fewer friendships, and feel that relationships overall are less important for their lives. I never doubted that Cynthia had an insecure attachment style. Deciding on her specific style was more difficulty given that I had to do this in hindsight. For Cynthia, I considered dismissive-avoidant, anxious-preoccupied,

In other words, this supported Bowlby’s theory that adaptation to adult bonding was rooted from childhood attachments, hence affecting individuals’ engagement in later relationships (Partis, 2000). A notable strength of this study was that the method consisted of longitudinal dataset following individuals from birth to adulthood. As it was a direct measure of age-related changes, the results were not confounded by cohort differences, giving more concise result patterns. Nevertheless, one of the weaknesses was that the study was limited by the modest number of individuals in the sample (Roisman et al, 2005). Also, results may be biased as participants were drawn from low-risk samples, where they were quite stable in their romantic relationships at the time of the assessments. If a higher risk of cohort was to be examined, such as low-income families with low social supports, changes in attachment security might be more likely to be observed.

Attachment starts in infancy and lasts through the lifespan of an individual. A newborn instantly needs someone to take care of them. This individual may be a parent, a grandparent, or a caregiver, but whoever it is, there will be a bond formed between them. In a period of barely 15 minutes, two infants were being observed at a local park to whom they are attached to their caregivers which constitute a genuine love relationship. Although this relationship is closely pursued by patterns of behaviors toward the caregivers; the infants’ behavior is complexly organized, goal orientated, and sensitive to environmental response. From the naturalistic observational techniques, the infants’ behavior has been examined in detail and in context. Furthermore,

What exactly is “Attachment” and how does it play a major role in a child’s development. And attachment bond is the unique emotional relations ship between a baby and its primary caregiver. The attachment bond is a key factor in the way your infant’s brain organizes itself and influences your child’s social, emotional, intellectual and physical development. In the case of child development attachment does not emerge suddenly but it develops over 4 phrases.

The Attachment theory stems from getting all of your needs met from infancy to adolescence. If the caretaker was constantly meeting the child’s needs in a loving and sensitive manner then the child will start to develop a secure attachment style, that encourages the child to become independent, to cope with distress, to form adaptive relationships with others and to build a confident self-image (Burke, Danquah, & Berry, 2016). “From adolescence onward, we normally transfer our primary attachment from our parents to our peers, and typically, to a romantic partner” (Zeifman & Hazan,