Essay about How Attachment Develops

Psychologist, Mary Ainsworth, provided the most famous body of research offering explanations of individual differences in attachment. She devised as assessment technique called the Strange Situation Classification to

The learning theory of attachment focuses of two concepts; operant and classical conditioning. Classical conditioning as an explanation for attachment describes the baby receiving food (and unconditioned stimulus) and producing an unconditioned response (happiness) and the mother feeding the baby will be the neutral stimulus. The baby will then experience the mother giving them food (and therefore happiness) a number of times and then learn to associate the mother (now a conditioned stimulus) with the feeling of happiness (a conditioned response) and thus an attachment will form. Operant conditioning describes attachment as a reinforced response. When a

One of the most important factors that affect child development is the relationship of the child with their primary caregiver. This is a tenet of developmental psychology known as attachment theory. John Bowlby, the creator of this theory, wanted to examine how early childhood experiences influence personality development. Attachment theory specifically examines infant’s reactions to being separated from their primary caregiver. Bowlby hypothesized that the differences in how children react to these situations demonstrates basic behavioral differences in infancy that will have consequences for later social and emotional development.

Ainsworth (1978) developed the Strange Situation Theory, which is how one is able to view the different levels of attachment (Groh, Roisman, Booth-LaForce, Flaley, Owen, Cox, & Burchinal, 2014). The first attachment is secure attachment, which is when a child is able to greet and seek out contact with the caregiver upon arrival after a stressful separation (Haltigan & Roisman, 2015). The next is anxious-avoidant/resistant (insecure) attachment, when the child has no want to contact with the caregiver while showing signs of resistance upon the return (Haltigan & Roisman, 2015). The last and the most crucial to child development is disoriented/ disorganized attachment; conflicting responses from the child which show hostile and aggressive behavior toward the caregiver (Haltigan & Roisman, 2015). All of these attachements show the different types of ways that a child can communicate with their caregiver. These actions are the representations of their early attachment and experiences with the caregiver (Siebert & Kerns, 2015). If there are no changes toward the environment, the attention

The Development of Attachment Psychological research can inform us about the development of attachments to a certain extent. Mary Ainsworth actually covered a definition explaining, how we know when an attachment has developed. This is; 'the infant tries to get close to and maintain that proximity with the caregiver, using a number of strategies to do so. E.g. clinging and signalling behaviours such as smiling, crying and calling.

Mary Ainsworth is known for her ‘Strange Situation’ (Custance 2010) studies with children. Her theory was that the quality of an infant’s attachment depends largely on the kind of attention the infant has received. She observed the attachment styles of children, mostly aged between 12 and 24 months, by placing them in an environment and recording their reactions to their mothers (or primary caregivers) leaving the room and then returning. Based on these observations Ainsworth concluded that there are different types of attachment. Three types of attachment are: ‘anxious-avoidant’, where the child shows little upset with the stranger, but will avoid contact with the parent on their return. The ‘securely attached’ child is one that will show moderate levels of proximity seeking towards the parents and is upset by their departure but deals with the parents return positively, often returning to play. The third type is the ‘anxious-resistant’ child; greatly upset by the parent’s departure and on reunion seems angry and will not be comforted or picked up (Custance 2010).

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.

Bowlby’s work on attachment theory shows infants treated well develop a secure attachment. Hence they have a good foundation for healthy self-esteem, behavior, and future relationships (Barnet, Ganiban, & Cicchetti, 1991). If the infant develops an insecure bond with the caregiver, they may develop mental disturbances (Cicchetti, Ganiban, & Barnett, 1991). Mary Ainsworth, Bowlby’s contemporary, applied Bowlby’s theory in her research. In 1978, Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, and Wall, created the strange situation technique to study one year old infant attachments (as cited in Colonnesi et al., 2011, p.631). Results of their analysis led to three categories of attachment. They distinguished a secure (B), an insecure avoidant (A), and insecure ambivalent attachment (C)

In order to determine an infant’s attachment type, Ainsworth established an experimental study known as, “Strange Situation” (Berger, 2014, p.144). This study was an experiment off of Bowlby’s findings that suggest attachment “related behaviors, are activated in times of personal distress” (Bernier, Larose, & Whipple, 2005, p. 172). Therefore, within this study, an infant’s attachment was determined by studying their behavior and level of distress within a new environment at the absence or presence of their caregiver. Additionally, Bernier represents the results of Larose and Boivin’s 1998 study that express a possible correlation between “Strange Situation” and the transition from high school to college (Bernier et al., 2005, p. 173) as both

Attachment is a term used to describe the dependency relationship a child develops towards his or her primary caregivers. It is first observable during the latter half of the first year of life and develops progressively over the first four years of life. It is most readily observed in the behavior of children when they are sick, injured, tired, anxious, hungry or thirsty. Although early attachment research focused on the mother and infant, it is now generally accepted that children develop multiple attachment relationships. An ‘attachment figure’ is defined as someone who provides physical and emotional care has continuity and consistency in the child’s life, and who has an emotional investment in the child’s life. This can include parents (biological, foster, adopted), grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, and alternate caregivers (e.g. child-care workers). Given that children are able to form multiple attachments, the question has been asked as to which attachment relationship is most influential on children’s developmental outcomes.

Mary Ainsworth observed how an infant would respond if their primary caregiver left the room without the child, and re-entered a few minutes later. Secure attachment is when a child responds happily after being reunited with their primary caregiver. Avoidant attachment is an insecure attachment style where the child doesn’t care that his primary caregiver has returned. Anxious-ambivalent attachment is an insecure attachment style where the child becomes distraught after being reunited with his primary caregiver. Lastly, the disorganized attachment style is an insecure attachment style where the child begins to act bizarre or frightened when his primary caregiver returns. John Bowlby, who was a psychologist, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst, discovered that there are phases as to which children develop attachments. The first phase, during infant’s first three months of life, is the preattachment phase. This is where infants simply need to be held and

John Bowlby’s attachment theory established that an infant’s earliest relationship with their primary caregiver or mother shaped their later development and characterized their human life, “from the cradle to the grave” (Bowlby, 1979, p. 129). The attachment style that an infant develops with their parent later reflects on their self-esteem, well-being and the romantic relationships that they form. Bowlby’s attachment theory had extensive research done by Mary Ainsworth, who studied the mother-infant interactions specifically regarding the theme of an infant’s exploration of their surrounding and the separation from their mother in an experiment called the strange situation. Ainsworth defined the four attachment styles: secure,

These characteristics are well demonstrated in Mary Ainsworth’s experiment of the “strange situation.” Researcher Chris Fraley describes the study as, “a group of 12 month-old infants and their parents are brought in to the laboratory and, systematically separated from and reunited with one another.” Approximately 58 percent of the children demonstrated characteristics of secure attachment. When the parent left the room the child displayed signs of distress with a need to be close to the attachment figure. When the parent returned to the room, the child eagerly approached

As humans, building relationships between others is a form of connecting and communicating. It is a social situation that is experienced every day through the course of a lifetime. The initial relationship that is made is between the mother and the child. This bond that connects two people is known to be called attachment. The theory of attachment begins at birth, and from that, continuing on to other relationships in family, friends, and romance. Attachment is taught through social experiences, however the relationship with the mother and her temperament are the key factors in shaping the infants attachment type, which

By responding with care and comfort, this enables for an “attachment bond” to form between the infant and caregiver, most commonly the mother (White et al., 2013). Following on from Bowlby’s theory, Mary Ainsworth investigated the theory of attachment through observing the reactions of infants when their mothers left them alone with strangers. The investigation was named as the “Ainsworth’s strange situation assessment” (White et al., 2013). It was discovered through this investigation that infants who had secure attachments with their mothers were upset when separated and were easily soothed when the mother returns. This investigation implies that infants with secure attachment to their mothers show signs of normal social development.