Infidelity During Childhood

Individual attachment style and its effects on adult romantic relationships were examined. The hypothesis of this literature review was that insecure attachment style would negatively affect the overall dynamic of adult romantic relationships while secure attachment would promote positive and healthy romantic relationships. Empirical studies looking at attachment style and relationship issues such as one’s views of self and others, communication, sexual intimacy, childhood family dynamic and God were evaluated. Reviews of studies were in line with the hypothesis indicating that insecure attachment does negatively affect the overall dynamic of romantic

Attachment styles influence relational patterns between a married couple and their children. These attachment relational patterns known as anxious, avoidant, and secure base styles are a product of the interactions experienced in early childhood with their caregivers. It affects people’s intercommunication with others all through their life span. Individuals’ attachment style involves a systematic pattern of relational assumptions, emotions, and behavior that develop from the subjective constructs definitive of attachment experiences throughout their lives. Negative relational patterns increase the likelihood of marital violence in the home. When experiencing stress related life issues, conflicts may arise due to substandard communication skills leading to physical violence, aggressiveness, resulting in harsh spousal disputes. A positive upswing in marital and family harmony occurs when healthy communication skills develop along with secure based attachment characteristics, such as, humility, gratitude, and forgiveness of self and others. These characteristics provide coping mechanisms that establish a positive self-identity and healthy social interaction with others. As the anxious and avoidant relational styles exercise these positive characteristics, in time, they develop a positive view of self and others while learning to work through life stressors, which benefit the marriage and family.

A qualitative study showing how childhood experiences of attachment and separation can affect relationships in adulthood.

Hazan and Shaver (1987) aimed to investigate whether they could classify the responders’ love relationships as secure, ambivalent, and avoidant, whether there was a correlation between the formed attachment pattern from childhood and attachment pattern during the love relationships, and whether there was a correlation between the distribution of childhood attachment patterns and adult love relationships’ attachment patterns.

Researchers have begun to use attachment theory, as a framework for understanding interpersonal and emotional outcomes of adults. Attachment theory also creates, an understanding of how parent relationships, affects a child’s early physiological development throughout adult-hood. In the past, research done on father -child relationships, has generally, focused on the attachment the child develops, when the father is absent in the child’s early stages of development. In my research, I found recent studies, performed on father-child relationships, and how secure attachment bonds are developed, when the father is not only present, but positively active in the child’s life. The active presence of a father during the first years of a child’s life are important in the development of the child’s social skills. This topic was specifically close to heart, because my father was an absent alcoholic drug addict for the first ten years of my life. He has been sober now for nine years, and I wonder how his absence and sobriety have affect my attachment bonds and social skills.

Early childhood secure attachment could affect adult relationship in many positive ways. Many research suggested that individuals who experienced security during childhood, had exemplar parents who took attachment as an important part of their relationship during their child’s development is very likely to determine the onset of relationship during adulthood with more satisfaction and partner matching. (Brennan & Shaver, 1995). Secure attachment is known for promoting confidence and self-security within the person been raised in the environment that prepares them for later life relationship with other adults. The emerging adult would have matured and learned to understand the dynamic of what a relationship should be and is assumed that he or she has the capability to tolerate the challenges that such relationship will encounter. Some studies show that those adults who encountered secure attachment during their childhood can display appropriate relationship and friendship engagement because they have developed the ability to regulate their feeling and emotions which helps them tolerate frustrations or disappointment that may arise from the relationship. (Boyd,

In this case study psychodynamic theory by Freud (1859-1939) and attachment theory by Bowlby (1907-1990) seems the most pertinent to this case study. The claim of psychodynamic theory is that outcomes in adulthood are predicted from infancy. Freud maintained that we have several levels of conscious and unconscious thought and as suggested by Hothersall (2014) the problems in day to day functioning are seen as a result of negative early experiences that have not been resolved. Also looking at attachment theory where the nature and importance of the parent-child relationship helps explain any behavioural or relationship problems in a family situation we know through Bowlby (1958) and Ainsworth (1973) that the degree of security in the first attachment is thought to be the most influential factor in the child’s internal working models of relationships and will shape all intimate interpersonal bonds formed by the individual in future

The lectures, discussions in class, and chapter readings highlighted the importance of one of the characteristics of human nature, which is relationships and attachment. The course materials emphasized the critical role of relationship and attachment to the development of the children. The internship site also provided an opportunity for me to visualize different attachments and relationships between parent and child in action. As the chapter readings from the textbook explore different perspectives of relationship and attachment proposed by various theorists, the class discussions and lectures furthered my understanding and knowledge of parent-child relationships.

Infant attachment is the bond between an infant and their caregivers. An infant’s early attachment to their primary caregiver (PCG) is often seen as the foundation for all future development (Fairbairn, 1952). Individual difference perspectives have focused greatly on the predictive power of attachment because parents want to raise healthy, well-adjusted, normal children and are often concerned about the extent to which their parental upbringing skills can impact their child’s future. Attachment theory claims that infants are born with the innate ability to form attachments to their primary caregivers (Bowlby, 1969). Ainsworth and Bell (1970) developed the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) to determine the different attachment styles between mothers and their young children, which are secure, insecure avoidant, and insecure resistant. Hazen & Shaver (1987) applied attachment theory to adult relationships to show the predictive power of attachment. Infant attachment is translated into the romantic relationship style. This shows the consequences of attachment as all future relationships can be determined by the infant’s bond with their parents. However, attachment theory and the SSP may not be universally applicable, as child-rearing practices vary widely across cultures. Some children are raised by multiple caregivers, some are often left alone and others are never separated from their attachment figure. This suggests that secure attachments are culturally dependent. This

The statistics for prevalence rates of infidelity vary greatly depending on which definition is used. Due to the variety of definitions, estimates on lifetime prevalence for infidelity can be anywhere between 1.2% and 85.5% (Hertlein, Wetchler, & Piercy, 2005). Evidently, a clear description for infidelity is important to more accurately assess rates within the literature. A study by Moller and Vossler (2015), looked at the definitions given by seven experienced couple counselors (5 women and 2 men) who had been practicing for between 4.5 and 18 years. During face-to-face interviews, the counselors explained their conceptions of cheating by incorporating their experiences with heterosexual clients. After applying thematic analysis to these

On the one hand, secure attachment in infancy will create a better adolescent. Even though in the middle of adolescences i.e. around ages 15 and 16 the attachment to parents may weaken, towards the end of the adolescence, it comes to normal level (van Wel, 1994). It is a popular belief that the happiness and wellness of an adolescent is closely connected to his peers relations rather than family. On the contrary, researchers who have ventured this path proves it wrong and the studies concluded that the overall development of a teenager mostly depends on the type of relationship with their parents, which is consistent across a variety of cultures (e.g., Greenberg, Siegal, & Leitch, 1983; Raja, McGee, & Stanton, 1992; Claes,1998; Okamoto & Uechi,

The purpose of this paper is to provide the reader with knowledge of individual differences and attachment, particularly within the context of mother / caregiver– child attachment and how it impacts adult attachment relationships and or patterns. There is an association between individual differences in adult attachment and the way people think about their relationships, and of what their relationships with their mothers / parents or primary caregivers are like. In other words, as adults the relationships we have with other adults are influenced by relationships we have with our parents as children.

It was reported that the samples of the young adult participants were reported to have an increased insecure romantic attachment. The attachment was assessed by a process called 36-item Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory. Which is a questionnaire that is used to evaluate the construct of the attachment between the young couples. The participants have to rate 36 statements on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly disagree). Of those 36 items, 17 were avoidant attachment and 19 were anxious attachment. Avoidant attachment is the tendency to emotionally distance oneself from their partner and anxious attachment is the tendency to form a bond

Robert Sternberg’s Triangular Love Theory (1997) suggests that love comprises of three components: intimacy, passion and commitment. Looking closely at the concept of commitment, Hazan and Shaver (1987) developed their theory on adult attachment suggesting that the emotional bond formed during a relationship is similar to that of the one a child has with a caregiver. The relationship with a caregiver therefore may influence an individual’s future relationships. However, research has

Rice (1990) research was a narrative and meta-analysis of attachment in adolescence which showed that the association between the strength of parental attachment and various measures of self-esteem waxes and wanes over the course of adolescence and young adulthood in just such a manner and may therefore indicates