John Bowlby's Attachment Theory

Kate Murphy’s 2017 article, “Yes, It’s Your Parents’ Fault”, seems to point blame on parents for adults’ behavior in relationships. Murphy’s claim however is grounded in research on a theory first devised in 1958 by British psychoanalyst John Bowlby, known as the attachment theory. This theory has garnered more and more attention and credibility as it continues to give psychologists, neuroscientists, sociologists, and other researchers insight on human connections and information from explaining how we function in relationships to its practical applications in therapeutic and clinical settings. The underlying assumption of Bowlby’s attachment theory is that the quality of a baby’s early attachments and relationships describes and influences

I am of the opinion that as a child practitioner an essential part of our work role will involve actively seeking to evolve and where apt build relationships. Consequently having a significant impact on children and young people’s lives.

As a practitioner it’s your duty to observe and maintain correct procedures to ensure that the children are offered a stimulating environment which will further allow optimum possibilities for development. All those who work with or amongst children and young people have a crucial role to play in helping not only to shape aspects of their lives, but to also aid in enhancing their future development. Therefore it can be stated that how we set up our own working practices can affect children and young people’s development, as will be identified by this essay; below are areas where one should concentrate in order to further

If any problems occur to the child, they can return to their secure base which is their key worker, who can offer them comfort. Although key workers are not there for children who have not formed an attachment with their parents, they are they to offer support and comfort. The strength of Bowlby’s approach is that it has introduced the key worker system, which has helped a great deal with supporting children’s needs and development. Key workers can track their progress and plan and implement activities which promote their development. While working at my last year’s placement in a nursery setting, I was informed that each child had a key worker assigned to them. I observed that when parents would leave their children, some would cry and get upset, the key worker would then take them aside and comfort them or try to distract them. Having the key workers there for them made the child more emotionally secure.

Bandura has studied self-efficacy, which is the extent or strength of one’s belief in one’s own ability to complete tasks and reach goals. Self-efficacy can affect all types of behaviors like academics, social and recreational. A child might have the ability to accomplish a task, but if they do not feel like they are capable of doing so, then they may fail or may not attempt the task. For example, in a study difficult math problems were given to children with

John Bowlby created the theory of attachment, this is where he believed that the earliest bonds formed by babies with their parents/care gives have a tremendous impact of their relationships/attachments towards people in their continuous life. Also Bowlby believe that the attachment bond is to keep the infants close to their mother, this is to improve the child’s chances in survival. What is attachment? This is a strong affectionate tie with special people which young babies will make in the early stage of their life e.g. an attachment towards their mum and dad.

Charles Manson’s name will forever be associated with murder. However, “Manson did not physically kill anyone. Although he had gone with six Family members on the second night to the LaBianca's home, he had not used a weapon, “instead he had successfully manipulated his followers to commit the most terrible slaughter” (Bannerman, 2017 p.1). The motivation of these offenders, known as disciple killers is to earn respect and gain attention from their charismatic leaders within in their cult. It is critical for researchers to study disciple mass murders due to severe nature of the crime and due to its current lack of research.

Distinguishing their strengths: Children need encouragement and positive words to know what they are doing is okay. Negative voices and thinking shows the caregiver does not like to be around them. Consequently, the child views him or herself as a failure and loses the longing to learn. The teachers must work with the minor to understand what the child is good at and hearten them to keep trying at what they are not. To include the parents and inspire them to pay attention to their child’s development and skills, the childcare provider can send their artwork and worksheets home every day, and let the guardian know the week’s lesson plan.

After the death of my husband, I have watched my children grapple with grief. At times it seems as if they are in a tug-of-war with God. Losing a loved one has always been a part of life and eventually everyone will go through a time when they will have to grapple with grief. The death of a father at any age can be devastating, but when children lose their father at a young age their feelings of security disappear. If children lose their attachment to their father they are left wondering if they can even trust to put that attachment somewhere else due to the fear of losing it again. Children grieve differently than adults.

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

Susanna starts her journey when her parents sent her to a therapist because of her fatal suicide. The doctor concluded Susanna with: “Severe depression and hopelessness and suicidal ideas” (Kaysen 13) which sent her to McLean Hospital. Some may claim that Susanna’s parents made the right choice of sending her to McLean since she was depressed and tried to commit suicide it would be the only rational explanation for her parents to do. Susanna did needed help however her parents were selfish and imprudent. This was during the 1960s, and Susanna parents were wealthy, respected, and diplomatic people.

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.

Attachment theory refers to the strong, enduring, emotional and reciprocal bond between two people especially between the infant and primary caregiver. The caregiver could be the mother, grand parents, father, aunty, uncle and so on. . According to Maccoby (1980) attachment has four key characteristics including proximity; where the infant desires to stay close to the person they are attached to, separation anxiety; where if the infant is separated from the caregiver may lead to distress; pleasure; where the infant and caregiver feel pleasure when reunited and finally frequent contact where the infant is aware of the caregiver and seeks to be in contact with them always. This essay will cover an analysis of attachment theory in terms of nativist and empiricist debates, an evaluation of Bowlby's research theory of attachment in terms of childcare and later development and evaluation of studies into maternal privation and deprivation.

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

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,