The Different Styles Of Attachment

The attachment style that an individual exhibits as an infant can affect their adult romantic relationships. An attachment pattern is established in early childhood attachments and continues to function as a working model for relationships in adulthood. This model of attachment influences how each of us reacts to our needs and how we go about getting them met. The ability to recognize one 's attachment can help someone to understand their strengths and vulnerabilities in a relationship.

Robert Sternberg created his triangular theory of love based on three dimensions: passion, intimacy, and commitment. The degree to which a relationship demonstrates these three dimensions determines the type of love relationship. People begin love relationships with those who care for them as children. These early relationships can have a great effect on their adult relationships.

Attachment is the emotional bond between humans, which is based on our relationship with a parent or early caregiver during the years of childhood. There are four different attachment styles – secure, preoccupied, dismissive, and fearful – each describing a different way in which individuals interact with others, approach social and romantic relationships, and deal with life.

Everyone has an attachment style from which they developed in the first two years of their life. This attachment style tends to stay consistent with each person throughout their lifetime and affects their social-emotional development, and thus relationships with other people. Attachment styles greatly affect the choice one makes in life partners, and how they parent their own children. It is important for everyone to gain insight on their own attachment style if they are to know their emotional limits and how to strengthen their flaws in order to develop a better-self and stronger relationships with other people (Norcross, 2011). It is even more so important for caregivers to be aware of their attachment style and how sensitively available they are to the children in their lives. How the primary caregiver responds to the child’s needs, determines the attachment style the child will acquire. To develop a secure attachment the child needs to establish confidence in a reliable caregiver. In this paper I will be talking about the behaviors and interactions that I observed while watching the film “Babies”, and what attachment styles may be formed as a result of those interactions.

To begin with attachment theory, first everyone should understand what the attachment is. According to attachment means bonding between a child and caregiver or vice versa. The attachment theory is the theory that describes the long term interpersonal relationship between the humans. Also, it can be defined as the strong bond between parent and child, and later in peer and romantic relationship (Metzger, Erdman, Ng 85). It generates a specific fact that how the humans react in relationships when they get hurt, separated from loved ones and perceiving a threat. Basically the two main types of attachment are secure and insecure. Secure attachment is the attachments where mother and father are available for their child and during that time child demonstrates his or her stress and reestablish the connection (Metzger, Erdman, Ng 87). Insecure attachment is the attachment where parents are not regularly in touch with their children or they ignore their child which built a failed emotion communication (Metzger, Erdman, Ng 87). Also, it may be repeated from one generation to another until it is not recovered. However, as a result of attachment theory, it is so important for children to know about it and there are also several emotional effects on children when their parents leave to go to another county due to their connections or bond between them.

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

Fraley (2002) completed a meta analysis of studies concerning attachment in order to investigate the level of attachment pattern’s continuity throughout life. The study indicated that there was a certain stability of the attachment pattern, and that the stability is independent of time. Even though it is theorized that a secure pattern will be likely to stay unchanged, it is still indicated that experiences such as bad relationships will be able to change the attachment pattern (Fraley,

Fraley, R. C. (2010). A brief overview of adult attachment theory and research. Retrieved August 17, 2017, from https://internal.psychology.illinois.edu/~rcfraley/attachment.htm

A psychological perspective of attachment is a term to describe a reciprocal emotional tie that develops over time. There are many developmental theories relating themselves to attachment and deprivation and many arguments over the nature-nurture debate. However, the name that comes to the forefront of most minds when speaking of this topic is

“a way of conceptualising the propensity of human beings to make strong affectional bonds to particular others and of explaining the many forms of emotional distress and personality disturbance, including anxiety, depression, and emotional detachment, to which unwilling separation and loss give rise” (Bowlby, 1984 p.27).

Each individual has their own style of attachment, whether it is secure attachment, ambivalent attachment, avoidant attachment, or disorganized attachment. Attachment styles develop early on in life and seem to develop over time based on one’s experiences and interactions with other people. Some seem to have more secure attachments than others and some seem more shut off and insecure with their attachments. In a study conducted by Dr. Mary Ainsworth, called “Strange Situation”, attachment behaviors were explored, where Ainsworth measured the reactions of children when separated from their caregiver. This study showed the vast differences in reactions of children with different attachment styles (Firestone 2016). Different attachment styles seem to be a product of the environment the child was raised in, whether it was a loving, secure environment, or a dysfunctional, less nurturing environment.

According to Newman and Newman (2015), attachment is the process through which people develop specific, emotional bonds with others. There are five different stages in the development of attachment. There are four patterns of attachment: secure attachment, anxious-avoidant attachment, anxious-resistant attachment, and disorganized attachment. Secure attachment is the most positive of all three patterns in which it provides a child with healthy self-awareness and trust. Disorganized and avoidant attachment is where the child’s needs for safety and understanding are not met. This can often lead to difficult learning and relationships and an inadequate attachment relationship with the caregiver (Malekpour, 2007). Attachment is a key factor in

This study will examine the ways that adults construct their own attachment experiences and relationships along and how others influence these attachments and their development. The chosen method for data collection was interviews as they provide full and detailed data for thematic analysis. Other researchers studying within the social constructionist perspective with a main focus on attachment found that attachment relationships are a central part of our lives, which can stem from childhood experiences through to later adult life. There is also some evidence to suggest environment influences an individual. Thematic analysis

Once appearing in a relationship, individuals tend to notice the innate habits, thoughts, and behaviors of their partners on a more intimate level. These innate patterns depict the individual’s attachment styles, or the “global orientations toward relationships” (14). These attachment styles – secure, preoccupied, fearful, and dismissing – surface during childhood, and preserve the propensity to affect our future relationships in society. According to the online quiz, I sustain a secure attachment style, meaning I uphold both a low avoidance of intimacy and low anxiety about abandonment. While these four categories of attachment styles cultivate in infancy, I believe my nurturing only promoted my attachment style to a certain degree. I established receptive care and safeguard from my mother throughout my childhood and adolescence, but my father marginalized me at a young age. Due to my parent’s divorce and mistreatment towards one another in my toddler years, this disturbed my attachment style. I did not desire the relationship my parents sustained, as it pervaded with negativity, hostility, and anger. Due to my biological father’s care, I acquired a more anxious-ambivalent style towards men, but it altered when my stepfather inputted into my family. My mother and stepfather provided, protected, and supported every aspect of my life, and continue to maintain a positive relationship with my to this day. Their care guides me to pursue healthy, committed relationships built on

Our style of attachment affects our relationships with others and influences who we choose as mates. There are three types of attachment styles: secure, avoidant, and anxious. A secure attachment is the healthiest type in which an individual received the proper love and attention during childhood. Individuals with the attachment style are the most satisfied with their relationships. Anxious attachment is unhealthy. Typically, this style needs to be around their partner constantly, as they believe this will meet all their needs. Finally, an avoidant attachment, an unhealthy style, is someone who is isolated and hard to connect with because they feel the only way to get their needs met is to pretend that they have none. They typically choose