The Third Attachment In Infants And Adults

What is the definition of attachment? If you look it up in a dictionary it explains that it is ‘an emotional bond between an infant or toddler and primary caregiver, a strong bond being vital for the child’s normal behavioural and social development’. That strong bond between infant and caregiver is believed to happen between the ages of 6-8 months although Bowlby (1958) suggests that the infants are born into this world pre-programmed to form attachments, they have innate behaviours in the way of crying, smiling, crawling and cooing which will stimulate attention and comforting responses from the caregivers. These behaviours are called social releasers. Kagan et al (1978)

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

In resistant, anxious, or ambivalent attachments the infant has separation anxiety. In this style, the person is basically not there for you. He or she feels insecure when the mother is not present and this insecurity results from her being inconsistently available, leaving the infant afraid to leave her side (Strong & Cohen, 2014). About 10 percent of infants in our society have anxious or ambivalent attachments. In avoidant attachments the infant senses

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).

Attachment is described as an "affectionate reciprocal relationship between an individual and another individual." Much psychological research has been carried out into the types of attachments that infants form with their caregivers, and the results gained from these studies show how early attachments can affect children whether positively or negatively.

Anxious-Avoidant Insecure Attachment – This is where the child treats the caregiver and the stranger the same rather than being avoidant and also this is where they don’t want to be fussed with by anyone and they don’t want to play.

According to Simply Psychology, Bowlby’s attachment theory says an individual can have an attachment with someone that is not shared. Attachment is characterized by behaviors in children such as seeking proximity with their attachment figure when upset. Bowlby’s experiments led him to see the importance of a child and mother relationship. (Saul McLeod, 2009) With more research later came four phases of attachment. Phase one is from birth to two months, this stage is where babies seek comfort, and can attach to anyone. Phase two is from two months to seven months. Babies start to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar faces. Also, they can tell between primary and secondary caregivers. Phase three is seven to 24 months old. This phase is when babies have the knowledge of who their caregiver is, which causes separation anxiety when the caregiver has to leave. Phase four is from 24 months and after, which is when the child can reciprocate the relationship. (Maianu, 2015)

Over the years research has shown that attachment is critical to human development, and that in many ways early childhood attachments set up a framework for intimate relationships in adulthood. As they begin to develop an attachment with their caregivers infants go through several phases. The first phase is the asocial phase, which occurs during the first six weeks of an infant's life (Shaffer & Kipp, 2014). The second phase is the phase of indiscriminate attachments, which lasts until the infant is six or seven months old (Shaffer & Kipp, 2014). When infants are about seven to nine months of age they are go through what is called the specific attachment phase (Shaffer & Kipp, 2014). It is during this time that infants establish their initial genuine attachments (Shaffer & Kipp, 2014). The development of a secure attachment during this time is critical for, "… it promotes the development of exploratory behavior" (Shaffer & Kipp, 2014). Finally, during the phase of multiple attachments, in which infants are about nine to eighteen months old, they begin to develop attachments to multiple people (Shaffer & Kipp, 2014).

The formation of attachment begins at birth with the child forming some type or form of attachment with their parents or primary caregiver. Hopefully, the child is able to form a proper or secure attachment with their parent or primary caregivers because the attachment formed between the parents or primary caregiver acts the foundation for how well the child will be able to form attachments with others outside the immediate family (Gullone, Ollendick, King,2006).This is because the type or level of attachment the child was able to form with his or her parent generally predicts the type or level of attachment the child will form with others outside their intermediate family. However, as the individual interacts with the outside world more and

Young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver in order for their social and emotional development to occur normally. Without this attachment, they will suffer serious psychological and social impairment. During the first two years, how the parents or caregivers respond to their infants, particularly during times of distress, establishes the types of patterns of attachment their children form. These patterns will go on to guide the child’s feelings, thoughts and expectations as an adult in future

they cannot teach him how to be responsive of his own feelings of insufficiency either .

The four attachment categories that infants are put into are: secure, insecure/resistant (or ambivalent), insecure/avoidant, and disorganized/disoriented.

An infant with a secure attachment style has a natural bond with their parent, where they are able to trust them, at the same time leaving their side to discover and explore their surroundings. In an insecure/resistant attachment the relationship the child has with their mother or caregiver is very clingy, thus making them very upset once the caregiver is away. When the mother or caregiver is back they are not easily comforted and resist their effort in comforting them. In an insecure/avoidant attachment the infant is, “indifferent and seems to avoid the mother, they are as easily comforted by a stranger, as by their parent” (Siegler 2011, p.429). Lastly, the disorganized/disoriented attachment is another insecure attachment style in which the infant has no way of coping with stress making their behavior confusing or contradictory. Through these brief descriptions of the attachment theory, many researchers have defined the turning point in which each attachment definition can have an influence on one’s self esteem, well-being and their marital relationship.

John Bowlby, who originally developed the theory of attachment, describes it as a “lasting psychological connectedness between human beings” (Somerville, 2009). Furthermore, there are four main characteristic of infant attachment, proximity maintenance, safe haven, secure base, and separation distress. Proximity maintenance is the desire to stay close to the people we have formed an attachment. Safe haven refers to the action of returning to the attachment figure for comfort and safety when danger or fear is present. A secure base is a place where the attachment figure acts as a base of security from which a child can explore the surrounding world. Separation distress is the anxiety that occurs when the attachment figure is absent (Cherry, 2011).

Lastly, avoidant attached infants are untroubled when the caregiver leaves and returns. The infant wants to keep closeness to the caregiver but this attachment style lets the infant maintain closeness to the caregiver even in the face of rejection. In order to control their feelings of distress and to prevent more rejection, the infant may just give up on seeking closeness to the caregiver (Walsh, 2015).