Attachment Styles Reflection

His idea of the theory was that when infants became attached to adults whom are responsive and sensitive during the social interactions and form a maintained caregiving relationship during the 6 months to 3 years of life (McLeod). Without the development of attachment, children could suffer from serious impairments both psychological and social. This process establishes various forms of attachment, which in the future will guide the thoughts, feelings, and expectations in children as adults in their future relationships. In this paper, there will be explanations, examples, and other psychologist discussing their attachment theories. There are four different style of attachment in adults; Secure, Dismissive, Preoccupied, and Fearful-Avoidant.

Attachment theory is an emotional bond formed between children and their primary caregivers through close interpersonal contact. Some patterns of children formed with the mother are pivotal to the social, emotional, and personality development of an individual. There are 3 distinct responses when a child is separated from their primary caregiver. One is protest, crying, active searching, and resistance to the comforting of others. Two is despair and blatant sadness.

Ainsworth’s descriptions of attachment were found to be related to relationship development. Specifically, adults with avoidant tendencies tend to be relatively uninterested in romantic relationships, have a higher breakup rate than secure adults (Shaver & Brennan, 1992), and grieve less after a breakup (Simpson, 1990). Anxious adults are obsessed with their romantic partners and form extreme jealousy (Collins, 1996; Hazan & Shaver, 1987). Relationships with a partner who has an anxious attachment have a higher rate for breakups as well.

Cindy Hazan and Philip Shaver in 1980 were able to move the theory of attachment and children into developed theories of attachment on adulthood relationships. They found that even in cases of adults a strong attachment is still very important, Hazan and Shaver (1980) concluded that a balance intimacy with independence within a relationship is best, if the attachment was too strong both parties would be over dependent, and if the attachment was weak there would be a lack of intimacy with feeing of inadequacy (Hazan and Shaver, 1980). Many past findings have suggested that secure attachment is related to high levels of self-esteem; such is found evident in Wilkinson (2004) research about the role of parental and peer attachment in the psychological

The term attachment is used widely when focusing on children’s early relationships. An attachment can be thought of as a unique emotional tie or bond between a child and another person which usually is an adult. Research shows that the quality of these bonds or attachments will shape a child’s ability to form other relationships later on in life. In the 1950’s a theorist John Bowlby identified that children and young people’s mental health and behaviour could be linked to separation from a child’s primary carer. He also identified that young children can show separation anxiety if their primary carer is not there for them.

In 1969, John Bowlby made the connection that formed relationships and attachments to caregivers contributes to future development and growth. The attachment theory focuses on relationship association between caregivers and their children. Children who established a foundation with a caregiver despite their biological relation, gain much needed support. Establishing support, encourages a child’s development. The comfort of safety, allows children to feel secure in taking risks (Groman, 2012).

Although Bowen’s family systems theory, and Bowlby’s attachment theory are unique with their own thoughts and perceptions, both of the theories can also be taken as different viewpoints of the same human experience, specifically the development of relationship patterns and human attachment. Both theories touch upon the influence that unsolved problems in the parents may have on their children. Attachment theory focuses more on the infant’s first attachment, or primary attachment. This is usually between the mother and the infant. If the attachment is interrupted and the infant’s needs are not being met by the primary attachment, mother, this could adversely affect the infant’s cognitive and mental development as well as future attachments.

Theories from Psychology social work draws on most ‘lecture explained that attachment Theory was developed by Bowlby as a framework for explaining the way humans interact with each other and the importance of relationships with a sense of ‘secure attachment’ particularly when the individual is exposed to stressful situations or where they feel threatened and seek a secure base. A very direct connection between attachment theory and Australia’s treatment of refugees comes in the treatment of

I do agree with Karen's call for more research on attachment. It would be interesting read more about attachments in today's society and how it has changed, although, it is apparent when you look into the lives of some families especially if you work in the education

Although we are studying theories, some of them appear to explain human behavior and personality with certain accuracy. John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth theories of attachment can also explain what happens to people when attachment to their parents or caregivers is healthy or potential problems that could occur due to detachments. They suggest that individuals raised with secure attachments to their primary caregivers help them to feel secure; moreover, these children appear to be more socially skilled and less likely to experience major emotional disturbances. However, failure to form healthy attachments, especially mother-child, could serve as a descriptive mechanism for many negative psychological outcomes later in the life of an individual,

Attachment theory provides significant understanding of human nature and behavior. It can give one insight into oneself, others, and into what constitutes healthy relationships. When learning to understand oneself, sometimes it is helpful to have an objective perspective. To this end, I completed an attachment style questionnaire available from web-research-design.net. The results, while not surprising, were not necessarily what I would have wanted.

Overview of Attachment Theory Attachment theory tries to describe the evolution of personality and behaviour in relationships and it gives a reason for the difference in a person’s emotional and relationship attitudes. In the beginning, it looked at the mechanics of relationships between children and their parents but it has since been expanded to cover the entire life of the human being (Howe, 2000). Attachment theory includes insights learned from evolutionary theory, ethology, systems theory and developmental psychology (Howe, 2001).

The paper mainly focuses on the conceptual framework of Attachment theory as well as attachment style of a client with Self-esteem issues that helps in the case formulation and treatment plan in Cognitive Behavioural Theory (CBT). Attachment style can be explained as an emotional connection of one person with another. The aim of this research study is to evaluate an association between attachment theory and cognitive behavioural approaches, explicitly pointing out similarities as well as differences between both. For the research analysis, qualitative research methodology has been selected for which distinctive previous researches, books and journal article resources has been examined as the gathered evidences are based on attachment theory

They are dismissive-avoidant attachment, anxious-preoccupied attachment and fearful-avoidant attachment style. A dismissive/ avoidant adult is often uncomfortable with closeness, and has difficulty trusting others. They like to feel independent, self-sufficient and have an inability recalling details about their childhood. A preoccupied/ anxious adult has insecurities in relationships and often craves intimacy and closeness. Lastly, fearfully attached adults are characterized as being uncomfortable with intimacy and commitment as a result of memories of previous traumas.

Bowlby 's attachment theory had vast investigation done by Mary Ainsworth, who studied the interactions between mother and child, specifically, the theme of an infant’s investigation of their surroundings and the separation from their mother. This essay will focus on Bowlby’s attachment theory and Mary Ainsworth’s experiments and findings, discussing their views on the development and importance of attachment in early life. John Bowlby’s primary interest was in the relationship between child and mother or primary caregiver. Bowlby suspected that the earliest relationships formed by children and their primary parent or care giver, have huge impacts on the child’s later life. From this, Bowlby developed the attachment theory.