Attachment theories

Attachment theories

Introduction

Attachment is the emotional bond between the child and the parent. Children are considered attached if they often seek comfort and contact with a specific caregiver whenever they are ill, distressed, or tired. Attachment to a protective caregiver helps children to regulate their emotions, especially in stressful situations. Research shows that early experiences influence later development of a child. This later accounts for differences in individual behaviors such as behavior, social skills, cognition personality, and emotional responses. Early experiences, especially emotional interactions with other people, induce and organize the patterns of structural growth that result in expanding the functional capabilities of the person. Attachment theories have made important contributions to the concept of early development as it helps us understand how future relationships are affected by early attachments.

Literature review

Children who are securely attached to their primary caregivers are exposed to different experiences different from children who are insecurely attached. These experiences influence children’s brain development. The experiences of securely attached children differ from that of insecurely attached counterparts, especially in regards to the quality of emotion regulation provided by their caregivers. The caregivers offer adequate external control when the child encounters a challenging situation. As a result, securely attached children are exposed to repeated experiences of successful regulations of their emotionally tasking situations, which provide a strong basis for the gradual development of self-regulation.

Adult attachment is greatly influenced by the close emotional bond between parents and their children, which determines the bond between adults in an intimate relationship. John Bowlby developed the theory of attachment in an attempt to understand the distress experienced by children who had been separated from their parents. He believed that attachment began at infancy and went on throughout one’s life. The caregiver is a child’s base of exploration, as they will be the first bond they make. It is and a child’s nature to explore their environment and will sometimes be in danger or scared. Their caregivers will, therefore, be their secure base to which they will depend upon. He believed that there are for distinguishing characteristics of attachment, which includes proximity maintenance; the desire to be close to the people we are attached to. A safe haven characteristic is a habit of returning to the attached figure for comfort, secure base; the attached figure acts as a base to which the child explores their surroundings. The final characteristic is separation distress, where a child experiences anxiety in the absence of the attached figure. Hazan and Shaver later added adhttps://studygroom.com/adult-attachment-theory-research/ult relationships to Bowlby’s theory, which had only included studies in the context of young children. It examines how feelings of attachments and co-dependency allow such relationships to function well. In their studies, they explore the nature of attachment between couples and how they reacted to various stimuli.

Ainsworth’s attachment theory, like Bowlby’s, discuses attachments and developed a technique known as a strange situation, used in studying the relationship between parents and children. It divides the attachment into three; secure, avoidant, and resistant. The secure type is when a child seeks care and protection from their parents and become upset when their caregivers leave. They seek comfort from their caregiver whenever frightened or scared. The child readily accepts contact initiated by the parent, and they great the return of a parent positively. Parents to securely attached children are more in touch and respond more quickly to their needs. Forming a secure attachment with caregivers is typical and expected. This, however, does not always happen. Research shows that different factors can result in a lack of secure attachment, one being a parent’s responsiveness to the child’s needs in its first year. Parents who interfere with their child’s activities or despond inconsistently tend to have children who are less socially and physically active. As children develop into adults, those securely attached tend to have trust and establish long term relationships.

Analysis

Ainsworth’s work is crucial as it provided an empirical demonstration of how attachment behavior is patterned in both safe and scary situations. It also includes the classification of different attachment patterns, and it clarifies that there are three types of children; secure, resistant, and avoidant. Research shows the links between early parental sensitivity and responsiveness and attachment security. The complete explanation as to why children develop different types of attachment is the interactionist theory. It argues that a child’s attachment type results from a combination of factors, both the child’s innate temperament and their parents’ sensitivity towards their needs. The child’s natural temperament can further influence their parent’s response. Therefore to develop a secure attachment, a troubled child would require a sensitive and patient caregiver who would take time to care for them.

The modern theory has evolved to accommodate changes from Bowlby’s. It includes the fact that strange situations are not valid in every culture and that there is the use of multiple caregivers in some cultures. In many communities, there are cultural influences, especially after infancy on how caregiver availability and responsiveness are communicated. It also recognizes that there are communities or cultures where attachment relationships are not the most significant factors in socialization and social adjustment. The fact that circumstances and social systems do not always give free rein to people’s capacity to form and maintain secure base relationships is also recognized.

Critical evaluation

Early attachment to a primary caregiver is an essential element in setting the stage for emotional and relationship health as an adult. Children who are securely attached tend to be more socially constructive and less aggressive in their behavior. Unlike the insecurely attached counterparts, they also end to develop better social cues, are more creative, and persistent in meeting challenges in life. Research shows that they are also able to cope better with difficulties. The theory provides researchers and people in general with a better understanding as to why some relationships are stronger than others. The positive effects of secure attachments continue to be felt all through a person’s life. One’s attachment style often dictates their take on relationships and how they feel about themselves.

Nurture and nature are regarded as aids to the overall growth and development of a child. Brain development is tuned to environmental inputs. People assume that parents with positive attributes, kindness, honesty, hardworking, will have children of the same caliber. One of the critics of Bowlby’s theory, Judith Harris, however, believes that parents do not shape their children’s personality or character. Their peers, on the other hand, have a more significant influence on them than their parents. Children learn things from their peers because they want to fit in. A good example is a child growing up in a high crime rate area. The child is more likely to engage in the crimes due to peer pressure and the need to be accepted into the group.

Other limitations to the attachment theory have also been observed. The model was based on a child’s reaction during stressful situations, especially when separated from their parents, but does not provide insights into how they interact when not in stressful situations. Another criticism of the attachment model is that the list of attachment behaviors is limited to primary care providers, especially the mothers. The child can, however, form other attachments that are not necessarily characterized by the same reaction. This can be observed in some communities across the world that do not portray the same characteristics in the attachment theory. In some societies like in Papua New Guinea, the duties of bringing up a child are more evenly distributed among a border group of people. Children from these societies become well-adjusted members, indicating that some mechanisms are acting in place of the attachments that are so necessary for western children. Moreover, a mother is often viewed as the primary attachment figure when, in fact, the child can form the same type of attachment with a sibling or their father.

Conclusion

Research shows that the first few years of a child’s life are the most important. Healthy relationships with their caregivers give the child positive experiences that lead to proper development. Therefore, emotional connection is one of the most important obligations that a parent has to their child. A securely attached child uses an attachment figure as their secure base from which they can explore other environments. Social-emotional interactions between the infants and their caregivers facilitate the development of a more complex state of awareness. It is through this relationship that the child will understand themselves and be able to interpret their environments and make demands on their environments.

A failure to maintain a parent-child relationship can result in an unattached relationship which can hamper the child’s growth and the possibility of forming future relationships. One’s ability to build and maintain strong relationships in their adulthood is linked to the type of attachment they had in their childhood. Early relationships color the lens of your perception of relationships to yourself and others. Children tend to decide on their inherent value based on the messages they receive directly or indirectly. Children without a secure connection grow up to be teenagers and, finally, adults who question themselves, others, and even the world around them.