ATTACHMENT THEORY

ATTACHMENT THEORY

Attachment theory outlines to provide an emotional and physical attachment to children in need of critical care. Child psychopathology is the scientific education of children hampered with mental disorders. Some of the disorders like autism disorders being types of psychopathology are diagnosed during childhood. Child psychopathology can also be manifested as psychological disorders, which could be detrimental for a child’s growth.

Defining characteristics

There exist four characteristics that exemplify the understanding of the attachment theory relative to child psychopathology. The characteristics form the basis for scientific research carried out towards mental disorders caused by biological, genetic, and social causes. Firstly, a safe haven ensures that the child can depend on the caregiver to provide comfort whenever they feel frightened or in acute danger. As such, the caregivers serve as the child’s protector to ensure the child feels comfortable in their presence (Cassidy, Jones & Shaver, 2013). Also, the secure base is a characteristic of attachment theory relative to child psychopathology. The attachment theory ensures they provide a reliable foundation to enable the child to sort out things all by oneself. Thus, attachment theory empowers child psychopathology while carrying their scientific study. Hence, the child would feel free to ask questions without fear of intimidation from other members due to mental disorders.

Moreover, proximity maintenance is required child psychopathology to ensure that the child explores the world while staying close to the caregiver. The stipulations align with attachment theory in that child psychopathology requires a child to develop an emotional attachment to a caregiver. The close affiliation is required to ensure that the child experience a competent personal development (Cassidy, Jones & Shaver, 2013). As a result, proximity maintenance characteristic ensures that the child shares personal experiences with the caregiver as they grow up. Finally, separation distress characteristic outlines that a child would feel sorrowful when separated from their caregiver. In such an instance, the child would face mental distress, which would hamper personal development in the future (Cherry, 2019). In most cases, separation distress results in mental disorders as scientifically studied in child psychopathology.

Contributions to child clinical psychology

Attachment theory contributes to a child’s clinical psychology by developing stronger self-esteem. Infants strongly attached to their caregivers tend to be stronger, independent, and good performers in the future compared to youngsters who did not experience the same (Tarren-Sweeney, 2014). Therefore, attachment levels are utilized by the child clinical psychologist to assess children with mental disorders. Also, the translational application of the attachment theory is utilized in reducing an individual risk to develop and maintain an insecure attachment. Such insecure attachments are critical for the overall health status of an infant, as outlined by clinical psychologists. Concepts such as the behavioral attachment system are utilized by clinical psychologists to develop a predictable outcome based on a child’s behavior (Erkan et al., 2015).  Hence, the behavioral attachment system is used by clinical psychologists as a biological function in a child’s caregiving environment.

Besides, the attachment theory provides a temporal prototype that characterizes how a child clinical psychologist treats mental disorders. As such, secure base scripts are developed to measure distress levels experienced by children during their early development stages (Cherry, 2019). Social relationships developed during attachment are utilized in clinical psychology to understand depression and anxiety levels faced by infants. In addition, attachment provides a conceptual perspective that is required by child clinical psychologists to develop rational constructivism required by the treatment process (Tarren-Sweeney, 2014). Thus, clinical psychologists utilize probabilistic reasoning to provide solutions to mental problems.  As a result, psychologists are able to integrate ideas to conceptualize the cause of mental disorder.

Limitations

Contributions made by the attachment theory towards clinical psychology present numerous challenges to the clinicians. For instance, evidence-based clinicians face problems in understanding the cause of mental disorders in a child (Erkan et al., 2015).  The challenges impact on the effectiveness of treatment to avert mental disorders in children. The limitation has led to the development of biobehavioral patterns to treat disorders experienced by children who experienced disrupted attachments. Hence, there is a need to develop therapeutic relationships on how to regulate stress to infants. Also, the attachment theory is limited in classifying maladaptive in terms of security syndromes or attachment disorders. The limitation poses dire significance on treatment effectiveness due to the conceptual validity of the attachment theory.

Moreover, the attachment theory is hampered by the complex social adversity posed by child clinical psychology. Hence, diverse development mechanisms are developed that hamper a child’s development leading to maladaptive attachments (Erkan et al., 2015). The different development mechanisms have led to misinterpretation of the attachment theory due to a lack of developmental timelines — also, the attachment theory by systemic family conditions that hamper the recovery process of attachment-related disorders. The recovery process, therefore, takes a lot of time, leading to the mental torture of the affected individuals. Hence, there is a need to avert the limitation to ensure proper natural development is achieved. As such, caregivers must be given the required support to increase the effectiveness of the recovery process.

References

Tarren-Sweeney, M. (2014). The clinical application of attachment theory and research: Introducing a series of Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry special sections.

Cassidy, J., Jones, J. D., & Shaver, P. R. (2013). Contributions of attachment theory and research: A framework for future research, translation, and policy. Development and Psychopathology, 25(4pt2), 1415-1434.

Cherry, K. (2019). How Attachment Theory Works. Retrieved 27 January 2020, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-attachment-theory-2795337

Erkan, M., Gencoglan, S., Akguc, L., Ozatalay, E., & Fettahoglu, E. C. (2015). Attachment styles and psychopathology among adolescent children of parents with bipolar disorder. Medical science monitor: international medical journal of experimental and clinical research, 21, 1083.