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Children and their attachment styles
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Attachment styles in relationships essay
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Humans are innately born to interact with others to understand the different views of perspective, and learn the cooperation and engagement through developing interpersonal relationship with others. Interpersonal relationship is an association which is formed in two or more people based on love, support, or even business commitment. Different types of relationships can form between family, friend and in romance. Development of Human interpersonal relationship begins with the attachment that is formed during in infancy. The early attachment formed between the infant and the caregiver effects the child’s expectations of trust and shapes their behaviors in forming other relationships in later life. Therefore, Adult attachment is based on how the person developed his early attachment with primary caregiver. Among different attachment styles which will affect one’s relationships, many researchers have done some studies in adult attachment in individual’s romantic relationship, and the marriage. Adult attachment plays important roles in marriage. Marriage is not all about love, it requires other materials to cooperate and understand each other. One of the fundamental materials is having someone that has same or similar personality. If a married couple have different attachment styles then they are more likely to end up having dissatisfying and unhappy marriage which may leads to divorce. Background: The theory of attachment was developed by John Browbly, a British psychologist who demonstrated that infants are born with preprogrammed to bond with their significant person, a primary caregiver. Once the infant develops the emotional attachment with caregiver, infant will consider them as the secure base where they feel protected and se... ... middle of paper ... ...n interacting with others and forming healthy relationships. Works Cited Cross, R. Infant-Parent Attachment and the strange situation, Texas Christian University, (Sept, 2007) Larsen, R. & Buss, D.(2014) Personality Psychology: Domains of Knowledge about human nature( 5th edition) . McGaw-Hill Higher Education, California. Hazen, C. & Shaver, P. (1987) Romantic Love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(3), 511-524. Kirkpatrick LA, Hazan C. (1994) Attachment styles and close relationships: A four-year prospective study. Personal Relationships. 1:123–142. Ceglian,C. & Gardner,S. (1999) Attachment style, Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 31:1-2, 125-139 Gottman,J. & Levenson R. (2000) The timing of divorce: Predicting when a couple will divorce over a 14 year period. Journal of Marriage and the family. 62:737-745
Relationships are the building block for personality and are significant in children’s ability to grow into substantial individuals who can thrive in an often harsh world. Constructing lasting and fulfilling relationships is an integral part to development as the interpersonal bonds forged are not only highly sought after but also set the ground work for all upcoming expressive interactions. Relationships and attachment go hand in hand as attachment is the strong and lasting linkage established between a child and his or her caregiver. Moreover, attachment significantly influences a large capacity of ones make up as it these first relationships that teaches morals, builds self-esteem, and develops a support system. The pioneers of Attachment Theory realized early on that human beings are not solely influenced by drives but that the earliest bonds formed by children with their caregivers greatly impact their ability to forge lasting relationships later in life. John Bowlby was first to introduce this theory to the masses in the 1950’s, and later Mary Ainsworth conducted further research to expand on Bowlby’s theory which proclaims that attachment is a “lasting psychological connectedness between human beings” (Bowlby, 1969, p. 194). The attachment bond theory by both Bowlby and Ainsworth focuses on the significance of the relationship between babies and their caretakers which research has suggested is accountable for influencing impending interactions, firming or injuring our capabilities to concentrate, being aware of our emotional states, self-soothing capabilities, and the capacity to be resilient in the face of hardship. Additionally, this research has provided a framework for assisting in describing these att...
Throughout a person’s lifetime- infancy, childhood, and adolescence- a variety of positive and negative influences occur that may elicit change in the development of attachment. Evolutionary and psychological levels are introduced as an argument somewhat similar to the nature or nurture dilemma. In the evolutionary bias, Bowlby (1973) describes humans as being born with an “innate bias,” in the way they become attached. The second level, the psychological level, attachments are described as being more environmentally labile during their life
Weger Jr., H. and Polcar, L. E., (2002). Attachment Style and Person-Centered Comforting. Western Journal of Communication, 66(1) (Winter 2002), 84-103.
Hazan, C., Gur-Yaish, N., & Campa, M. (2003). What does it mean to be attached? In W. S. Rholes & J. A. Simpson (Eds.) Adult Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Implications, (pp. 55 – 85). New York: Guilford.
Criticisms of attachment theory have come mainly from the feminist schools of thought since the theory has been used to argue that no woman with a young child should work outside the home or spend time away from her baby (Goodsell and Meldrum, 2010). Children’s experience and development also depend on what happens after early years, whether bad or good later in life may change a child’s emotional development, e.g. lack of basic needs, diet, education, stimulation such as play might affect a child’s development (Rutter, 1981). Differences in cultures have to be taken into consideration as well. A study by Schaffer and Emmerson (1964) provided contradictory evidence for Bowlby’s attachment theory. They noted attachment was more prominent at eight months, and afterwards children became attached to more than one person.
Attachments are formed with parents; this contributes to give a sense of who we are and who we will become in later life. However where these attachments are broken the child needs to have a secure attachment established with an alternative adult care giver,...
In addition to romantic partners, other age peers such as friends and family have the potential to become dominant attachment figures for adults. Throughout adolescence and early adulthood, friends and romantic partners gradually replace parents as the preferred source of emotional support and proximity seeking (Freeman & Brown, 2001; Hazan & Zeifman, 1994). Shifts in attachment tend to be a function of the relationship length, and only longer lasting friendships are likely to create close attachment bonds (Fraley & Davis, 1997). Enduring close friendships have the potential to
Admittedly, many psychologists define attachment as an enduring affectionate bond that one person forms between himself and another person throughout life. Since Mary Ainsworth provided the most famous research: strange situation, offering explanations how each individual differences in attachment. However, in this Adult Attachment Style questionnaire that I took, I found many factors relevant to attachment as it was defined in the textbook. For example, in the textbook, it defines attachment based on Ainsworth research, the strange situation by observing attachment forms between mother and infants. Which they are described in four attachment styles: securely attached, insecure avoidant, insecure resistant, and insecure disorganized. The questions on the questionnaire were based on those areas to determine my style of attachment.
Attachment, the product of nature and nurture, is critical to human development. Children learn about important aspects of their physical, emotional and social world through experience. The value of this experience is directly proportional to the quality of the attachment children are forming with their caregivers. Through the positive experience of emotional connectedness, children learn to build and maintain loving, trusting and secure relationships with others. If the caregivers are available to them, sensitive to their signals, consistently responsive to their needs, infants develop secure style of attachment. If the caregivers are indifferent or neglectful, inaccessible, unresponsive and unreliable, infants are prone to developing anxious, avoidant or disorganized attachment style (Pearce, 2009). Difficulties in forming childhood relationships significantly increase likelihood of interpersonal conflicts in adulthood. Anxiety disorder, PTSD, dissociative identify disorder, borderline, narcissistic personality disorder are dysfunctions that are linked to attachment insecurities. Interpersonal adult conflicts, such as divorce, family abuse, child neglect, sexual abuse, substance abuse are responses to emotional dysregulation caused by deep wounds in
It has been proposed that infant attachment styles do not change after the first year of life, the following essay will argue against this prompt in that ones attachment style will change continuously throughout life. Attachment theory is based on the joint work of Bowlby and Ainsworth (Bretherton, 1992). In recent years the idea of ‘attachment’ has become and increasingly popular debate within developmental psychology (Bretherton, 1992). Attachment theory provides an explanation on how parent and child relationships are formed and the important role they play in child development. However majority of the research into attachment has focused on identifying the stability of attachment rather then identifying the possible insatiability of
Attachment is described as the close emotional bond between two people and Attachment Theory (AT) generally concentrates on the early bonds in a person’s development as well as the effects that these bonds have on later socio-emotional development. While emphasis on attachment as an antecedent for future behavior and personality has decreased somewhat in recent years, it is interesting to note that the DSM IV-TR includes a “reactive attachment disorder” which it states is caused when extreme circumstances prevent proper attachment development.
Attachment theory is the idea that a child needs to form a close relationship with at least one primary caregiver. The theory proved that attachment is necessary to ensure successful social and emotional development in an infant. It is critical for this to occur in the child’s early infant years. However, failed to prove that this nurturing can only be given by a mother (Birns, 1999, p. 13). Many aspects of this theory grew out of psychoanalyst, John Bowlby’s research. There are several other factors that needed to be taken into account before the social worker reached a conclusion; such as issues surrounding poverty, social class and temperament. These factors, as well as an explanation of insecure attachment will be further explored in this paper.
Schoen, Robert, and Vladimir Canudas-Romo. "Timing Effects on Divorce: 20th Century Experience in the United States." Journal of Marriage and Family 68 (2006): 749-58.
Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P. R., Bar-On, N., & Ein-Dor, T. (2010). The pushes and pulls of close relationships: Attachment insecurities and relational ambivalence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(3), 450-468. doi:10.1037/a0017366
Because of the unique needs of a child at birth, the bond that a child forms with a person develops quickly and gets stronger in their first years of life. Although the child is born emotionally unattached, an emotional bond is formed and is called Attachment. Many people assume that a parent is the only person that can form attachments with children. However, attachments can happen between a child and anyone who takes care of them. Attachment is “the relational bond that connects a child to another important person; feelings and behaviors of devotion or positive connection” (Gordon & Browne, 639).