Essay On Attachment Theory

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Attachment Theory Following the above line of research, Mikulincer and Florian (2000) demonstrated that attachment style influences the way people react to death reminders. For instance, secure persons reacted to mortality salience with a higher desire for intimacy in romantic relationships, while individuals who scored high on the anxiety or avoidance component reacted with harsher punishment for social transgressors. These findings imply that secure persons react to death reminders by relying on their attachment relationships. In contrast, persons scoring high on either avoidance or anxiety dimension tend to rely on other defense mechanisms. 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 Attachment has also proven useful in understanding the emotional experience of older adults (Magai, Consedine, Gillespie, O’Neal, & Vilker, 2004). For example, Magai & Passman (1997) discovered a strong relationship between secure attachments and emotional well-being of middle aged adults, which extends to individuals later in life. Understanding the role of attachment and its psychosocial impact during later life is an important area that needs further

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