Face To Face Attachment Analysis

Attachment is a close emotional bond between two people and one example is the attachment between parents and children. The way infants’ attachment develops is in the following sequence:
Infants are captivated by their social world and so they stare intently at faces and are attuned to the sounds of human voices but later, they become adept at interpreting the meaning of facial expressions and voices.
By 2 to 3 months, face-to-face begins to characterize caregiver -infant interactions and infants indiscriminately enjoy human company and most of them respond equally to any caregiver and they even get upset when an individual cease to interact with them.
The frequency of face- to face- play decreases after 7 months. From 7 to 9 months, they

show special preference for a single attachment figure as they look for security, comfort and protection. In consequence, it shows fear for estrangers (stranger fear) and unhappiness when separated from a special person (separation anxiety).
From 10 months and onwards, infants become independent and form several attachments and their interaction with peers increases specially with those who responded accurately to their signals.
Despite how attachment develops during the infancy and childhood, there are views that explain different perspectives. One of them is Freud’s view who noted that infants become attached to the person or object that provides oral satisfaction. However, Harlow’s study shown in his classic study that Freud’s view was not as quite as right since the study reflected that the monkeys were adhered to the cloth mother. The second view is Erickson’s who proposed that the first year of life represents the stage of trust versus mistrust. Per him, physical comfort and sensitive care are key to stablishing a basic trust in infants and claimed that in turn, the sense of trust is the foundation for attachment and sets the stage for a lifelong expectation about how the world will be like. The third view is Bowlby’s who stressed that both infants and their primary caregivers are biologically predisposed to form attachments. In addition, he argues that everything the baby does such as crying, crawling, coos and smiles is just to keep the primary caregiver nearby. Each view provides a different perspective about how attachment develops during infancy and childhood but as the book states, “…attachment emerges from the social cognitive advances that allow infants to develop expectations…and to determine the affective quality of their relationship” (P. 314). This gives the prompt that cognitive advances include the recognition of the caregiver’s face, voice as well as developing a model expecting the caregiver to provide pleasure in social interaction and relief from distress.

Attachment styles associated with adulthood are linked to relationship patters in a way that securely attached adults have positive views of relationships and find it easier to get closer to others without feeling concerned or stressed out about their romantic relationships.

In addition, they tend to enjoy sexuality in the context of a commixed relationship and are less likely to have one-night stands. While avoidant individuals are hesitant about getting involved in romantic relationships and once in a relationship to distance themselves from their partner. Contrary, individuals who have anxious attachment demand closeness, are less trusting and are more emotional, jealous and possessive. Based on this, each attachment is linked to how the individual’s relationship pattern is like since they develop different patterns depending on the attachment stile they have. However, attachment in older adults differ from attachment of young adults since older adults have fewer attachment relationships than younger adults. Also, the more increased the age is the lesser attachment anxiety as it decreases with increasing age. In addition, attachment security is associated with psychological and physical Well-being whereas in adulthood it is not. Similarly, insecure attachment is linked to more perceived negative caregiver. Older adults have attachments according life circumstances and evolve depending on their age, health and life

style.