John Bowlby's Evolutionary Theory Of Attachment

In his evolutionary theory of attachment, originator John Bowlby, dictates that infants are born with an innate ability to form attachments with caregivers as a survival tactic. His research and findings rejected the previously conceived notion that humans are motivated by inborn drives and that children become connected to parents because of the tangible benefits provided by the parent. In contrast, Bowlby proposed that human motivation is generated by an intuitive behavioral system that facilitates one’s survival; in terms of a child’s basic need for affection, security, and protection. Although Bowlby takes a psychoanalytic approach to his theory, he also focuses on parent-child interactions and the ways in which cognitive residues of

early experiences influence adult expectations and behavior. Ultimately, early childhood attachment and interactions with caregiver’s attribute greatly to the quality of future adult relationships and individual, psychological well-being.
Adults’ propensity to seek closeness and support when faced with a distressful situation demonstrates how attachment formations endure over one’s entire lifespan. Researchers, Rholes, Paetzold, & Kohn (2016) explain in their article how they observed disorganized attachment in childhood and adolescence. To exemplify, a significant portion of disorganized-attached children behave in a severe and harsh manner toward their parents, and will even attempt to challenge them (Rholes, et al., 2016). Rholes, Paetzold, & Kohn (2016) determine that disorganized attachment, leads to an avoidance approach when it comes to conflict in adult relationships; this is the result of fear. Individuals who are anxious-attached, on the other hand, entertain constant worries that their partner will abandon them or be unresponsive in times of need, cause them to pull toward their partner in an effort to get their needs met (Rholes, et al., 2016). Lastly, individuals who are avoidant-attached, fear rejection by their partner; this fear causes them to distance themselves from their partners to minimize the harshness of the rejection.
Attachment is commonly identified as an imperative factor of psychological health and more specifically well-being.

Researchers from Colorado State University and University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, took this notion a step further and examined the relationship between attachment orientation and job performance and satisfaction (2107). In this study, researchers analyze psychological availability and safety utilizing the framework from attachment theory. The article includes information collected from the self-surveys of two field studies. The first study focused on the hypothesis that one’s attachment directly influences engagement at work (2017). The second field study examined whether one’s psychological availability and safety affects work engagement (2017). These studies deduced that insecure attachments were, in fact, associated with a lower level of psychological availability and engagement in work activities. Ultimately, the research concludes that attachment has the potential to directly affect job performance, job satisfaction and job involvement (2017). The data accumulated by the researchers at the University of Colorado State and the University of St. Thomas, highlights the substantial influence attachment security has in regard to one’s career

success.
Additionally, Bowlby’s attachment theory has generated a plethora of research; from topics including relationship well-being, motivation, emotional response, etc. While these studies have advanced the understanding of individual difference in mental health, it has also progressed further away from the original core of attachment theory. Researchers from the attempted to bring the focus back to the evolutionary standpoint Bowlby originally intended (Byrne, Lumina, Manning, Rosemond, Desir 2017). A main aspect of their research focuses on the notion that different attachments, including insecure attachment, may function advantageously in a group setting and serve various adaptations. For insecurely attached people, support seeking is associated with worries about separation or rejection. In stressful situations, anxiously attached individuals therefore are postulated to rely on hyperactivating strategies, involving emotional and hypersensitive proximity-seeking reactions. Avoidantly attached individuals, in contrast, would rely in particular on deactivating strategies, involving down-regulation of emotions to maintain distance to others. Consistently, individuals high on anxious attachment, in contrast to secure attachment, have been found to appraise stressful events as more threatening, to have a low stress-resistant attitude and to use emotion-focused coping by directing attention toward their own distress