Preoccupied/Ambivalent Attachment Theory

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As you get older and transfer into the adult life relationships become very important to us. We want to find the perfect balance of needs between you and your partner. In some cases of relationships one partner becomes attached to the other. This can be either a healthy attachment or an unhealthy attachment. The attachment theory was formulated by John Bowlby centering on the crucial importance to our species’ survival of being closely connected with a caregiver during early childhood and being attached to a significant other during all life (Belsky, 2016, p. 15). Preoccupied/ ambivalent insecure attachment is one type of unhealthy attachment. The preoccupied/ ambivalent insecure attachment is an excessively clingy, needy style of relating to loved ones (Belsky, 2016, p. 318). People who suffer form this type of attachment often feel insecure. This drives them to find reassurance and depend solely on their partner (Catlett, 2015). Since I have been in college I have begun to realize that almost everyone I know has a boyfriend. Where as in high school is was kind of rare if you had the same boyfriend for a long period of time. …show more content…

His theory “emphasized the role of culture and society and the conflicts that can take place within the ego itself” (McLeod, 2008). Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development has eight stages. The seventh stage is generativity vs. stagnation; it includes midlife adults between the ages of forty and sixty. “Generativity is in which people in midlife find meaning from nurturing the next generation, care for others or enriching the lives of others through their work. Stagnation is when midlife adults have not achieved generativity. They tend to feel without a sense of purpose in life” (Belsky, 2016, p. 363). A key factor to this stage is parenting. The big question that is asked is, does this midlife adult have the capability to educate the next generation? (Cramer, Flynn, LaFave,

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