The Psychological Theories Of Attachment

The attachment theory is a psychological theory that centers on the relationships and connections between humans, especially among a parent and child (Schwartz, 2015). Principally, attachment is dependent on a child’s ability to develop trust in their parents because the parents provide nourishment and loving care. This theory was first developed by John Bowlby and Mary Salter Ainsworth (Zir, 2015). Bowlby had a developing interest in understanding the connection between maternal loss or denial and personality development later on (Zir, 2015). Bowlby hypothesized that the earliest relationships formed between children and their caregivers ultimately impacted them for the rest of their life. He also proposed that attachment operates as a way to keep the child close to the mother, which greatly improves the child’s chance of surviving (Schwartz, 2015). Earlier behavioral theories of attachment implied that attachment was a developed process, but Bowlby and Ainsworth proposed that children are born with an instinctive desire to form a relationship with their parents. It has been noted that children who sustained a close proximity to a caregiver were more likely to receive consolation and

The degree of discovery and of distress are influenced by the child’s temperament and the situational aspects of their attachment status to their parents. The child’s attachment is fundamentally prompted by their parent’s understanding of their needs and wants. A parent who is regularly ready and able to respond to their child’s needs will produce a securely attached child. On the contrary, a parent who irregularly responds to their child will produce a child with no emotional bonds to the parent (Holmes,