Attachment

12 Key excerpts on "Attachment"

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  Different Faces of Attachment

  Cultural Variations on a Universal Human Need

  • Hiltrud Otto, Heidi Keller(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Introduction: understanding relationships – what we would need to know to conceptualize Attachment as the cultural solution of a universal developmental task Heidi Keller The definition of Attachment as a primary bond between infants and caregivers emerging at around 1 year of age as an evolved adaptation for ensuring survival and development was the seminal contribution of the British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby and his (later) Canadian-American counterpart Mary Ainsworth (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters et al., 1978; Bowlby, 1969). Attachment theory has initiated a tremendous body of research over the last decades, particularly expand- ing its focus on neurophysiological regulations, and extending it to adult- hood and clinical applications. Nevertheless, the theoretical and method- ological foundations have remained amazingly unaffected, although the basis of knowledge concerning the infant’s socioemotional development has increased substantially since the publication of Bowlby’s well-known trilogy Attachment and Loss and Ainsworth and collaborators’ summary of their empirical research on the emergence of Attachment during the first year of life (1978). The first encompassing proposal for the refine- ment of conceptual and methodological issues of Attachment theory and research was published by Michael Lamb and collaborators in 1984 in the renowned journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences – though without any observable notice by other Attachment researchers. Attachment theory is grounded in evolutionary theory with its basic tenet that every human characteristic is shaped through selection pro- cesses and represents an adaptation to contextual demands. Bowlby stressed explicitly the contextual nature of Attachment in his early writ- ings.

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  Psychological Theories

  • (Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • College Publishing House

    (Publisher)

  Within Attachment theory, Attachment means an affectional bond or tie between an individual and an Attachment figure (usually a caregiver). Such bonds may be reciprocal between two adults, but between a child and a caregiver these bonds are based on the child's need for safety, security and protection, paramount in infancy and childhood. The theory proposes that children attach to carers instinctively, for the purpose of survival and, ultimately, genetic replication. The biological aim is survival and the psychological aim is security. Attachment theory is not an exhaustive description of human relationships, nor is it synonymous with love and affection, although these may indicate that bonds exist. In child-to-adult relationships, the child's tie is called the Attachment and the caregiver's reciprocal equivalent is referred to as the care-giving bond. ______________________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ______________________________ Infants form Attachments to any consistent caregiver who is sensitive and responsive in social interactions with them. The quality of the social engagement is more influential than the amount of time spent. The biological mother is the usual principal Attachment figure, but the role can be taken by anyone who consistently behaves in a mothering way over a period of time. In Attachment theory, this means a set of behaviours that involves engaging in lively social interaction with the infant and responding readily to signals and approaches. Nothing in the theory suggests that fathers are not equally likely to become principal Attachment figures if they provide most of the child care and related social interaction. Some infants direct Attachment behaviour (proximity seeking) towards more than one Attachment figure almost as soon as they start to show discrimination between caregivers; most come to do so during their second year. These figures are arranged hierarchically, with the principal Attachment figure at the top.

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  Understanding Emotional Development

  Providing insight into human lives

  • Robert Lewis Wilson, Rachel Wilson(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Attachment originates with the infant and develops into a reciprocal interchange between the child and his or her caregiver that satisfies the child’s most basic dependency needs and allows the child to explore his or her surroundings. The Attachment relationship is the baby’s first emotional relationship and if satisfactory is the one from which the child draws emotional comfort and security. Children will seek out the caregiver to whom they are most closely attached whenever they need comfort or when they are injured. Attachment has very close links with a child’s sense of security. Security for the child is based on predictability. The child and the caregiver have had a long period of reciprocal interaction, and they know each other intimately. This allows the child to be able to predict what will happen in the caregiver’s presence. This ability to predict creates a sense of security in the infant and allows the child to explore his or her environment with confidence using the caregiver as a secure base. A sense of security counters anxiety, the emotion that is fuelled by unpredictability. According to Bowlby, the founder of Attachment theory, Attachment is an enduring emotional tie between infant and caregiver (Bowlby, 1982). Bowlby saw Attachment as a way in which infants can reconcile their desire to explore with their wish to be secure and safe. The child uses the caregiver to whom they are attached as a secure base from which to venture into the world, but also as a person to whom they can run whenever danger or strangeness (we would say unpredict- ability) threatens. Attachment and bonding Bonding is a word used in the literature in several senses. Sometimes it is used to mean Attachment. At other times bonding is used to mean the attraction that the adult feels for the child, more specifically the feelings of attraction that a mother has towards her newborn infant.

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  Development Psychology

  • (Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • The English Press

    (Publisher)

  Later criticisms of Attachment theory relate to temperament, the complexity of social relationships, and the limitations of discrete patterns for classifications. Attachment theory has been significantly modified as a result of empirical research, but the concepts have become generally accepted. Attachment theory has formed the basis of new therapies and informed existing ones, and its concepts have been used in the formulation of social and childcare policies to support the early Attachment relationships of children. ________________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ________________________ Attachment Although it is usual for the mother to be the primary Attachment figure, infants will form Attachments to any caregiver who is sensitive and responsive in social interactions with them. Within Attachment theory, Attachment means an affectional bond or tie between an individual and an Attachment figure (usually a caregiver). Such bonds may be reciprocal between two adults, but between a child and a caregiver these bonds are based on the child's need for safety, security and protection, paramount in infancy and childhood. The theory proposes that children attach to carers instinctively, for the purpose of survival and, ultimately, genetic replication. The biological aim is survival and the psychological ________________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ________________________ aim is security. Attachment theory is not an exhaustive description of human relation-ships, nor is it synonymous with love and affection, although these may indicate that bonds exist. In child-to-adult relationships, the child's tie is called the Attachment and the caregiver's reciprocal equivalent is referred to as the care-giving bond. Infants form Attachments to any consistent caregiver who is sensitive and responsive in social interactions with them. The quality of the social engagement is more influential than the amount of time spent.

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  Introduction to Attachment Theory, An

  • (Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • The English Press

    (Publisher)

  Later criticisms of Attachment theory relate to temperament, the complexity of social relationships, and the limitations of discrete patterns for classifications. Attachment theory has been significantly modified as a result of empirical research, but the concepts have become generally accepted. Attachment theory has formed the basis of new therapies and informed existing ones, and its concepts have been used in the formulation of social and childcare policies to support the early Attachment relationships of children. ________________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ________________________ Attachment Although it is usual for the mother to be the primary Attachment figure, infants will form Attachments to any caregiver who is sensitive and responsive in social interactions with them. Within Attachment theory, Attachment means an affectional bond or tie between an individual and an Attachment figure (usually a caregiver). Such bonds may be reciprocal between two adults, but between a child and a caregiver these bonds are based on the child's need for safety, security and protection, paramount in infancy and childhood. The theory proposes that children attach to carers instinctively, for the purpose of survival and, ultimately, genetic replication. The biological aim is survival and the psychological aim is security. Attachment theory is not an exhaustive description of human relation- ________________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ________________________ ships, nor is it synonymous with love and affection, although these may indicate that bonds exist. In child-to-adult relationships, the child's tie is called the Attachment and the caregiver's reciprocal equivalent is referred to as the care-giving bond. Infants form Attachments to any consistent caregiver who is sensitive and responsive in social interactions with them. The quality of the social engagement is more influential than the amount of time spent.

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  Attachment and Interaction

  From Bowlby to Current Clinical Theory and Practice Second Edition

  • Mario Marrone(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Jessica Kingsley Publishers

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 2 Attachment Theory Introduction Bowlby said in 1977:

  What for convenience I am terming Attachment theory is a way of conceptualizing the propensity of human beings to make strong affectional bonds to particular others and of explaining the many forms of emotional distress and personality disturbance, including anxiety, anger, depression and emotional detachment, to which unwilling separation and loss give rise.

  In the above paragraph we can see that Bowlby defined Attachment theory as a body of explanations. Furthermore, these explanations are essentially concerned with two issues: (1) explaining why human beings tend to make strong, selective and durable bonds; and (2) explaining how the disruption or threats of disruption of these bonds can cause painful emotions and, ultimately, psychopathology.

  Therefore, Bowlby’s initial position reflected three main concerns: to amend psychoanalytic theory in the light of new discoveries, to view psychopathology in a developmental context, and to place intimate relationships at the centre of developmental psychology.

  Bowlby added:

  Advocates of Attachment theory argue that many forms of psychiatric disturbance can be attributed either to deviations in the development of Attachment behaviour or, more rarely, to failure of its development; and also that the theory casts light on both the origin and the treatment of these conditions.

  Why a new theory?

  Attachment theory was formulated in order to explain observed facts in a way which was more coherent with what was observed. The subjects of observation are the most common features of everyday life: the formation, renewal and loss of emotional ties with specific people and the emotions that emerge in the course of these events.

  Although such processes were observed and explained by psychiatrists, psychologists and psychoanalysts, Bowlby came to the conclusion that existing theories did not strike the right chord. More than any other branch of medicine or psychology, psychoanalysis concerned itself with the study of emotional life and relationships. Yet the over-riding importance of primary Attachment relationships was overshadowed by theories that put sexuality and a hypothetical ‘death instinct’ at the very centre of human motivation.

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  Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology

  Volume Two

  • Paul A M Van Lange, Arie W Kruglanski, E Tory Higgins, Paul A M Van Lange, Arie W Kruglanski, E Tory Higgins, Author(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  The theory deals with close relationships and their psychological foundations and consequences. It integrates insights from psychoanalytic theory; primate ethology; cognitive developmental and social cognitive psychology; theories of stress and coping; and contemporary research on per-sonality development, affect regulation, and relational interdependence. The chapter begins with an account of the origins of Attachment theory during the 1960s and 1970s in the work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. We then explain how the two of us became involved with extensions of the theory in the 1980s. Next, we describe the theory itself in some detail, placing spe-cial emphasis on our version of it, which began in the work of Hazan and Shaver (1987). This version of the theory is designed for and influenced by contemporary social psychologists. We show how Attachment security, grounded in responsive, supportive relationships, plays a role in personal and social issues of interest to personality-social Attachment THEORY 161 psychologists, issues such as self-esteem, person perception, interpersonal behavior, exploration and achievement, and prosocial behavior and intergroup relations. We then consider the darker side of Attachment rela-tionships, which includes the defenses and personal and relational difficulties that stem from Attachment insecurities. We conclude with a brief discussion of connections between Attachment theory and other social psychologi-cal theories and a brief consideration of appli-cations of Attachment theory and research. THE ORIGINS OF Attachment THEORY Attachment theory was originally proposed by John Bowlby, a British psychoanalyst, and was then strengthened by the theoretical, psy-chometric, and empirical contributions of Mary Ainsworth, an American developmental psychologist.

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  Understanding the Emotional Needs of Children in the Early Years

  • Tricia Johnson(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The reasons for inability to form strong Attachments when, for example, a Mother has ill health, post-natal depression, substance abuse or has not expe- rienced a secure Attachment with her own Mother are included. There are links to the importance of sensitively managed transitions included in this chapter through discussions about and analysis of different situations, anecdotes and case studies. Reference is made to the chapters about Key Persons, Working with Parents and Carers and the Effects of Different Cultures and Cultural Experiences, where responses to the social and emotional needs and development of children are discussed. You are encouraged to reflect on the types of Attachment thought to have been identified in the babies and young children attending your settings and how these findings might lead to changes in your responses to the babies, children and their parents or carers. International perspectives on Attachment theory are introduced as further study in order to promote reflection on prac- tice in the different childcare and educational settings internationally and in the United Kingdom. Attachment Bowlby explains the Attachment of a baby or young child to their Mother or main carer as: Being strongly disposed to seek proximity to and contact with a specific figure and to do so in certain situations, notably when he is frightened, tired or ill . . . it is an attribute of the child and an attribute that gradually changes over time. (Bowlby 1991 p. 371) Stern (1998) speaks about a child gaining ‘senses of self’, which develop when a child feels secure and attached to another responsive person with whom the child seeks to be in close proximity, with that person cuddling them, sharing their warmth and looking lovingly into the child’s eyes, whilst Trevarthen (2002) speaks of Attachment as regulating the needs of one’s own body, asking for help and support from another person.

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  Child Psychology

  Developments in Knowledge and Theoretical Models

  • Jean-Pascal Assailly(Author)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-ISTE

    (Publisher)

  5 Attachment The theme of love of the mother or father – and the difficulties linked to their uncertain presence or absence – haunts mythology, feeds literature and fills the offices of psychoanalysts. Let us briefly recall, from the point of view of our discipline, the three main stages of the psychology of Attachment between the child and the parent. 5.1. The concept of Attachment In 1969, an English psychiatrist, John Bowlby, in a book entitled “Attachment and Loss”, presented his theory of Attachment, which is based on ethological work: the observation of the similarity of the reactions of rhesus macaques (Harlow’s experiments) and human infants (Spitz’s experiments) to the loss of the mother (sequence of reactions in three phases: protest, despair, detachment) and the long- term consequences of separation. The other ethological dimension supporting Attachment theory is the observation of Attachment behaviors (behaviors aiming at obtaining or maintaining a certain proximity with the maternal organism or its substitute: screaming, crying, moving towards, embracing, smiling), which have a protective function. This protection is a function for the individual in question, as well as more generally, in a Darwinian perspective, for the survival of the species: it is necessary for the young to reach the age of reproduction. These behaviors are obviously reminiscent of a concept from animal ethology, more precisely Lorenz’s Imprinting Theory relating to birds, that is, the innate behavior of pursuit and recognition of the mother, or whatever takes its place. However, the difference lies in the fact that, while imprinting works immediately, Attachment is constructed. Child Psychology: Developments in Knowledge and Theoretical Models, First Edition. Jean-Pascal Assailly. © ISTE Ltd 2022. Published by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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  A Matter of Security

  The Application of Attachment Theory to Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy

  • Friedemann Pfafflin, Gwen Adshead(Authors)
  • 2003(Publication Date)
  • Jessica Kingsley Publishers

    (Publisher)

  During the ‘Attachment boom’ there has been an explosion of terms relating to different theoretical constructs of Attachment. A review of the recently published Attachment literature abstracts from January 2000 until May 2002 revealed a multitude of terms used in a rather confusing way. In this chapter the usage of terms is discussed with respect to their core meaning, and the adequacy of their application is evaluated. In order to provide a basis for empirical comparisons, social science requires a clear and specific conceptualisation of terminology. The terms ‘Attachment style’, ‘– representation’, ‘– pattern’, ‘– quality’, ‘– status’, ‘– organisation’, ‘– class/classification’, and ‘– type/prototype’ are discussed in some detail and suggestions for further usage are made. 57 INTRODUCTION In his writings about Attachment John Bowlby integrated elements of psy-choanalysis, ethology, and control-and learning theory into a theory which has greatly influenced theoretical concepts of developmental psychology, clinical psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychiatry. In his works on 1. ‘at-tachment’, 2. ‘separation’, 3. ‘loss, sadness and depression’ he focused on the central role of interpersonal relationships for social development and psychological functioning throughout life (Bowlby 1969, 1973, 1980). His theoretical considerations of Attachment relationships were led by one central observation: in case of perceived physiological or psychological threat or danger, children tend to preserve their psychological integrity by seeking protection with primary caregivers. He developed two major hypotheses regarding the origin of inter-individual differences of attach-ment: 1. Through a history of responsive care, children will evolve expectations (inner working models) of their caregivers’ likely responses to signs of distress or other signals of the desire for contact.

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  Engaging with Fathers

  Practice Issues for Health and Social Care

  • Julie Taylor, Brigid Daniel(Authors)
  • 2001(Publication Date)
  • Jessica Kingsley Publishers

    (Publisher)

  First we shall look at Attachment theory from the perspective of the child and propose that there is nothing to suggest that Attachment to the father need not be of a similar quality as attach-ment to the mother. Then we shall look at Attachment from the perspec-tive of the father and suggest that it is this aspect that can lead to differ-ences in Attachment relationships. From the child’s perspective It was the biological basis of Attachment that was drawn on by Bowlby (1969) when he first set out a systematic analysis of Attachment theory. According to the theory, Attachment evolved to promote children’s survival. For a child to become attached to a particular adult, to seek them out when threatened, to discriminate between them and a stranger and to use them as a safe base from which to explore the world of objects and other people is clearly biologically sensible. Young babies and children are highly dependent and consequently highly vulnerable. A mechanism that binds them to a more mature being is adaptive. However, as with so many human biological functions, Attachment also has an emotional component. There is now an overwhelming body of research that links emotional well-being with the quality of attach-ments. Children seem to be innately prepared to make Attachments from infancy and Attachment behaviours are demonstrated in various forms throughout life. Most empirical research has been carried out with young children and, as a result, Attachment has been classified into dif-ferent types which will be briefly summarised. (For a more detailed dis-cussion of Attachment types see Howe’s (1995) text.) Attachment is a natural human phenomenon which is not easily pinned down experimentally. However, Ainsworth et al . (1978) devel-oped a fairly robust methodology for classifying Attachment. It is known as the ‘Strange situation’ and has stood the tests of time and rep-Attachment / 73

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  Attachment and Sexual Offending

  Understanding and Applying Attachment Theory to the Treatment of Juvenile Sexual Offenders

  • Phil Rich(Author)
  • 2005(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  34 Attachment AND SEXUAL OFFENDING The Commission on Children at Risk (2003) has written that “the self-organization of the developing brain occurs in the context of a relationship with another self, another brain” (p. 16). In a relationship that provides security in Attachment for the child, brains are tuned into the same things, creating a shared experience and linked reality in the brains of both parties. Here perhaps, in this conceptualization of finely attuned relationships, lie the roots of empathy, even in the precognitive infant. The mother is attuned to and reaches out to the child. The child in turn learns not only about its ability to get its desires and needs met on a basic level, but also about the other (its mother). And, through the eyes of the mother and in her communication, the child discovers in her mind a representation of itself; thus, through discovering the other, the child discovers self. ATTUNEMENT AND HUMAN CONNECTION 35 CHAPTER 3 The Formation of Attachment and the Emergence of Self In Attachment theory, like object relations theory in general, it is clear that early experi- ences with the caregiving “object,” most typically the mother, are central to the develop- ment of the individual, and that individual’s experience and understanding of self and others. Attachment thus provides the basis for continued development and functioning, including future social transaction, interactions, and relationships. A sense of self-agency and self-efficacy are presumed to be linked to social and interpersonal competence, and hence are central to personal satisfaction and social connectedness. Security in relation- ships and internalized representations of people, experiences, and expectations are at the same time both the outcome of the Attachment experience and the ongoing force that shapes attached relationships.

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