Attachment Theory and Child Essay

An attachment is a two-way emotional bond in which people depend on each other for their sense of security. Although we forma attachments through out our lives, psychologists are particualry interested in the attachments formed between a child and his/her primary caregiver.1 This essay will examine the role of attachment in childhood and it’s subsequent formation of relationships. Most babies of mammals exhibit the same patterns as human infants; they seek proximity to the mother and react with anxeity on seperation from her, which is the essense pf attachment behaviour. John bowlby believed that attachment was an innate pattern and it helped infants to survive. Bowlby had observed how baby monkeys reacted with distress on sepearation from their mother for a brief period. The mother and baby both called for each other. This shows that attachment is essential for survival however, it can be argued that research relating to animals cannot be generalised to humans. Bowlby’s theory of attachment is that children have a biological need to attach to their main caregiver as attachment helps serve the purpose of survival. The emotional relationship provides the infant with a set of expectations about relationships which stays with the child throughout life; this is known as the internal working model, and is a pattern for relationships the child may have in the future. If the child experiences love and affection, he/she will come to see him/herself as worthy of love and attention. This is the child’s working model as Bowlby sees it. The working model will determine the child’s relationship with other people and the way the child sees him/herself in the future. On the other hand, if the child experiences neglect or rejectionthey may develop a working model that is based on denial rather than on reality. Such a working model may contribute negatively to the the mental health of the child and the quality of their relationships with others in the future. Mary Ainsworth was a US psychologist who operationalised Bowlby’s concept so that it could be tested empirically. She devised an experimental procedure called the stange situation, which resulted in the classificatin of attachment patterns. In the strange situation an observer shows the caregiver and child into a room and then leaves. The caregiver watches the child play and a stranger soon enters the room. The stranger sits silently at first then talks with the caregiver and then tries to interact with the child. The caregiver leaves the room. This is he first seperation between the caregiver and the child. While the caregiver is absent the stranger continues trying to interact with the child. The caregiver returns and is reunited withnthe child. The stranger then leaves the room and the caregiver follows leaving the child alone. This is the second seperation. The stranger enters the room and once again tries to interact with the child. The caregiver returns for a second reunion and the stranger leaves. The findings resulted in the classification of three attachment types discussed below. Attachment type A, avoidant, is when the child shows apparent indifference when the caregiver leaves the room, and avoids contact when the caregiver returns. The child is apparently not afraid of strangers. Mothers of type A children tend to be insensitive and do not seem interested in their child’s play. Attachment type B, securely attached, is when the child is upset when the caregiver leaves and is happy to see the caregiver return. The child is easily comforted by the caregiver. The mothers of type B children are very intersted in their child’s play and actively support and communicate with the child during play. Attachment type C, ambivalent is when the child is very upset when the caregiver leaves the room, however, the caregiver finds it difficult to sooth the child when they return. The child seeks comfort but at the same time rejects it. mothers of type C children are inconsistent in their reactions to their children. Ainsworth concluded that the primary caregiver’s behaviour determines the attachment type of the child. A sensitive primary caregiver leads to a securely attached child. Insecure attachment will lead to problems in later life. Jerome Kagan (1982) suggested that innate differences in children’s temperaments influence how the environment interacts with them. Another impact on attachment is the family circumstances that a child is part of. A childs socio-economic environment has a major impact on the attachment type the child has. If a family is hit by povery the child may not recieve the necessary support and this could lead to a change in the attachment type. A risk factor in the development of mental health seems to be a lack of formation of attachment to important people during childhood. According to Goldberg (2000), the method is a unique combination of experimental and clinical methods. He he finds it a well standardised procedure which allows for natural interactions. Lamb (1985) claims that this widely used methodology is highly artificial and extrememly limited in terms of the amount of information gathered, and that it fails to take into account the mother’s behaviour. Marrone (1998) finds that although the strange situation has been criticized for being stressful-and therefore unethical- it is modelled on normal everyday circumstances when the caregiver must leave the infant for brief periods of timein different circumstances. However, it can be argued that exposing children to stress in experimental situations can be very different to everyday life. Van ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) carried out a major review of 32 world wide studies, involving eight countries and over 2000 infants. They found that there are differences within cultures in the distribution of types A,B and C. For example, Japanese studies showed complete absence of type A, but a high proportion of type C. There sems to be a pattern of cross-cultural differences, so that type B is the most common cross-culturally. Type A is reletively more common in Western European countries, and type C is reletively more common in Japan. He differences has been associated with differences in child-rearing. The results of these studies indicated that if we want valid interpretations of the strange situaton in a cross-cultural setting, we need to have good knowlege about child rearing. The cross-cultural validity of the strange situation methods of assesing attachment and the meaning of the classification classifications themselves has been questioned. The meaning of the strange situation has been challenged, in that it focuses on o the measurement of the attachment in terms of the infants reaction to the seperation and the subsequent reunion with the caregiver. It does not take into account that the meaning of seperation may differ across cultures. Japanese children are rarely seperated from their primary caregivers and so the seperation may be a very unusual situation for the child. this may mean something completely different to Japanese mothers and children than to American infants and mothers. Bowlby’s internal working model assumes that although the model can be modified, it remains relative;y stable throughout the lifespan. Hazen and Shaver (1987) were one of the first researchers to explore Bowlby’s attachment theory in relation to adult romantic relationships. They found the attachment theory a valuable perspective on adult love because it could explain both positive and negative emotions. Hazen and Shaver translated Ainsworth’s three attachment styles to make them suitable for adult relationships. Then they devised a â€Å"love quiz† in a local newspaper and ask respondents to indicate which of the three patterns best described their feelings toward romantic relationships. A self selected sample of 620 people, aged 14-82 years, responded to the love quiz. The mean age was 36 years. There were 205 males and 415vfemales. A second study used a sample of 108 college students. The researchers found that 60% of the respondants showed a secure attachment style and 20% showed the anxious ambivalent pattern, and 20% showed the anxious avoident pattern. The research also asked the respondents to describe their parent’s parenting style. People who were seecurely attached had said their parents were responsive and attentive, people who were anxious-ambivalant had rejecting and inattentive parent. Hazen and Shaver theorised that romantic love shares important similarities with early attachment relationships. They also found that differences in adult attachment wre related to how people felt about themselves. Although the researchers found some correlation between parenting style and attachment paterns, they went against drawing too many conclusions as this would be deterministic. In fact, it seems that as people get older, they are more likely to to be able to develop their own outlook and approach to life. The study was ased on a self selected sample and can therefore not be representative. Self report data is not always reliable, and since the study was carried out in the western world it cannot be generalised to everybody across different cultures. It can be seen through the strange situation that majority of infants are likely to develop an attachment type B, although, it is largely dependant on factors such as temperment, socio-economic factors, and parent styles. In addition, it can also be seen that the attachment style developed as a child can have a large impact on the attachment style involved in the formation of subsequent parent relationships.