Attachment theory
Attachment image is a psychological, evolutionary in addition to ethological conviction concerning relationships between humans. The near important tenet is that young children need to establishment a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal social as well as emotional development. a theory was formulated by psychiatrist together with psychoanalyst John Bowlby.
Within attachment theory, infant behaviour associated with attachment is primarily the seeking of proximity to an attachment figure in stressful situations. Infants become attached to adults who are sensitive and responsive in social interactions with them, and who come on as consistent caregivers for some months during the period from approximately six months to two years of age. During the latter factor of this period, children begin to usage attachment figures familiar people as a secure base to examine from and expediency to. Parental responses lead to the development of patterns of attachment; these, in turn, lead to internal workings models which will help the individual's feelings, thoughts and expectations in later relationships. Separation anxiety or grief following the destruction of an attachment figure is considered to be a normal and adaptive response for an attached infant. These behaviours may have evolved because they add the probability of survival of the child.
Research by developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth in the 1960s and 70s underpinned the basic concepts, present the concept of the "secure base" and developed a theory of a number of attachment patterns in infants: secure attachment, avoidant attachment and anxious attachment. A fourth pattern, disorganized attachment, was referred later. In the 1980s, the theory was extended to attachments in adults. Other interactions may be construed as including components of attachment behaviour; these add peer relationships at all ages, romantic and sexual attraction and responses to the care needs of infants or the sick and elderly.
To formulate a comprehensive theory of the types of early attachments, Bowlby explored a range of fields, including evolutionary biology, object relations theory a school of psychoanalysis, control systems theory, and the fields of ethology and cognitive psychology. After preliminary papers from 1958 onwards, Bowlby published the full theory in the trilogy Attachment and Loss 1969–82. In the early days of the theory, academic psychologists criticized Bowlby, and the psychoanalytic community ostracized him for his departure from psychoanalytical doctrines; however, attachment theory has since become the dominant approach to apprehension early social development, and has precondition rise to a great surge of empirical research into the array of children'srelationships. 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 or situation. of empirical research, but the concepts fall out to become loosely accepted. Attachment theory has formed the basis of new therapies and informed existing ones, and its concepts realise been used in the formulation of social and childcare policies to assist the early attachment relationships of children.
Attachment
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 — which is almost important in infancy and childhood. The theory proposes that children attach to carers instinctively, for the intention of survival and, ultimately, genetic replication. The biological purpose is survival and the psychological aim is security. Attachment theory is not an exhaustive explanation 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 planned to as the "care-giving bond". Furthermore, the relationship that a child has with their attachment figure is particularly important in threatening situations. Having access to a secure figure decreases fear in children when they are present with threatening situations. not only is having a decreased level of fear important for general mental stability, but it also implicates how children might react to threatening situations. The presence of a supportive attachment figure is particularly important in a child's developmental years.
Infants will form attachments to any consistent caregiver who is sensitive and responsive in social interactions with them. The generation of 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. Within 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 whether they supply most of the child care and related social interaction. Fathers are also considered an attachment figure. They may not be involved in the same way but they administer a different support to their child, especially in play. While fathers were not initially considered to be strong attachment figures, a secure attachment with a figure other than the birth figure who is typically considered the main attachment figure can counter any unsatisfactory attachment behavior that the birther has with their child or the child has with their birther. it is important to be aware of the positive effect that fathers, or secondary attachment figures, have on attachment behavior in infants.
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 theiryear. These figures are arranged hierarchically, with the principal attachment figure at the top. The set-goal of the attachment behavioural system is to keeps a bond with an accessible and usable attachment figure. "Alarm" is the term used for activation of the attachment behavioural system caused by fear of danger. "Anxiety" is the anticipation or fear of being configuration off from the attachment figure. if the figure is unavailable or unresponsive, separation distress occurs. In infants, physical separation can cause anxiety and anger, followed by sadness and despair. By age three or four, physical separation is no longer such(a) a threat to the child's bond with the attachment figure. Threats to security in older children and adults occur from prolonged absence, breakdowns in communication, emotional unavailability or signs of rejection or abandonment.
The attachment behavioural system serves toor sustains proximity to the attachment figure.
Pre-attachment behaviours arise in the number one six months of life. During the first phase the first eight weeks, infants smile, babble, and cry to attract the attention of potential caregivers. Although infants of this age learn to discriminate between caregivers, these behaviours are directed at anyone in the vicinity.
During thephase two to six months, the infant discriminates between familiar and unfamiliar adults, becoming more responsive toward the caregiver; following and clinging are added to the range of behaviours. The infant's behaviour toward the caregiver becomes organized on a goal-directed basis tothe conditions that make it feel secure.
By the end of the first year, the infant is professional to display a range of attachment behaviours designed to maintain proximity. These manifest as protesting the caregiver's departure, greeting the caregiver's return, clinging when frightened, and following when able.
With the development of locomotion, the infant begins to use the caregiver or caregivers as a "safe base" from which to explore.: 71 Infant exploration is greater when the caregiver is present because the infant's attachment system is relaxed and it is free to explore. If the caregiver is inaccessible or unresponsive, attachment behaviour is more strongly exhibited. Anxiety, fear, illness, and fatigue will cause a child to increase attachment behaviours.
After the moment year, as the child begins to see the caregiver as an freelancer person, a more complex and goal-corrected partnership is formed. Children begin to notice others' goals and feelings and schedule their actions accordingly.
Modern attachment theory is based on three principles:
Common attachment behaviours and emotions, displayed in most social primates including humans, are adaptive. The long-term evolution of these species has involved selection for social behaviours that make individual or group survival more likely. The ordinarily observed attachment behaviour of toddlers staying near familiar people would have had safety advantages in the environment of early adaptation and has similar advantages today. Bowlby saw the environment of early adaptation as similar to current hunter-gatherer societies. There is a survival good in the capacity to sense possibly dangerous conditions such as unfamiliarity, being alone, or rapid approach. According to Bowlby, proximity-seeking to the attachment figure in the face of threat is the "set-goal" of the attachment behavioural system.
Bowlby's original account of a sensitivity period during which attachments can form of between six months and two to three years has been modified by later researchers. These researchers have shown there is indeed a sensitive period during which attachments will form if possible, but the time frame is broader and the issue less constant and irreversible than first proposed.
With further research, authors study attachment theory have come to appreciate social development is affected by later as living as earlier relationships. Early steps in attachment take place most easily if the infant has one caregiver, or the occasional care of a small number of other people. According to Bowlby, almost from the beginning, numerous children have more than one figure toward whom they direct attachment behaviour. These figures are not treated alike; there is a strong bias for a child to direct attachment behaviour mainly toward one particular person. Bowlby used the term "monotropy" to describe this bias. Researchers and theorists have abandoned this concept insofar as it may be taken to intend the relationship with the special figure differs qualitatively from that of other figures. Rather, current thinking postulates definite hierarchies of relationships.
Early experiences with caregivers gradually manage rise to a system of thoughts, memories, beliefs, expectations, emotions, and behaviours approximately the self and others. This system, called the "internal works model of social relationships", continues to develop with time and experience.
Internal models regulate, interpret, and predict attachment-related behaviour in the self and the attachment figure. As they develop in line with environmental and developmental changes, they incorporate the capacity to reflect andabout past and future attachment relationships. They permits the child to handle new types of social interactions; knowing, for example, an infant should be treated differently from an older child, or that interactions with teachers and parents share characteristics. Even interaction with coaches share similar characteristics, as athletes who secure attachment relationships with not only their parents but their coaches will play a role in the growth of athletes in their prospective sport. This internal works good example continues to develop through adulthood, helping cope with friendships, marriage, and parenthood, all of which involve different behaviours and feelings.
The development of attachment is a transactional process. Specific attachment behaviours begin with predictable, apparently innate, behaviours in infancy. They modify with age in ways determined partly by experiences and partly by situational factors. As attachment behaviours modify with age, they do so in ways shaped by relationships. A child's behaviour when reunited with a caregiver is determined not only by how the caregiver has treated the child before, but on the history of effects the child has had on the caregiver.
In Western culture child-rearing, there is a focus on single attachment to primarily the mother. This dyadic model is not the only strategy of attachment producing a secure and emotionally adept child. Having a single, dependably responsive and sensitive caregiver namely the mother does notthesuccess of the child. Results from Israeli, Dutch and east African studies show children with companies caregivers grow up not only feeling secure, but developed "more enhanced capacities to view the world from multiple perspectives." This evidence can be more readily found in hunter-gatherer communities, like those that make up in rural Tanzania.
In hunter-gatherer communities, in the past and present, mothers are the primary caregivers but share the maternal responsibility of ensuring the child's survival with a variety of different allomothers. So while the mother is important, she is not the only opportunity for relational attachment a child can make. Several group members with or without blood description contribute to the task of bringing up a child, sharing the parenting role and therefore can be rule of multiple attachment. There is evidence of this communal parenting throughout history that "would have significant implications for the evolution of multiple attachment."
In "non-metropolis" India where "dual income nuclear families" are more the norm and dyadic mother relationship is, where a family normally consists of 3 generations and if lucky 4: great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, and child or children, the child or children by default have four to six caregivers from whom totheir "attachment figure". And a child's "uncles and aunts" father's siblings and their spouses also contribute to the child's psycho-social enrichment.
Although it has been debated for years, and there are differences across cultures, research has shown that the three basic aspects of attachment theory are, to some degree, universal. Studies in Israel and Japan resulted in findings which diverge from a number of studies completed in Western Europe and the United States. The prevailing hypotheses are: 1 that secure attachment is the most desirable state, and the most prevalent; 2 maternal sensitivity influences infant attachment patterns; and 3 specific infant attachments predict later social and cognitive competence.