How Mother and Child Relationships Impact Adult Relationships

The types of relationships we build as children follow us as adults. Our relationships we have reflect the attachments we grow with our caregivers. Secure attachment allows us to feel physically and emotional stable while the other three attachments allow us to have more social and emotional difficulties in the relationships (Belfiore & Pietrowsky, 2017). If you look back you can see what kind of attachment you had with your caregiver

Attachment theory suggests that infant attachment classifications may lead to similar adult attachment styles in romantic relationships. Discuss the attachment theory thoroughly. Describe these people’s adult romantic attachment style based on their parent-infant classification: Must discuss all three scenarios

This qualitative research was conducted to ascertain if the attachment style a person has as an adult is created or influenced by his/her interactions with early childhood experiences. The research was carried out by means of a thematic analysis of an interview of a married middle-aged couple. The interviews bought the themes of Work, Childhood and Relationships to the foreground and these were analysed to establish if there is a connection in our childhood attachments and those we make as adults. It can be seen that there are similarities to the attachment types of infants compared to those that

John Bowlby’s attachment theory (1991) argued that infants are motivated to engage in an organized behavioral system that ensures preferred others, usually the primary caregivers, remain close, provide support and function as a “secure base”. Bowlby, along with other theorists (e.g. Ainsworth, 1969, 1985, 1989, 1991; Main et al., 1985; Sroufe and Waters, 1977), argues that the ways in which adult individuals form intimate bonds with other individuals are influenced by the patterns of relationships with primary caregivers established in childhood. In attachment theory, it is a fundamental tenet that the security or lack of it, experiences in the child-parent relationship forms a template for the patterns of interpersonal relationships the child

Everyone has an attachment style from which they developed in the first two years of their life. This attachment style tends to stay consistent with each person throughout their lifetime and affects their social-emotional development, and thus relationships with other people. Attachment styles greatly affect the choice one makes in life partners, and how they parent their own children. It is important for everyone to gain insight on their own attachment style if they are to know their emotional limits and how to strengthen their flaws in order to develop a better-self and stronger relationships with other people (Norcross, 2011). It is even more so important for caregivers to be aware of their attachment style and how sensitively available they are to the children in their lives. How the primary caregiver responds to the child’s needs, determines the attachment style the child will acquire. To develop a secure attachment the child needs to establish confidence in a reliable caregiver. In this paper I will be talking about the behaviors and interactions that I observed while watching the film “Babies”, and what attachment styles may be formed as a result of those interactions.

One of these attachment styles was suggested to account for the majority of children and was depicted as a secure attachment style (Ainsworth, 1971, 1978). Secure attachment was suggested to account for 70% of the children, and consisted of traits that the child signified during the experiment, such as, responding with positively when their primary caregiver returned to them after a period of separation, despite the child signifying distress when the primary caregiver was absent (Ainsworth, 1971, 1978).The second type of attachment style Ainsworth (1971, 1978) established was an insecure attachment style; however, this was separated into two categories: anxious and avoidant. Whilst children who were categorised as having an anxious attachment style were suggested to account for 15% of children, and signified ambivalent behaviour towards their primary caregiver when they reunited with them, children who were suggested to have an avoidant attachment style accounted for 15% of children and avoided proximity or interaction with the primary caregiver on reunion Ainsworth (1971,

Attachment theory constituted by John Bowlby suggested the child’s early attachment with a primary caregiver predicts their later adulthood relationship style. There are three patterns of adult attachment theory: secure, avoidant, and ambivalent relationship styles.

Each individual has their own style of attachment, whether it is secure attachment, ambivalent attachment, avoidant attachment, or disorganized attachment. Attachment styles develop early on in life and seem to develop over time based on one’s experiences and interactions with other people. Some seem to have more secure attachments than others and some seem more shut off and insecure with their attachments. In a study conducted by Dr. Mary Ainsworth, called “Strange Situation”, attachment behaviors were explored, where Ainsworth measured the reactions of children when separated from their caregiver. This study showed the vast differences in reactions of children with different attachment styles (Firestone 2016). Different attachment styles seem to be a product of the environment the child was raised in, whether it was a loving, secure environment, or a dysfunctional, less nurturing environment.

but are quickly soothed upon reunion. The anxious-ambivalent and disorganized infants are characterized with thrilling anxiety during separation and strive for closeness to their attachment figure upon reunion.

‘Attachment’ is a lasting secure and positive feeling that bonds one person to another, one of the strongest forms of attachment is thought to develop between a mother and child. Many psychologist, sociologist, physicians and psychoanalysts have sought to explore the fundamental nature of attachment and how it had evolved. Within this essay I shall examine

He noted three behavioural stages an infant experienced when being separated from his mother over a prolonged period of time: Initially the child would cry and cling to adults to gain love and attention, and would protest loudly if the caregiver / parent tried to leave the child. This is also known as the ‘distress stage’. In the second, the ‘despair stage’, the infants would cry less, the protesting would begin to stop when the caregiver / parent would try to leave.

1)Attachment According to the attachment theory by Bowlby, attachment style of children with their parents tend to be preserved and affect their other relationship in future (as cited in Owens, Crowell, Pan, Treboux, O'Connor, & Waters, 1995). The attachment styles between parents and child are classified according to their difference of constitution and outcomes. Future relationships of daughters are also affected according to their attachment pattern with parents (Katorski, 2003; Owens, Crowell, Pan, Treboux, O'Connor, & Waters, 1995; Feldman, Gowen, & Fisher, 1998; Punyanunt-Carter, 2006). a) Attachment styles Attachment with our first caregiver and most intimate people have an important impact on our perceptions about self, others and

Attachment styles are the way that others shape our understanding of ourselves. The self is shaped by perspectives of individuals who are significant individuals that matter to us and how early development can affect future relationship styles. The main example that will be used in this journal are caretakers, or parents, and how they can affect the attachment styles of children and their future relationships. There are four different attachment styles, secure, anxious/ambivalent, dismissive, and fearful.

Karpel (1994) makes a powerful statement by arguing that emotional attachments may be the most important factor impacting couple relationships. He considers the concept so important that he opens with the idea, drawing a connection between the early mother-child relationship and later couple relationships. In my own experience of marriage (10 years in my first marriage, and nearly 28 years in my current marriage), I would concur that our childhood attachment history has a tremendous impact on who we become and how we act out our intimate adult lives.

Psychiatrist John Bowlby (1982) described attachment as a bond that exist at the early estates of an infant’s life and caregiver; mothers are seen as the primary caretakers. According to Palm (2014a), infants are biologically wired to perform a series of behaviors in order to seek proximity with the main caregiver in order to get their basic needs met, these behaviors involved crying, babbling, smiling, gazing (Rieser-Danner and Slaughter, 2014). Crying and communicating distress is a form use by children to seek proximity also infants used babbling, smiling, and gazing to initiate social engagement (Palm, 2014b )