Psych 101 Assignment

From an evolutionary perspective, John Bowlby made the connection that children form an attachment to their parents in the best interest of survival. Therefore, in a well functioning parent-infant relationship, infants learn to seek their parents in frightening situations and use them as a secure base (Hesse, 2014). However, Mary Ainsworth exemplifies that this is not the case for all infants. In the Strange Situation Study, Mary Ainsworth discovered three fundamental attachment styles: secure, ambivalent, and avoidant attachment. A fourth attachment style was later discovered by Main and Solomon and classified as disorganized attachment. These are known as the four fundamental unidirectional types of attachment between an infant and their caregiver. These relationship patterns are often established between infant and primary caregiver during their early stages of life. In the following, I will exemplify how these attachment styles differ when the infant experiences significant disruptions in their family relationships because of changes in caregivers and separation from imprisoned parents?

Ainsworth (1978) developed the Strange Situation Theory, which is how one is able to view the different levels of attachment (Groh, Roisman, Booth-LaForce, Flaley, Owen, Cox, & Burchinal, 2014). The first attachment is secure attachment, which is when a child is able to greet and seek out contact with the caregiver upon arrival after a stressful separation (Haltigan & Roisman, 2015). The next is anxious-avoidant/resistant (insecure) attachment, when the child has no want to contact with the caregiver while showing signs of resistance upon the return (Haltigan & Roisman, 2015). The last and the most crucial to child development is disoriented/ disorganized attachment; conflicting responses from the child which show hostile and aggressive behavior toward the caregiver (Haltigan & Roisman, 2015). All of these attachements show the different types of ways that a child can communicate with their caregiver. These actions are the representations of their early attachment and experiences with the caregiver (Siebert & Kerns, 2015). If there are no changes toward the environment, the attention

The Development of Attachment Psychological research can inform us about the development of attachments to a certain extent. Mary Ainsworth actually covered a definition explaining, how we know when an attachment has developed. This is; 'the infant tries to get close to and maintain that proximity with the caregiver, using a number of strategies to do so. E.g. clinging and signalling behaviours such as smiling, crying and calling.

In resistant, anxious, or ambivalent attachments the infant has separation anxiety. In this style, the person is basically not there for you. He or she feels insecure when the mother is not present and this insecurity results from her being inconsistently available, leaving the infant afraid to leave her side (Strong & Cohen, 2014). About 10 percent of infants in our society have anxious or ambivalent attachments. In avoidant attachments the infant senses

Mary Ainsworth is known for her ‘Strange Situation’ (Custance 2010) studies with children. Her theory was that the quality of an infant’s attachment depends largely on the kind of attention the infant has received. She observed the attachment styles of children, mostly aged between 12 and 24 months, by placing them in an environment and recording their reactions to their mothers (or primary caregivers) leaving the room and then returning. Based on these observations Ainsworth concluded that there are different types of attachment. Three types of attachment are: ‘anxious-avoidant’, where the child shows little upset with the stranger, but will avoid contact with the parent on their return. The ‘securely attached’ child is one that will show moderate levels of proximity seeking towards the parents and is upset by their departure but deals with the parents return positively, often returning to play. The third type is the ‘anxious-resistant’ child; greatly upset by the parent’s departure and on reunion seems angry and will not be comforted or picked up (Custance 2010).

Attachment is described as an "affectionate reciprocal relationship between an individual and another individual." Much psychological research has been carried out into the types of attachments that infants form with their caregivers, and the results gained from these studies show how early attachments can affect children whether positively or negatively.

Anxious-Avoidant Insecure Attachment – This is where the child treats the caregiver and the stranger the same rather than being avoidant and also this is where they don’t want to be fussed with by anyone and they don’t want to play.

“ (The Strange Situation). Based on the results of the Strange Situation, Ainsworth and her colleague identified three types of attachment styles, a secure attachment which composed a majority of the children in the experiment, insecure avoidant and ambivalent/resistant. For a child who has secure attachment can be “able to freely explore when the mother is around, interacts with the stranger when the mother is present but not when she is absent, shows distress when the mother leaves and is happy to see the mother return” (Mary Ainsworth). For a child that exhibits that inhibits “Anxious-Resistant Insecure Attachment is anxious to explore and is wary of the stranger even when the mother is present, is extremely distressed when the mother leaves, but is ambivalent when the mother returns. He will stay close to the mother upon her return, but will show resentment by resisting the mother's attention and pushing her away.” and for the child who inhibits “an Anxious-Avoidant Insecure Attachment will avoid or ignore the mother and show little emotion when his mother leaves and upon her

On the other hand, Ambivalent Attachment is when the infant is insecure and overemotional with regards to their moms. They are on edge when the mother is there and when she is missing. During a experiment, the newborn children clung to their moms as opposed to investigating the new environment. When she left the room, they turned out to be extremely upset. When she returned, they either gave off an impression of being impassive, likely sulking, or even got to be unfriendly. If kids have ambivalent attachment they frequently grow up to have preoccupied attachment patterns. These individuals' lives are not adjusted, their shakiness abandons them betrayed themselves and candidly frantic in their

Attachment is the beginning of development for a healthy family system. Attachment or bonds are started very young they start with the parent and the child then it expands outward overdevelopment. There are four types of attachment styles avoidant, secure, ambivalent, and disorganized-disoriented. An attachment is a special bond and is usually positive between the child and usually the parents (Feldman, 2014, p.182). Out of the four attachments, secure attachment plays the most important in a healthy development of a child. Secure attachment is when a child and the caregiver such as the mother gives a secure foundation which the child feels like he/ she can explore the world around

Attachment is a bond between a child and it 's primary carer. The infant will want to stay close to the adult and want to be cared by them. Children with strong attachments cry less when separated. They engage in more pretend play and sustain attention for longer. They are less aggressive and are popular with other children and adults. Their sense of who they are is strong. Children need to be safe in the relationship they have with their main carers. They are vulnerable but will develop resilience when their physical and psychological well-being is protected by an adult. Being emotionally attached to an adult helps the children feel secure that the person they depend on is there for them. When children feel safe they are more inclined to try things out and be more independent. They are confident to express their ideas and feelings and feel good about themselves. Attachment influences and child 's immediate all-round development and

Firstly, they looked at a number of couples, they would find out the nature of their attachment within their relationship by using the “love quiz” (Hazan & Shaver, 1987), then they would be exposed to certain stressor stimuli and their reaction would be observed by Hazan and Shaver. They found that even in cases of adults a strong attachment is still very important, Hazan and Shaver (1980) concluded that a balance intimacy with independence within a relationship is best, if the attachment was too strong both parties would be over dependent, and if the attachment was weak there would be a lack of intimacy with feeing of inadequacy ("How Your Infant Attachments Can Affect You In Later Life",

An infant with a secure attachment style has a natural bond with their parent, where they are able to trust them, at the same time leaving their side to discover and explore their surroundings. In an insecure/resistant attachment the relationship the child has with their mother or caregiver is very clingy, thus making them very upset once the caregiver is away. When the mother or caregiver is back they are not easily comforted and resist their effort in comforting them. In an insecure/avoidant attachment the infant is, “indifferent and seems to avoid the mother, they are as easily comforted by a stranger, as by their parent” (Siegler 2011, p.429). Lastly, the disorganized/disoriented attachment is another insecure attachment style in which the infant has no way of coping with stress making their behavior confusing or contradictory. Through these brief descriptions of the attachment theory, many researchers have defined the turning point in which each attachment definition can have an influence on one’s self esteem, well-being and their marital relationship.

These characteristics are well demonstrated in Mary Ainsworth’s experiment of the “strange situation.” Researcher Chris Fraley describes the study as, “a group of 12 month-old infants and their parents are brought in to the laboratory and, systematically separated from and reunited with one another.” Approximately 58 percent of the children demonstrated characteristics of secure attachment. When the parent left the room the child displayed signs of distress with a need to be close to the attachment figure. When the parent returned to the room, the child eagerly approached

Lastly, avoidant attached infants are untroubled when the caregiver leaves and returns. The infant wants to keep closeness to the caregiver but this attachment style lets the infant maintain closeness to the caregiver even in the face of rejection. In order to control their feelings of distress and to prevent more rejection, the infant may just give up on seeking closeness to the caregiver (Walsh, 2015).