Attachment style refers to the way individuals form emotional bonds and relationships with others and is often based on early experiences with caregivers. Types of attachment styles can be both positive and negative, depending on how they affect individuals' relationships with others. The concept of attachment style is based on the groundbreaking research on the attachment behavior of infants and children in the 1950s and 1960s by British psychologist John Bowlby and American-Canadian psychologist Mary Ainsworth. In their pioneering work "Attachment Theory," they identified three basic attachment styles: secure, anxious-ambivalent, and avoidant. Subsequent research has added additional attachment styles, such as disorganized and fearful-avoidant, to these categories.
Bowlby put forward the psychoanalytic view that early experiences in childhood are important in influencing development and behavior in later life.
Our early attachment styles are formed in childhood through the infant/caregiver relationship. Additionally, Bowlby believes that attachment has an evolutionary component; helps to survive. The tendency to form strong emotional bonds with others has been described as "an essential component of human nature.
Attachment is believed to have four distinguishing features:
Protection of intimacy : Desire to be close to the people we are attached to.
Return to attachment figure, seeking comfort and security in the face of fear or threat.
Attachment
Bowlby made three basic propositions: First, he suggested that when children are raised with the confidence that their main caregiver will always be with them appropriately, they will experience less fear than those who do not have this confidence. He believed that security development occurs during a vital period, during infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and he stated that the expectations set during this period tend to remain relatively unchanged for the rest of a person's life. They found different factors, especially in the first year of the child's life, the mother's It is distinctive that it is sensitive to the needs of the baby.
Mothers who react in an unstable or neglectful way tend to raise babies who are less exploratory, cry more, and more anxious. Mothers who consistently deny or ignore the baby's needs cause children to try to avoid contact.
Secure Attachment Characteristics
Adults with a secure attachment often rely on trust. tend to have long-term relationships. Other important characteristics of securely attached individuals include high self-esteem, enjoyment of close relationships, seeking social support, and the ability to share their feelings with others. In one academic study, researchers found that women with secure attachment styles had more positive emotions than women with insecure attachment styles.
Anxious Attachment Traits:
As Anxious Attached children are often extremely suspicious of strangers. These children show significant discomfort when separated from the parent or caregiver, but do not seem relieved or relieved by the parent's return. In some cases, the child may passively reject the parent (refusing to comfort) or show direct aggression with the parent. teachers have been found to describe them as clingy and overly dependent.
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Children tend to shy away from strangers
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When parents leave, they feel great sadness
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Parents don't seem relieved when they come back
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Adults tend to avoid being close to other people
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They worry that their partners do not love them
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They do not feel safe in the work environment, they are nervous and avoidant. They do not seek support and have low self-esteem.
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They get very upset when relationships end
Adults with an anxious attachment style are often hesitant to get close to other people and worry that their partner is making their feelings unrequited. This often leads to breakups as relationships feel cold and distant.
These individuals experience particular sadness after the relationship ends. Cassidy and Berlin identified another pathological pattern of anxiously attached adults clinging to other children as a source of security. However, in order to meet their need for trust, they may have come into expectation from a child who still has attachment problems.
Avoiding Attachment Traits
Children with an avoidant attachment style generally tend to avoid parents and caregivers. This avoidance becomes particularly evident after a period of separation.
These children may not reject the parent's attention, but they do not seek comfort or contact from him in the same way. Children with an avoidant attachment style do not choose between a parent and a stranger.
Children tend to avoid parents
Do not need much contact or comfort from parents
Between parents and strangers do not show preference
Adults May have trouble with intimacy
Not emotionally invested in social and romantic relationships
Unwilling or unable to share their thoughts and feelings with others
Adults with an avoidant attachment style tend to have difficulties with intimacy and intimate relationships.
Stages of Attachment
Researchers Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson, 60 babies analyzed the number of attachment relationships that infants form in a long-term study of Babies were observed every four weeks during the first year from birth and then observed again at 18 months.
Based on their observations, Schaffer and Emerson identified four different attachment stages:
Pre-Attachment Phase From birth to 3 months. Babies do not show a special attachment to a particular caregiver. Baby's signals, such as crying, naturally attract the caregiver's attention, and the baby's positive responses are in close proximity to the caregiver.
Pervasive Attachment From 6 weeks to 7 months, infants begin to show preference for primary and secondary caregivers. Babies develop confidence that the caregiver will respond to their needs. While accepting care from others, infants begin to distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar persons and respond more positively to the primary caregiver. and show preference. When separated from the primary attachment figure (separation anxiety), they protest and begin to show anxiety around strangers (stranger anxiety). This often includes people like a second parent, older siblings, and grandparents.
Factors Affecting Attachment: Although this process is not as simple as it seems, the factor that can affect how and when attachments develop is,
Opportunity to bond: occurs when caregivers and first parents respond quickly and consistently to physical needs and moments of need to feel safe Children thus learn that they can trust those in charge of their care, which is an important foundational factor for attachment. We are born with an evolutionary need for secure attachment because of our primary motivation for survival. The evolutionary need to connect with the world and nature requires that the motivation to trust parents, caregivers be met.
Attachment Styles: Attachment includes four different patterns:
Contradictory attachment: These children get very upset when a parent leaves. The contradictory attachment style is considered rare and affects between 7% and 15% of US children. In poor parenting situations these children cannot rely on their primary caregiver when they need it.
Avoid attachment: Children with an avoidant attachment style tend to avoid their parents or caregivers and do not choose between a caregiver or a complete stranger. This attachment style is abusive. e can develop due to showing or neglecting caregivers. If the child is punished for trusting the caregiver, he learns to avoid asking for help in the future.
Disorganized attachment: These children exhibit mixed behavior.
Secure attachment: They are close to their parents. Responds to separation from mother but can cope with it. Shows satisfaction when mother or caregiver returns.
Four Attachment Styles
Research classifies 4 types of attachment styles as follows:
Secure Attachment Having a secure attachment style Individuals feel comfortable with emotional intimacy, trust other people, and have positive expectations from relationships. They can effectively regulate their emotions and seek support from others when needed. For example, a child with a secure attachment style may feel comfortable exploring his environment and interacting with strangers when his caregiver is with him. experiences fear and has negative expectations from relationships. They may become dependent on their partners and seek constant reassurance and approval. For example, a child with an anxious-ambivalent attachment style may experience sadness when the caregiver leaves and may seek closeness and attention when he returns. are people who are self-confident and uncomfortable with intimacy. They may avoid close relationships and have trouble expressing their feelings. For example, a child with an avoidant attachment style may appear insensitive or disinterested when the caregiver leaves or returns and may not seek comfort or approval.
Irregular / Fearful-Avoid Attachment Individuals with an avoidant attachment style may exhibit contradictory behaviors and emotions, for example, they may appear anxious and fearful and tend to avoid the people they are attached to at the same time. This style is often associated with childhood trauma or abuse experiences. For example, disorganized / scared
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