John Bowlby’s attachment theory provides an excellent explanation for why the infant-caregiver relationship is so important to the well being of an individual. According to Bowlby, attachment is referred to as the “process of establishing and maintaining and emotional bond with parents or other significant individuals."
Bowlby also affirms that attachment theory emphasizes seven features, the most important of which is the specificity of an individual in which one forms an attachment, the duration of attachment to a caregiver which can last into adolescence, the biological function of attachment which suggests that attachment is a necessary and vital survival strategy, as well as ontogeny, learning, organization, and engagement of emotion.
In attachment theory, behaviors are not predetermined but are organized sequences of goal-corrected behavior in which an infant will use behaviors such as smiling, clinging, or crying to achieve a desired outcome. Infants who use their mother as a secure base are able to interact in a healthy manner with other adults.
The three types of attachment
Bowlby concluded that there are three different patterns of attachment -- Patterns A, B and C.
Pattern A describes an anxious-avoidant individual. These infants avoid their mothers during the reunion, especially after the second brief absence and they also tend to treat the stranger in a more friendly manner than their own mother.
Pattern B describes an infant who is securely attached. These individuals are active in play with a stranger but seek contact with their mother after a brief separation. However, after they receive attention and comfort from their mother, they return almost immediately to playing with the stranger.
Finally, Pattern C describes anxious-resistant individuals. These infants alternate between being in close contact with their mother and resisting contact with her. Most are remarkably angrier than other infants.
Patterns A and C describe individuals with an insecure attachment style. Pattern B describes an individual with a secure attachment style. When discussing problems with attachment, Bowlby reasoned that an individual’s experience with his parents greatly influences his ability to obtain and manage healthy relationships with others as he get older as well as whether that individual will develop neurotic symptoms, personality disorders, or unhealthy relationships with friends, partners, and/or their own children.
Implications
Children characterized as anxious and avoidant have been subjected to at least one or more patterns of pathogenic parenting, which may include persistent unresponsiveness to the child’s soliciting for attention or care, discontinuity of parenting, and inducing guilt in the child by saying that his behavior is responsible for the other parent’s illness or death, among other factors.
Individuals who display anxious-avoidant attachment tend to mask emotional expression when they get older and are often distrusting of others. They can develop conduct disorders, aggressive behavior, and depressive symptoms. Anxious-resistant individuals might have difficulties managing anxiety and tend to exaggerate their emotions and have a negative self-image.
Bowlby's attachment theory is a well-tested theory of child psychopathology. It is a paradigm that has been tested and retested since Bowlby published his first book about it in the late 1960s. Well into the present, many researchers have referenced Bowlby's research in their publications about a variety of issues, including how an insecure attachment style can lead to a variety of psychological issues both in childhood and adulthood. Over the years, a number of researchers have improved upon attachment theory, adding additional types of insecure attachment. However, Bowlby's research continues to be a solid foundation as a theory of child psychopathology.
Sources:
- Mash, E. J. & Wolfe, D. A. (2009). Abnormal Child Psychology (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
- Bowlby, J. (1969) Attachment and loss, Vol. 1: Attachment. New York: Basic Books.
- Bowlby, J. (1978). Attachment theory and its therapeutic implications. Journal of Adolescent Psychiatry, 6, 5-33. doi: 0-226-24051-7/78/1978-6000.
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