John Bowlby's Attachment Theory In Early Life

Although Bowen’s family systems theory, and Bowlby’s attachment theory are unique with their own thoughts and perceptions, both of the theories can also be taken as different viewpoints of the same human experience, specifically the development of relationship patterns and human attachment. Both theories touch upon the influence that unsolved problems in the parents may have on their children. Attachment theory focuses more on the infant’s first attachment, or primary attachment. This is usually between the mother and the infant. If the attachment is interrupted and the infant’s needs are not being met by the primary attachment, mother, this could adversely affect the infant’s cognitive and mental development as well as future attachments.

Mary Ainsworth was a very influential figure in the field of psychology. Not only did she focus on the scientific study of love, but she also looked at how this theory developed. Mary’s lifelong process looked at the origins and nature of attachments between the interactions of infants and their primary caregivers. Going off of Harry Harlow’s research with Rhesus monkeys, it was discovered that attachments were formed with the primary caregiver because of the comfort that is provided, and not just nourishment as previously thought.

#3-Examining how death and the losses were addressed within my African American family is openly discussed and always some one’s fault. The experience of my grandmothers death relates to the statistics of the life expectations of African America. According to (Walsh 2004 p. 56) African American woman life expectancy for older adults is 70.2 years and African American men life span is 66.1 according to the national Vital Statistics Report (Volume, 47 NO.28). My grandmother died young I believe she was 59 years old. She had her very first heart attack when she was in 50 years old and she stopped drinking and gave herself to the lord. She was on so many different medications as a child I was not aware of the different medications she was taken.

Firstly, there is the possibility of the misapplication of attachment theory, this is due to the ability to place blame on the mother. This can enforce a mother’s feelings of inadequacy, and increase feelings of low self-esteem as a mother is solely held as responsible for the wellbeing of the child. It fails to recognise the influence by a father or the secondary caregiver, and how this impacts on the mother and child

The first lowest level of deficiency needs are Psychological needs such as food, water, shelter. When going through human development, if people are struggling with any of these psychological needs then there are programs to help support them. If kids aren’t provided with this in their primary environment, they may go to school to get this basic level of psychological needs.

The attachment theory of John Bowlby has had an enduring impact on our understanding of child development. This study of Bowlby’s attachment theory allows us to understand more thoroughly how society and culture in constructing child rearing practices have a profound impact not only on the child but on the entire learning life of that individual. Attachment theory provides us with a lifelong learning project that brings together deep psychological patterns.

Bowlby believed that infants are a product of evolutionary processes pre-coded with a survival instinct to form an attachment with an individual to provide it with comfort, guidance, safety and security (Bowlby 1958, cited in Lishman 2007) Generally attachments were formed with responsive persons who interacted and played with the child a lot, simple caregiving such as nappy changing was itself not an important factor. This strong attachment to the primary caregiver provides a strong base for exploration and reissuance when the child felt insecure (fox, 1977 pg 109). Bowlby believed that there are four main features of attachment. These are safe haven, he believed that the primary care giver would make the child feel safe, secure base, here

Attachment is a strong enduring reciprocal bond an infant shares with a significant individual, usually the mother, who knows and responds well to the needs of the infant. (Gillibrand et al. 2011 p. 242) The evolutionary theory of attachment according to Bowlby is based on the idea that children have an innate programming to form attachments but they must be made during a critical period or it would not be possible after this period. The continuity hypothesis of the evolutionary theory suggests that relationships with the primary care giver (monotropy) provides an internal working model, which the child will acquire and base future relationships on similarly to the one the monotropy displayed to the child. (Add citation) Despite the theory

Furthermore, Mahler’s separation-individuation periods, and Bowlby’s attachment phases share similar concepts, which appears to be critical period for development. In particular, child sense of self and changes occur with mother’s involvement as the child becomes less dependent, and practicing periods from both perspectives emphasize children exploration and his or her experience with splitting (e.g. frustration and gratification) and “trust vs mistrust” is evident (Goldstein, 1995). As a result, the child develops maturity with continual recourse for a much greater identity and ego functioning (Goldstein, 1995).

The psychological perspective on relationships was viewed from an experimental social psychology, evolutionary social psychology, developmental social psychology and health psychology. Willerton (2010) proposes four perspectives, however two will be examined: Evolutionary social psychology and developmental social psychology. Willerton (2010) stated that evolutionary social psychology draws on the idea

As children grow, they experience numerous changes to their moods and behaviours (Beckett and Taylor, 2010). Many of these changes are relatively predictable and, while they can be challenging, most are completely normal aspects of their development (Gibbs, Barrow, and Parker, 2015). Each child’s development does not progress at the

The attachment theory, developed by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth is an essential key that explains many child-parent relationships and the influence it has on development. Attachment is a process that begins during infancy in an individual’s life and can have long lasting effects. Bowlby’s theory concluded that the bonds formed between a caregiver and a child during the early years were the blueprints for future relationships. Ainsworth’s “strange situation” experiments and numerous studies tested Bowlby’s original theory and expanded on it. This paper will provide an overview on the research that has been conducted on the effects of attachment patterns on an individual’s early and later development.

John Bowlby was born in London in 1907. He studied and trained in psychoanalysis when it was still a new discipline (Crain 2011). Bowlby became interested in attachment when he undertook voluntary work at a school for maladjusted children. He began to notice a correlation between bad behaviour in children and the challenging backgrounds from which they came. It was his experience with two particular children, who came from such backgrounds, that was to shape the direction of his future career (Ainsworth 1974). In 1936 Bowlby, while working with children in institutions such as orphanages, became one of the first psychiatrists to work in the area of child guidance. It was during this period that Bowlby started to make the connection between

Attachment theory tries to describe the evolution of personality and behaviour in relationships and it gives a reason for the difference in a person’s emotional and relationship attitudes.

Attachment is a basic concept that affects people’s mental health in various different ways, especially in the subject of psychology. Attachment is defined as building blocks which basically founded between infants and caregivers and also it is mutual, enduring tie between two people each of whom conduces to the quality of the relationship in human’s life span. If we look from evolutionary perspective, foundations of babiy’s attachment is include to guaranteeing to baby’s both psychosocial and physical needs by caregiver (Papalia & Feldman, 2011).One of the most used theory is ethological theory which was created by John Bowlby .Bowlby called the firstyear of child’sdevelop as "internal working models" (Fraley, 2002).Hesuggest that an internal working modelwas an emotional tie (attachment) to aprimary caregiver (generally mother), a bond which creates child’s perception and behavior by caregiver's behaviors (Bowlby, 1969).His two main factors of attachment includes; emotional support and protection supplied by the caregiver; andsecond, thechild's feelings of being loved.