This essay will analyze main events in the life of Bowlby and will provide possible links between these and his attachment theory. This essay will study the key features of the attachment theory by relating it to infants in their development. I will reflect on how the attachment theory relates to my life by explaining how the secure attachment I have had to my primary caregivers have caused me to become a functioning member of society who can relate intimately to others. I will also reflect on how the attachment theory relates to my future vocation by explaining how the lack of an intimate attachment between a child and his primary caregivers have caused the child to become an avoidant member of society. Bowlby was born in 1907 in London and raised in an upper-middle-class family (Cherry, 2017).
Attachment theory is an emotional bond formed between children and their primary caregivers through close interpersonal contact. Some patterns of children formed with the mother are pivotal to the social, emotional, and personality development of an individual. There are 3 distinct responses when a child is separated from their primary caregiver. One is protest, crying, active searching, and resistance to the comforting of others. Two is despair and blatant sadness.
Obviously, in this situation, I saw Carman portrayal of anger as a result of losing her children. However, it is normal to show anger regarding bereavement. On the other hand, regardless of Carman receives encouragement from the priest, which did not stop her from showing the feeling of bereavement. At this level, Carman has a need to seek for a counselor other than her priest. The reason for her to seek for a counselor is to help her meet with women that had gone through what she is experiencing now.
In 1969, John Bowlby made the connection that formed relationships and attachments to caregivers contributes to future development and growth. The attachment theory focuses on relationship association between caregivers and their children. Children who established a foundation with a caregiver despite their biological relation, gain much needed support. Establishing support, encourages a child’s development. The comfort of safety, allows children to feel secure in taking risks (Groman, 2012).
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
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.
Becoming Attached What is your "take-away" message of this text regarding attachment? After reading Becoming Attached, I gained a deeper understanding of how important healthy attachments are early in life. As a future school counselor, I can see more of how important attachments are and knowing who a child has formed a secure attachment too or even if they have a healthy attachment to someone.
Although we are studying theories, some of them appear to explain human behavior and personality with certain accuracy. John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth theories of attachment can also explain what happens to people when attachment to their parents or caregivers is healthy or potential problems that could occur due to detachments. They suggest that individuals raised with secure attachments to their primary caregivers help them to feel secure; moreover, these children appear to be more socially skilled and less likely to experience major emotional disturbances. However, failure to form healthy attachments, especially mother-child, could serve as a descriptive mechanism for many negative psychological outcomes later in the life of an individual,
Bowlby, Harlow, and Ainsworth each had unique positions on infant attachment and adult relationships. All three researchers pointed out that children become attached or unattached depending on the amount and type of love and affection they receive from birth. Each had a different way of creating their study. Harlow used baby monkeys taken from their mothers and replacing mom with either a metal or a terry cloth covered mom.
However, the things that occur with the presence of an attachment are really difficult to understand, and this is the reason why attachment theorists emerged. Perhaps the most prominent of this group of theorists, John Bowlby was the first psychologist who started an extensive study on attachment. According to Bowlby's Attachment Theory, attachment is a psychological connectedness that occurs between humans and lasts for a long period of time. To Bowlby, attachment is what keeps a baby connected to his mother, considering the needs of the child that can only be satisfied by his
Since the ‘50s, Bowlby worked alone and with distinguished colleagues such as psychoanalyst James Robertson, ethologist/zoologist Robert Hinde and psychologist Mary Ainsworth on several different studies. Bowlby suggested that due to the attachment between children and their carers, children suffer loss when they are separated. Bowlby’s study with the ethologist Robert Hinde, inspired the idea that certain attachment behaviours have evolved as a survival mechanism (Bergen, 2008). The core of the theory today is that the quality of close relationships affects personality, emotional and social development not only in childhood but throughout the life of the individual (Howe, 2001). This suggests that attachment theory is effectively a biological, psychological and social theory of human development.
Babies are born with an innate ability to learn and their brain to develop after birth. The neural pathways of a human’s brain are built based on their early experience in the world. A baby’s world is based on how they are treated by people in it therefore if the environment is scary then the baby will be reluctant to explore, as demonstrated n Bowlby’s and Ainsworth’s attachment theory. The brain and body become wired enough to understand what is safe and what should be feared. The birth to 3 years of a child’s life is a critical period for the brain during child development and any deprivation during this will result in persistent deficits in cognitive, emotional and even physical health.
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 same rate, and each stage is affected by the preceding developmental experiences (Gibbs, Barrow, and Parker, 2015). Developmental changes may occur as a result of genetically-controlled processes known as maturation, or as a result of environmental factors and learning, but most commonly involves an interaction between the two (Beckett and Taylor, 2010). There are numerous theories on development that conceptualise
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.
Bowlby 's attachment theory had vast investigation done by Mary Ainsworth, who studied the interactions between mother and child, specifically, the theme of an infant’s investigation of their surroundings and the separation from their mother. This essay will focus on Bowlby’s attachment theory and Mary Ainsworth’s experiments and findings, discussing their views on the development and importance of attachment in early life. John Bowlby’s primary interest was in the relationship between child and mother or primary caregiver. Bowlby suspected that the earliest relationships formed by children and their primary parent or care giver, have huge impacts on the child’s later life. From this, Bowlby developed the attachment theory.
