Attachment Theory: The Definitive Guide
Attachment Theory
The Definitive Guide
This is the definitive guide to all that you need to know about attachment theory, how different types of attachment are formed, and how they impact adult lives.
If you want to:
- Learn about what Attachment Theory is
- Learn about the history behind how the Attachment Theory came to be
- Find out all you need to know about the different types of attachment styles
- Identify your attachment style
- Learn more about how your attachment style can impact your relationships
- Evolve your attachment style to be more secure
Then this guide is for you.
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Chapter 1
The Fundamentals of Attachment Theory
Chapter 2
The Different Stages of Attachment in Early Childhood
Chapter 3
The Types of Attachment Developed in Children
Chapter 4
How Attachment Styles Translate into Adulthood
Chapter 5
How do you Identify your Attachment Style as an Adult?
Chapter 6
Can you Change your Attachment Style?
Chapter 7
Criticisms of the Attachment Style Theory
Chapter 1:
The Fundamentals of Attachment Theory
There is no denying that the way we have been brought up since our childhood has a big impact on who we become as adults.
As we progress with the guide, I will explain how these bonds are formed between parents and their children, what these bonds mean to the kids, and how they end up defining who the children grow up to be as adults.
What is Attachment?
Before getting into the basics of attachment theory, it is important to understand what we mean when we use the term attachment.
Attachment is a bond created between two people over time. It can be defined as the level of closeness and security one feels when they are with another person. If you are with someone you are attached to, you will feel a lot safer than if you are spending time with someone you are not attached to.
The first sense of attachment we as human beings feel is when we are infants. We feel a sense of closeness and security with our parents because they feed us, clothe us, provide us with shelter, and take care of us while we learn more about our surroundings.
What is Attachment Theory?
Attachment theory is a theory developed by John Bowlby and refined by Mary Ainsworth. The theory is focused and studied as a part of developmental psychology and it discusses the emotional bonds one builds as a part of their childhood.
According to John Bowlby’s attachment theory, it is our human nature that compels us to form close emotional bonds with those around us. The first bond we develop is with our caregiver right after birth, especially if our caregiver (typically our mother) is appropriately responsive.
He further states that the reasons why we tend to form attachments is to protect ourselves from harm and negative emotions and to manage our emotions when something negative happens to us in our lives.
His theory also states that this sense of attachment that we feel with our mothers as children has a big role to play in our emotional and cognitive development.
The Origin of Attachment Theory
While Bowlby is largely credited with the development of the attachment theory, it was actually a number of psychologists that worked overtime to develop this theory. John Bowlby was the one that got the ball rolling initially when he started working with children. The theory was expanded upon and refined by Mary Ainsworth in the 1970s, making it what it is today.
John Bowlby spent time after the World War conducting research on attachment behaviors he observed in infants. He postulated that right from birth, infants would look for their primary caregiver and attachment figure and would feel intense distress if they were separated from them.
He noted that the infants in his study would look for their attachment figure to feel loved, secure, and safe in their environment. Only when the children felt protected by their primary caregiver would they interact with their surroundings, engage in play time, and be more social.
If the caregiver was not present close to the children, they would feel extremely sad and distressed and their response would be to either look for their caregiver or cry till they felt soothed. The time it would take for the child to calm down would vary based on the time the caregiver spent away from them.
This study proved valuable in developing what we know as the attachment theory today because John Bowlby was the one who identified that attachment played a big role in the cognitive, emotional, and social development of a child at an early age.
Mary Ainsworth was working on her research in child psychology separately a few years down the line from John Bowlby. Her popular study, Strange Situation (1969), added to John Bowlby’s assessment of child behavior and attachment. It indicated the levels and types of attachment that children experienced in their infancy with their caregivers.
The Strange Situation Classification (Ainsworth and Wittig, 1969)
The Strange Situation study is what formed the Attachment Theory that we know of today. The study was conducted between mothers and their infants ranging from 9 months to 18 months in age. It tested for various parameters when the children and their caregivers were put in different situations and recorded the responses of the infants after they were separated from their mothers.
The study checked for certain behaviors in the children upon the reunion with their mothers after being separated. Ainsworth’s main goal was to see if the children sought contact upon proximity with their mothers, if they maintained contact after, if they avoided interaction to ‘punish’ the mother or if they were indifferent in general.
These results were used to design three distinct attachment styles, based on the way the children interacted with their mothers upon their separation and reunion. Mary Ainsworth developed three types of attachment that she observed in the children:
- Secure Attachment: This was the most common attachment style observed in the infants in her study. The children felt confident and secure in their caregivers being present even though they were temporarily away. They were social and explored their environment freely.
- Insecure Avoidant Attachment: Insecure avoidant children showed little to no signs of distress when separated from their mothers. They did not rely on their mothers for comfort and they continued the exploration of their environments regardless of how their caregivers responded.
- Insecure Ambivalent or Anxious Attachment: Here the children showed intense distress when they were separated from their mothers. The children in turn did not explore their environments and showcased ‘punishing’ behaviors upon the reunion.
We will discuss these attachment styles and how they affect adult relationships in the later chapters. It is important to know about the scientific thought and research that went into developing what we know as the Attachment Theory today because it gives us more insight on how the theory was formed and how it evolved over time.
These studies formed the root of the Attachment Theory and more psychologists contributed over time to develop the types of attachment, stages of attachment, and the adult attachment theory we will discuss later on in this guide.
