Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Strenghts of attachment theory
Strenghts of attachment theory
Strenghts of attachment theory
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Louise Harms multi-dimensional approach is a vital framework that will be used while exploring the inner and outer worlds of both theories. The attachment theory was first and originally formed from the work of a psychologist named John Bowlby and explored by another source named Mary Ainsworth, a developmental psychologist. According to John (2005, pg. 30) he explains that by understanding the inner world of a child’s needs which is based on their biological, psychological and spiritual aspect, the child will be able to maintain a stable and healthy
In the narrative Hope Meadows, Wes Smith vividly and compellingly documents a pioneering project conceived by Brenda Eheart, a sociologist and visionary. Brenda Eheart became disheartened by the state of child welfare and got tired of seeing so many families involved in the foster care system broken apart because of lack of help and support from the community. The goal of Hope Meadows establishment was to tackle two critical social problems at once, the abuse and neglect of children and the all-too-common isolation experienced by lonely senior citizens. Through persistence, Eheart obtained use of an abandoned Air Force Base in Illinois and established a community where “unadoptable” children were placed with adoptive families in a stable and
She observed episodes of close bodily contact, face to face encounters, separation and reunion behaviors, infant cooperation, and disobedience. Mary realized that she was seeing patterns that were similar to Bowlby’s work. She established the premise of the attachment theory, indicating that the baby treated the
Attachment is a crucial part of a babies first year of life, Mary Ainsworth investigated weather the quality of attachment matters to a child's well being and also if some attachments are better than others. Ainsworth carried out her experiment which is known as "strange situation" The aim of this was to test how strong attachments were. During the experiment Ainsworth focused on the babies reactions during each part these included Parent and baby in a room, baby free to explore room whilst parent remains inactive, stranger joins parent and baby, Parent leaves room, Parent returns settles baby and stranger leaves, Baby is alone in the room, Stranger returns and interacts with the baby, Parent returns to the room and stranger leaves. During
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.
Most sexual offenders are male, and nearly all known serial killers are also male. Aileen Wuornos is one of history’s highest-profile female serial murderers. She was imprisoned and sentenced to death for the murder of six men. During her childhood, Wuornos was exposed to abandonment by her biological parents, seclusion and physical and emotional abuse from her grandparents. The conspicuous lack of attention and communication from her caregivers along with the violent and toxic environment she endured forged a pattern for Aileen’s early-on criminal nature and violent behavior.
(Carpenter and Huffman, 2013 p.278) In her studies of infants, she placed the mother in a room with the child (securely attached), then introduced a stranger to the child(anxious/ambivalent), then the mother would leave the room leaving the stranger with the child(anxious/avoidant), then mother would return (disorganized/disoriented attachment). Observations of the child's reactions towards the mother and stranger in each of these segments were analyzed. From this, Ainsworth was able to conclude the bonding the child had toward their mother. The more attached the child, the more they responded to the mother coming and going, either by clinging, crying or following.
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,
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.
Theories, Key Concepts, Principles, and Assumptions Two theories that will be discussed in this paper is Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development and John Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment. Erikson’s theory is considered psychosocial, emphasizing the importance of social and cultural factors within a lifespan, from infancy to later adulthood. Erikson’s theory is broken down into eight consecutive age-defined stages. During each stage, a person experiences a psychosocial crisis that contributes to their personality development.
Attachment theory suggests it is the quality of the relationship between the child and caregiver, which ultimately influences development (Sroufe & Seigel, 2011). Ideally, the child and caregiver should express attunement to one another (Sroufe & Seigel, 2011). Ainsworth’s Strange Situation experiment differentiated the securely attached child from the insecure child through the child’s reaction to the return of her caregiver after periods of separation (Sroufe & Seigel, 2011). The securely attached child “actively greet(s) and initiate(s) interaction with the caregiver upon reunion” (Sroufe & Seigel, 2011, p. 4). The securely attached child develops a positive “internal working model” (Schore & Schore, 2008, p. 12), influencing self-efficacy.
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).
One of the main theories in Developmental psychology is the attachment theory that was devised by Bowlby (1969) and was added to in 1973, by Mary Ainsworth. The attachment theory surrounds the bond between a primary care giver and a baby. They believe that attachment is a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another across time and space. In 1930 Bowlby worked as a psychiatrist in a children’s unit, where he treated many emotionally disturbed children, this lead him to consider the relationship between mother and child and the impact that could have on the child’s development. Bowlby believed that the attachment process was an all or nothing process and that you either were attached or were not attached.
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.
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.