Attachment theory
For infants and toddlers, the "t-goal" of the attachment behavioural system is to
topview
maintain or achieve proximity to attachment figures, usually the parents.Attachment theory describes the dynamics
of long-term relationships between humans
especially as in families and life-long
friends. Its most important tenet is that an
infant needs to develop a relationship with
at least one primary caregiver for social and
emotional development to occur normally,
and that further relationships build on the
patterns developed in the first relationships.
A mother (or primary caregiver) must also
form a parate but cure parental
attachment bond to the child in order for the
child to develop a cure state-of-mind upon
reaching adulthood. [1] Attachment theory is an interdisciplinary study encompassing the
fields of psychological, evolutionary, and
ethological theory. It developed as a result of the experiences of child care professionals during World War II in England in caring for the many thousands of small children temporarily parated from their parents or orphaned.The theory was formulated by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby.[2]
Infants become attached to adults who are nsitive and responsive in social interactions with them, and who remain as consistent caregivers for some months during the period from about six months to two years of age. When an infant begins to crawl and walk they begin to u attachment figures (familiar people) as a cure ba to explore from and return to. Parental respons lead to the development of patterns of attachment; the, in turn, lead to internal working models which will guide the individual's perceptions, emotions, thoughts and expectations in later relationships.[3] Sep
aration anxiety or grief following the loss of an attachment figure is considered to be a normal and adaptive respon for an attached infant. The behaviours may have evolved becau they increa the probability of survival of the child.[4]
Within attachment theory, infant behaviour associated with attachment is primarily the eking of proximity to an attachment figure.To formulate a comprehensive theory of the nature of early attachments, Bowlby explored a range of fields, including evolutionary biology, object relations theory (a branch of psychoanalysis), control systems theory, and the fields of ethology and cognitive psychology.[5] After preliminary papers from 1958 onwards, Bowlby published a complete study in 3 volumes Attachment and Loss (1969–82).
Rearch by developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth in the 1960s and 70s reinforced the basic concepts,introduced the concept of the "cure ba" and developed a theory of a number of attachment patterns in infants:cure attachment, avoidant attachment and anxious attachment.[6] A fourth pattern, disorganized attachment, was identified later.
In the 1980s, the theory was extended to attachment in adults.[7] Other interactions may be construed as including components of attachment behaviour; the include peer relationships at all a
hl7ges, romantic and xual attraction and respons to the care needs of infants or the sick and elderly.
In the early days of the theory, academic psychologists criticized Bowlby, and the psychoanalytic community ostracid him for his departure from psychoanalytical tenets;[8] however, attachment theory has since become "the dominant approach to understanding early social development, and has given ri to a great surge of empirical rearch into the formation of children's clo relationships".[9] Later criticisms of attachment theory relate to初学化妆怎样画眼线
temperament, the complexity of social relationships, and the limitations of discrete patterns for classifications.Attachment theory has been significantly modified as a result of empirical rearch, but the concepts have become generally accepted.[8] Attachment theory has formed the basis of new therapies and informed existing ones, and its concepts have been ud in the formulation of social and childcare policies to support the early attachment relationships of children.[10]Attachment
Although it is usual for the mother to be the
palaprimary attachment figure, infants will form attachments to any caregiver who is nsitive and
responsive in social interactions with them.Within attachment theory, attachment means an affectional bond or tie
bulletpointbetween an individual and an attachment figure (usually a caregiver).
Such bonds may be reciprocal between two adults, but between a child
初四英语and a caregiver the bonds are bad on the child's need for safety,
curity and protection, paramount in infancy and childhood. The
theory propos that children attach to carers instinctively,[11] for the
purpo of survival and, ultimately, genetic replication.[12] The
biological aim is survival and the psychological aim is curity.[9]
Attachment theory is not an exhaustive description of human
relationships, nor is it synonymous with love and affection, although
the may indicate that bonds exist. In child-to-adult relationships, the
child's tie is called the "attachment" and the caregiver's reciprocal
equivalent is referred to as the "care-giving bond".[12]
Infants form attachments to any consistent caregiver who is nsitive
and responsive in social interactions with them. The quality of the
social engagement is more influential than the amount of time spent.
The biological mother is the usual principal attachment figure, but the role can be taken by anyone who consistently behaves in a "mothering"
way over a period of time. In attachment theory, this means a t of behaviours that involves engaging in lively social interaction with the
infant and responding readily to signals and approaches.[13] Nothing in
the theory suggests that fathers are not equally likely to become principal attachment figures if they provide most of the child care and related social interaction.[14]双学位英文
Some infants direct attachment behaviour (proximity eking) towards more than one attachment figure almost as soon as they start to show discrimination between caregivers; most come to do so during their cond year. The figures are arranged hierarchically, with the principal attachment figure at the top.[15] The t-goal of the attachment behavioural system is to maintain a bond with an accessible and available attachment figure.[16] "Alarm" is the term ud for activation of the attachment behavioural system caud by fear of danger. "Anxiety" is the anticipation or fear of being cut off from the attachment figure. If the figure is unavailable or unresponsive, paration distress occurs.[17] In infants, physical paration can cau anxiety and anger, followed by sadness and despair. By age three or four, physical paration is no longer such a threat to the child's bond with the attachment figure. Threats to curity in older children and adults ari from prolonged abnce, breakdowns in communication, emotional unavailability or signs of rejection or abandonment.[16]
Behaviours
Incure attachment patterns can compromi
exploration and the achievement of lf-confidence. A curely attached baby is free
在线学英语
to concentrate on his environment.The attachment behavioural system rves to maintain or achieve
clor proximity to the attachment figure.[18] Pre-attachment
behaviours occur in the first six months of life. During the first pha
(the first eight weeks), infants smile, babble and cry to attract the
attention of caregivers. Although infants of this age learn to
discriminate between caregivers, the behaviours are directed at
anyone in the vicinity. During the cond pha (two to six months),
the infant increasingly discriminates between familiar and unfamiliar
adults, becoming more responsive towards the caregiver; following and
clinging are added to the range of behaviours. Clear-cut attachment
develops in the third pha, between the ages of six months and two
years. The infant's behaviour towards the caregiver becomes organid on a goal-directed basis to achieve the conditions that make it feel
cure.[19] By the end of the first year, the infant is able to display a range of attachment behaviours designed to maintain proximity. The
manifest as protesting the caregiver's departure, greeting the caregiver's
return, clinging when frightened and following when able.[20] With the development of locomotion, the infant begins to u the caregiver or caregivers as a safe ba from which to explore.[19] Infant exploration is greater when the caregiver is prent becau the infant's attachment system is relaxed and it is free to explore. If the caregiver is inaccessible or unresponsive, attachment behaviour is more strongly exhibited.[21] Anxiety, fear, illness and fatigue will cau a child to increa attachment behaviours.[22] After the cond year, as the child begins to e the carer as an independent person, a more complex and goal-corrected partnership is formed.[23] Children begin to notice others'goals and feelings and plan their actions accordingly. For example, whereas babies cry becau of pain,two-year-olds cry to summon their caregiver, and if that does not work, cry louder, shout or follow.[9]
Tenets
Common human attachment behaviours and emotions are adaptive. Human evolution has involved lection for social behaviours that make individual or group survival more likely. The commonly obrved attachment behaviour of toddlers staying near familiar people would have had safety advantages in the environment of early adaptation,and has such advantages today. Bowlby saw the environment of early adaptation as similar to current hunter-gatherer societies.[24] There is a survival advantage in the capacity to n possibly dangerous conditions such as unfamiliarity, being alone or rapid approach. According to Bowlby, proximity-eking to the attachment figure in the face of threat is the "t-goal" of the attachment behavioural system.[17]
The attachment system is very robust and young humans form attachments easily, even in far less than ideal circumstances.[25] In spite of this robustness, significant paration from a familiar caregiver —or frequent changes of caregiver that prevent the development of attachment —may result in psychopathology at some point in later life.[25] Infants in their first months have no preference for their biological parents over strangers. Preferences for certain people, plus behaviours which solicit their attention and care, are developed over a considerable period of time.[25] When an infant is upt by paration from their caregiver, this indicates that the bond no longer
depends on the prence of the caregiver, but is of an enduring nature.[9]
Early experiences with caregivers gradually give ri to a system of thoughts, memories, beliefs, expectations, emotions and behaviours about the
lf and others.Bowlby's original nsitivity period of between six months and two to three years has been modified to a less "all or nothing" approach. There is a nsitive period during which it is highly desirable that lective attachments develop, but the time frame is broader and the effect less fixed and irreversible than first propod. With further rearch, authors discussing attachment theory have come to appreciate that social development is affected by later as well as earlier relationships.[8] Early steps in attachment take place most easily if the infant has one caregiver, or the occasional care of a small number of other people.[25] According to Bowlby, almost from the first many children have more than one figure towards whom they direct attachment behaviour. The figures are not treated alike; there is a strong bias for a child to direct attachment behaviour mainly towards one particular person. Bowlby ud the term "monotropy" to describe this bias.[26] Rearchers and theorists have abandoned this concept insofar as it may be taken to mean that the relationship with the special figure differs qualitatively from that of other figures. Rather, current thinking postulates definite hierarchies of relationships.[8][27]
Early experiences with caregivers gradually give ri to a system of
thoughts, memories, beliefs, expectations, emotions, and behaviours about the lf and others. This system, called the "internal working model of social relationships", continues to develop with time an在线答疑
d experience.[28] Internal models regulate, interpret and predict attachment-related behaviour in the lf and the attachment figure. As they develop in line with environmental and developmental changes, they incorporate the capacity to reflect and communicate about past and future attachment relationships.[3] They enable the child to handle new types of social interactions; knowing, for example, that an infant should be treated differently from an older child, or that interactions with teachers and parents share characteristics. This internal working model continues to develop through adulthood, helping cope with friendships, marriage and parenthood, all of which involve different behaviours and feelings.[28][29] The development of attachment is a transactional process. Specific attachment behaviours begin with predictable, apparently innate, behaviours in infancy. They change with age in ways that are determined partly by experiences and partly by situational factors.[30] As attachment behaviours change with age, they do so in ways shaped by relationships. A child's behaviour when reunited with a caregiver is determined not only by how the caregiver has treated the child before, but on the history of effects the child has had on the caregiver.[31][32]
quicklyChanges in attachment during childhood and adolescence
Age, cognitive growth and continued social experience advance the development and complexity of the internal working model. Attachment-related behaviours lo some characteristics typical of the inf
ant-toddler period and take on age-related tendencies. The preschool period involves the u of negotiation and bargaining.[33] For example, four-year-olds are not distresd by paration if they and their caregiver have already negotiated a shared plan for the paration and reunion.[34]
Ideally, the social skills become incorporated into the internal working model to be ud with other children and later with adult peers. As children move into the school years at about six years old, most develop a goal-corrected partnership with parents, in which each partner is willing to compromi in order to maintain a gratifying relationship.[33] By middle childhood, the goal of the attachment behavioural system has changed from proximity to the attachment figure to availability. Generally, a child is content with longer parations, provided contact—or the
possibility of physically reuniting, if needed—is available. Attachment behaviours such as clinging and following decline and lf-reliance increas.[35] By middle childhood (ages 7–11), there may be a shift towards mutual coregulation of cure-ba contact in which caregiver and child negotiate methods of maintaining communication and supervision as the child moves towards a greater degree of independence.[33]
In early childhood, parental figures remain the centre of a child's social world, even if they spend sub
stantial periods of time in alternative care. This gradually lesns, particularly during the child's entrance into formal schooling.[35] The attachment models of young children are typically assd in relation to particular figures, such as parents or other caregivers. There appear to be limitations in their thinking that restrict their ability to integrate relationship experiences into a single general model. Children usually begin to develop a single general model of attachment relationships during adolescence, although this may occur in middle childhood.[35]
Relationships with peers have an influence on the child that is distinct from that of parent-child relationships, though the latter can influence the peer relationships children form.[9] Although peers become important in middle childhood, the evidence suggests peers do not become attachment figures, though children may direct attachment behaviours at peers if parental figures are unavailable. Attachments to peers tend to emerge in adolescence, although parents continue to be attachment figures.[35] With adolescents, the role of the parental figures is to be available when needed while the adolescent makes excursions into the outside world.[36]
Attachment patterns
Much of attachment theory was informed by Mary Ainsworth's innovative methodology and obrvati
onal studies, particularly tho undertaken in Scotland and Uganda. Ainsworth's work expanded the theory's concepts and enabled empirical testing of its tenets.[6] Using Bowlby's early formulation, she conducted obrvational rearch on infant-parent pairs (or dyads) during the child's first year, combining extensive home visits with the study of behaviours in particular situations. This early rearch was published in 1967 in a book titled Infancy in Uganda.[6] Ainsworth identified three attachment styles, or patterns, that a child may have with attachment figures: cure, anxious-avoidant (incure) and anxious-ambivalent or resistant (incure). She devid a procedure known as the Strange Situation Protocol as the laboratory portion of her larger study, to asss paration and reunion behaviour.[37] This is a standardid rearch tool ud to asss attachment patterns in infants and toddlers. By creating stress designed to activate attachment behaviour, the procedure reveals how very young children u their caregiver as a source of curity.[9] Carer and child are placed in an unfamiliar playroom while a rearcher records specific behaviours, obrving through a one-way mirror. In eight different episodes, the child experiences paration from/reunion with the carer and the prence of an unfamiliar stranger.[37]
Ainsworth's work in the United States attracted many scholars into the field, inspiring rearch and challenging the dominance of behaviourism.[38] Further rearch by Mary Main and colleagues at th
e University of California, Berkeley identified a fourth attachment pattern, called disorganized/disoriented attachment. The name reflects the children's lack of a coherent coping strategy.[39]
The type of attachment developed by infants depends on the quality of care they have received.[40] Each of the attachment patterns is associated with certain characteristic patterns of behaviour, as described in the following table:
