Topical Research on Attachment Theory of Psychology: An Analysis

This essay provides an overview of attachment theory in psychology, tracing its origins from the work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. It delves into Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Classification (SSC) to identify attachment behaviors in children, categorizing attachment patterns such as secure, avoidant insecure, ambivalent insecure, and disorganized-insecure attachments. The essay further applies the theory with insights from Harry Harlow's experiments on rhesus monkeys and Erik Erikson's psychosocial development stages, emphasizing the importance of emotional needs and socialization in child development. Ultimately, the essay concludes that understanding attachment theory enhances appreciation for the impact of early relationships on adult life, highlighting the crucial role of caregivers in fostering confidence and security in children.

Running head: PHILOSOPHY 1
Topical research on Attachment theory of Psychology
First Name Last Name
Course Code: Course Name
Instructor’s Name
Date of Submission

PHILOSOPHY 2
Topical research on Attachment theory of Psychology
Introduction
Research on attachment is guided by the assumption that essay motivation system gives
rise to the close emotional bond between parents and their children is responsible for their close
ties. As opined by Bacciagaluppi (2016), attachment refers to a special emotion connection
between people that involves an exchange of love, affection, care and comfort. The original
concept of attachment was coined by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth attempting to
understand the close bond parents have with their infants. The Attachment theory was brought
into light by describing it as a lasting psychological connections between human beings
(Goldberg, Muir & Kerr, 2013). The experiment was to show that early experiences in childhood
are critical for future development and behavior in life. The objective of the report is to provide
an overview of further research on this theory by use of Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
Classification (SSC), key theoretical ideas and the attachment behavior system in children
(Bretherton, 2016). Other than identifying the attachment behavior of children and their parents,
the report will utilize the same concept to assess the kind of attachment patterns among children.

PHILOSOPHY 3
Describe and Explain
In the opinion of Fonagy (2018), the original concept of attachment theory was John
Bowlby in the year 1969 along with Mary Ainsworth in an attempt to understand the intense
distress experience by infants separated from the parents. Much research in psychology has
focused on the different forms of attachment infants. However, most attachment theories revolve
around infants and young children, so psychologists need to identify subtle ways of researching
attachment styles by use of observational methods. As stated in the report of Bretherton (2016),
the theory of attachment was further explained by Mary Ainsworth famous Strange Situation
Study which involved conducting a test having children between the ages of 12 to 18 months and
recording their responses to a particular situation. In this situation the children where play left
alone and after some point of time reunited with their parents. Based on the observations,
Reijman, Foster & Duschinsky (2018), have mentioned about three major styles of attachment
that were identified namely avoidant insecure attachment, secure attachment and ambivalent
insecure attachment. The results highlighted few important pointers stating that the difference
between sensitive mothers and insensitive mothers and their behavior towards their child. Taking
cues from Bowlby’s attachment theory, it was identified that securely attached children showed
positive behavior about themselves, avoidant children think themselves as unworthy and
unacceptable due to the rejection from primary caregiver, and ambivalent children have a
negative outlook and exaggerate their emotions to seek attention. Along with Ainsworth’s three
majorly identified attachments, researchers Main and Solomon identified a fourth attachment
style known as the disorganized-insecure attachment (Fonagy, 2018). There have several studies
supporting the relevance of Ainsworth’s findings in predicting behaviors in children later in life.

PHILOSOPHY 4
Apply
There are several other research conducted on the primary attachment theory and the
Strange Situation Theory that has supported to draw relevant conclusions and revealed that this
only attachment styles can help predict the behaviors later in life. As stated by Davis (2018), the
experiments by Harry Harlow in the 1950s show the parents and children specifically on rhesus
monkeys. In his groundbreaking experiments he separated the baby monkeys from their mothers
after their birth and handed them to two surrogate mothers carrying milk. When was made out of
wire other one and the other one was covered with a cloth. In one part of the experiment, the
mesh wired covered mother could provide milk but the monkey chose not to go near it with the
same stimulus of not going to the wire mesh mother for comfort. This experiment showed that
the baby monkey choose to take milk from the cloth covered monkey which made it clear that
even they have attachment with their mothers and seek comfort from them. Moreover, from
Harlow’s experiment on rhesus monkey it can be analyzed that the establishment of bond
between the infant and the mother is not just dependent on satisfying psychological needs but
also satisfying emotional needs (Sullivan, 2017). As mentioned by Cherry (2017), parallel to the
original attachment theory, Erik Erikson's was based out of its original personality theories
which shows that a child has eight key stages of psychological development. He emphasized
more on the stages of development of children based on their socializing skills and how it effects
their sense of self. All these stage of development describes the development throughout the
entire lifespan from birth until death. As highlighted by Kalemi, Tzinakou, Kouroupaki &
Douzenis (2016), Erikson identified the term ‘identity crisis’ and considered it to be one of the
most important conflicting issue people feel in their development stages. Identity development
seems to have been on of the greatest concerns in Erikson’s theory as well as in his own life.

PHILOSOPHY 5
As suggested by Tough (2016), from these theories it can be understood that, teaching
children about how to manage their emotions will inculcate positive learning behavior and
confidence in them. For the future development of oneself, it is important to deal with emotional
ups and downs trusting and respectful relationship with others. In the case of developing
attachment, a child would need a caregiver who is sensitive to their emotions and patient to
secure attachment to develop.
Conclusion
The above observations and research can be concluded by stating that a better
understanding of the role of attachment can help an individual gain greater appreciation of life
and how earlier attachments may impact their adult relationships. These theories derive a
common conclusion that when children are raised by their primary caregiver with confidence,
they are less likely to experience fear than those who lack such attention and affection from their
caregivers. Also, children develop expectations due to the strong attachment with their caregivers
and eventually expect them to be responsive to their needs. Therefore the role of caregivers play
an important role in the development of a child from their initial stages. This can not only be
helpful for children but adults as well since they face more complex emotions. The theories will
provide better opportunities for caregivers and parents to understand their child’s emotions and
mold them accordingly to tackle the impacts in future.

PHILOSOPHY 6
References
Bacciagaluppi, M. (2016). Attachment Theory as an Alternative Basis of
Psychoanalysis. Attachment: New Directions in Relational Psychoanalysis and
Psychotherapy, 10(3), 211-220.
Bretherton, I. (2016). Revisiting Mary Ainsworth’s conceptualization an of maternal sensitivity-
insensitivity Revisiting Mary Ainsworth’s conceptualization and assessments of maternal
sensitivity-insensitivity. Maternal Sensitivity: Mary Ainsworth's Enduring Influence on
Attachment Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications, 18.
Cherry, K. (2017). Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development. Psychology.
Psychosocial Theories. Päivitetty, 14, 2017.
Davis, F. (2018). Touch: Communication of Emotion Through Computational Textile
Expression. In International Conference on Distributed, Ambient, and Pervasive
Interactions (pp. 292-309). Springer, Cham.
Fonagy, P. (2018). Attachment theory and psychoanalysis. 4th ed. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Goldberg, S., Muir, R., & Kerr, J. (Eds.). (2013). Attachment theory: Social, developmental, and
clinical perspectives. 2nd ed. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Kalemi, G., Tzinakou, G., Kouroupaki, D., & Douzenis, A. (2016). Identity disorders and
aggression. ENCEPHALOS, 53, 27-33.
Reijman, S., Foster, S., & Duschinsky, R. (2018). The infant disorganised attachment
classification:“Patterning within the disturbance of coherence”. Social Science &
Medicine, 200, 52-58.
Sullivan, R. M. (2017). Attachment figure's regulation of infant brain and
behavior. Psychodynamic psychiatry, 45(4), 475-498.

PHILOSOPHY 7
Tough, P. (2016). How kids learn resilience. The Atlantic, 317(5), 56-66.