Importance Of Attachment Theory In The Personal Development Of A Child

In this piece of of essay, I will be demonstrating a clear understanding of the theories and concepts that determine physroligical and psychological development of an individual. I will then be discussing the key challenges and milestones faced by individuals. I will be considering the importance of this development for practitioners working with individuals and the role of the policy and legislation, I will also be adding some potential barriers and challenges to attachment and how to overcome then. I have chosen to talk about the attachment theory which I will back up with psychological theorist who studied the attachment theory. Towards the end I will be supporting my essay with a range of resources from books, journals and the internet.

Attachment theory is the study of how a child’s relationships with their parents or primary caregiver starting in infancy lay the foundation of a child’s relationships in adulthood (Ainsworth, 1973; Bowlby, 1969). The attachment theory argues that a strong, emotional and physical bond to one primary caregiver in a child’s first years of life, research shows that it is critical for a child to form some sort of attachment as it is healthier for their development (McLeod, 2017).

Attachment can often affect security which is the ability for the child to trust people around them, language development whether English is not their first language as well as the ability to make friends due to lack of self esteem when being brought up (Hughes, 2009).

‘’The propensity to make strong emotional bonds to particular individuals is a basic component of human nature already present in germinal form in the neonate’’ (Bowlby, 1988).

John Bowlby was a very well know theorist who was born on February 26, 1907 in London and died September the second in 1990 at the age of 83, Bowlby had an upper class childhood, he hardly saw his parents and most of the time he was looked after by a nanny, who was let go when he was just 4, Bowlby himself experienced separation from his caregiver who he formed a strong attachment with (David,2016).

When growing up Bowlby’s main psychologist influences were Sigmund, Freud Melanie Klein and Konard Lorenz he coined the term attachment and from there he focused his work on attachment.

The research of Bowlby’s theory of attachment suggested that when infants were put in a strange situation and separated from their parent’s/ caregiver they will usually react in one of three ways whether its securely, anxious or avoidant attached. (Fraley, 2010).

1. Securely attached is when a child shows separation anxiety as well as avoidant of the stranger alone, but friendly when mother is present and finally is also happy when mother returns.
2. Anxious ambivalent is when the child is intense distress when mother/ caregiver leaves the room, afraid of the stranger in the room, feels upset at mother for leaving and does not feel comfortable going far from mother.
3. However, avoidant is when the child does not feel distress when their mother/caregiver leaves the room, plays normally with the stranger, have little interest when mother returns and both mother and stranger are able to comfort the child equally (McLeod,2017). Later on, researchers added a fourth attachment style to the list which is the Disorganized-disoriented attachment style,
4. The Disorganized style is when the child shows relief when mother leaves the room, feels warmth with the stranger and gets sacred and upset when mother/ caregiver returns (Bowlby, 1988).

Bowlby separted his stages into four stages which are,

1. The first stage that a child would experience is the preattachment stage that starts from 0-2 months, at this stage the infant is unable to tell the difference between his/her mother and others.
2. The second stage is the attachment in the making that starts from 2-7 months at this stage the infant is able to recognise his/her parents but does not get upset when they are gone.
3. The third stage is the clear out attachment that starts from the age of 7 months to 4 years old. At this stage the child would develop separation anxiety or get upset when the mother or attachment figure leaves from the same room.
4. The fourth and final stage is the goal corrected partnership which starts from about 2 years onwards. At this stage the child understands that the parents will leave but come back as well as doesn’t get upset when the parent or caregiver leaves the room.

Nature can be defined as as biological influences on behaviour and nurture is the environmental influences on behaviour. Nature refers to what an infant is born with whereas nurture refers to how the child is brought up whether it’s the child’s environment, family background or education the child’s experiences. This nature and nurture debate has a few links in with John Bowlby’s theory, Bowlby strongly believed in the nature debate, he suggested that infants often get attached to their mothers but not because their mother offers love, warmth and care but because getting attached to a motherly figure is an innate sense which helps survival for every child.

The first barrier or challenge that I have identified is that, If the bonding between the child and mother/ caregiver is strong then the child would feel safe to explore the world around them, then they would know that there is always that safe base which they could return to anytime, on the other hand if the bond is weak then the baby would feel an insecurity attachment, then they are afraid to explore the world around them (McLeod,2017).

Mary Ainsworth also came up with a brilliant study idea called the ‘strange situation experiment that extended the work which was mentioned before (McLeod,2017). Mary Ainsworth work focused around eight main steps that children go though when being separated from their mother or care giver.

Her first step was for the child to be introduced to a playroom, the second step was for the mother and child/caregiver to sit together alone, the third step was for a stranger to enter the room and talk to the mother/caregiver, the fourth step was for the mother to leave the room this assessed the child’s separation anxiety. Then the fifth step was for the stranger to leave the room, the mum comes back looking for her child’s reaction, the sixth step mon leaves the child alone again to examine the child's separation anxiety the stranger re-enters and tries to comfort the child then finally the mother returns to the room offers comfort and tries to get child play with toys (Howe, 2011).

Mary Ainsworth three patterns of attachment were:

• Secure
• Insecure-avoidant
• Insecure – resistant/ambivalent

Another barrier to attachment is that, Children who are security attached are said to have a greater trust and are more successful in life. Whereas an insecurity attached child tend to miss trust people around them which could lead to lack of social skills and have problems performing relationships (McLeod,2017).

Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson (1964) focused their studies on 60 babies from working class areas in Glasgow, they were observing the children every four weeks for the first year and then again at 18 months, this study was taking part in the child’s home where they are familiar and comfortable in both theorists were studying the child’s interactions with their parents/ caregivers. To help both theorists identify the child’s attachment’s stages they would keep track of the child’s attachment development, the mother would keep a diary to examine the evidence for the development of attachment.

Schaffer and Emerson measured the strength of attachment by, Separation anxiety: how distressed the child became when separated from the main caregiver (which suggests an attachment has been formed) and the Stranger anxiety: this is when the child is distress is shown when they are left alone with an unfamiliar person (which suggests that the child can recognise familiar and unfamiliar people).

From carrying this research out, it showed that almost all of the children had formed many attachments by the age of 10 months, whether it was an attachment to the father, mother, sibilings or grandparnts, in the end the mother/ caregiver was always the main attachment figure.

There research also showed that when forming attachments its not about who feeds and takes care of the babies hygeineic needs but its about who communicates and plays with that baby.

Whereas Dolland and Miller 1950 disagreed and argued that ‘’An infant will initially form an attachment to whoever feeds it’’ Doolland and Miller studied there theory on the learning / behaviourst theory of attachment, they suggested that attachment is a set of learned behaviours. Supporting Dolland and Miller view of attachment was a known psychologist ‘Sigmund Freud’ he suggested that infants become attached to the mother because she was the one that satisfied the infant basic needs whether its hunger or thirst.

Harry Harlow was also a very well known American psychologist, he was best known for his separation and social isolation experiments on monkeys, which indicated the importance of care giving and association in social and cognitive development. In 1957 and 1963, Harlow removed the baby monkey from their mothers and provided them a choice between two surrogate mothers, the first one was made of terrycloth and the other of wire. From doing this experiment Harlow evidence clearly showed that warmth and comfort rather than food were more important in nurturing an attachment. The monkey did move to the wire but for only food then returned to the cloth mother as soon as he was full from eating (McLeod, 2017).

Evaluation

Overall, the attachment theory is critical to a child’s personal development which involves three main points strong, emotional and physical attachment to at least one primary caregiver. I have demonstrated a clear understanding of the theories and concepts that determine physroligical and psychological development of an individual.

Bowlby’ s theory of evolutionary had a great influence on the way that researchers thought about attachment, even though Bowlby may not debate that children form many attachments, he still resist that the attachment to the mother or caregiver is specialn especially in that it is the first to be shown and will always remain the powerful of all attachments that the child will form.

‘’Bowlby defined attachment as a 'lasting psychological connectedness between human beings.'’(1969, p. 194)

Schaffer and Emerson study suggested that attachments often start at 8 months, later on the the infants become attached to other people. At the age of 18 months their research suggested also suggested that 13% of infants had formed attachments to one person, whereas some infants had more than one attachements formed.

Most of the barriers and challenges that I came across links in with the child forming and bonding with their main attachment caregiver, research showed me that if the attachment between the mother and child is strong and positive then the child will become confident, energetic and is able to form relationships easily with people, whereas if the attachment is weak and negative then the child may face isolation, unable to form attachments, lack confidence and self esteem as well as lacking trust towards people around them.