Know Yourself, Understand Your Attachments, and Nurture Deeper Connections. Free Quiz. Learn How Early Foundational Interactions Shape Our Ability To Connect with Others.
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The third attachment style identified by Ainsworth (1970) was insecure ambivalent (also called insecure resistant). Here children adopt an ambivalent behavioral style towards the attachment figure. The child will commonly exhibit clingy and dependent behavior, but will be rejecting of the attachment figure when they engage in interaction.
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attachment styles. -patterns of caregiving that teach us who we and others are, and how to approach relationships. secure attachment style. -is facilitated when the caregiver responds in a consistently attentive and loving way to the child. -In response, the child develops a positive sense of self-worth ("i am lovable") and a positive view of ...
- Overview
- What Is Attachment?
- Characteristics of Attachment
- Ainsworth's Strange Situation Assessment
- Attachment Through Life
- Secure Attachment Characteristics
- Ambivalent Attachment Characteristics
- Avoidant Attachment Characteristics
- Disorganized Attachment Characteristics
- Take the Attachment Style Quiz
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Attachment styles are characterized by different ways of interacting and behaving in relationships. During early childhood, these attachment styles center on how children and parents interact. In adulthood, attachment styles describe attachment patterns in romantic relationships.
The concept of attachment styles grew from attachment theory and the research that emerged throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Today, psychologists typically recognize four main attachment styles: secure, ambivalent, avoidant, and disorganized.
At a Glance
Attachment is a special emotional relationship that involves an exchange of comfort, care, and pleasure. The roots of research on attachment began with Freud's theories about love, but another researcher named John Bowlby is usually credited as the father of attachment theory.
John Bowlby devoted extensive research to attachment, describing it as a "lasting psychological connectedness between human beings." Bowlby shared the psychoanalytic view that early experiences in childhood are important for influencing development and behavior later in life.
Our early attachment styles are established in childhood through the infant/caregiver relationship.
In addition to this, Bowlby believed that attachment had an evolutionary component; it aids in survival. He believed that this propensity to make strong emotional bonds with specific individuals was an essential part of human nature.
Bowlby believed that there are four distinguishing characteristics of attachment:
•Proximity maintenance: The desire to be near the people we are attached to.
•Safe haven: Returning to the attachment figure for comfort and safety in the face of a fear or threat.
•Secure base: The attachment figure acts as a base of security from which the child can explore the surrounding environment.
During the 1970s, psychologist Mary Ainsworth further expanded upon Bowlby's groundbreaking work in her now-famous "Strange Situation" study. The study involved observing children between the ages of 12 to 18 months responding to a situation in which they were briefly left alone and then reunited with their mother.
Ainsworth's Strange Situation Assessment followed this basic sequence:
1.The parent and child are alone in a room.
2.The child explores the room with parental supervision.
3.A stranger enters the room, talks to the parent, and approaches the child.
4.The parent quietly leaves the room.
Later Experiences Matter, Too
It's important to remember that a lot of time has elapsed between infancy and adulthood. All of those intervening experiences also play a significant role in shaping adult attachment styles. Those described as ambivalent or avoidant during childhood can become securely attached as adults, while those with a secure attachment in childhood can show insecure attachment patterns in adulthood. Basic temperament is also thought to play a partial role in attachment. So what role might factors such as divorce or parental discord play in forming attachment styles? In one study, researchers found that parental divorce seemed unrelated to attachment style. Instead, their research indicated that the best predictor of adult attachment style was the perceptions that people have about the quality of their relationships with their parents as well as their parent's relationship with each other. However, research in this area indicates that childhood patterns have an important impact on later relationships. The researchers also found varied beliefs about relationships amongst adults with differing attachment styles.
How People With Different Styles View Love
Securely attached adults tend to believe that romantic love is enduring. Ambivalently attached adults report falling in love often. Avoidantly attached adults describe love as rare and temporary. While we cannot say that early attachment styles are identical to adult romantic attachment, research has shown that early attachment styles can help predict behavior patterns in adulthood. Subsequent research does suggest that parental divorce or abandonment does have an impact on adult children's attachment styles. Parental divorce or abandonment is linked to more negative feelings about romantic relationships as a higher likelihood of having an anxious and avoidant attachment style.
Children who are securely attached generally become visibly upset when their caregivers leave and are happy when their parents return. When frightened, these children will seek comfort from the parent or caregiver.
Securely attached children readily accept contact initiated by a parent, and they greet the parent's return with positive behavior. While these children can be comforted to some extent by other people in the absence of a parent or caregiver, they clearly prefer parents to strangers.
Parents of securely attached children tend to play more with their children. Additionally, these parents react more quickly to their children's needs and are generally more responsive to their children than the parents of insecurely attached children.
Studies have shown that securely attached children are more empathetic during later stages of childhood. These children are also described as less disruptive, less aggressive, and more mature than children with ambivalent or avoidant attachment styles.
While forming a secure attachment with caregivers is normal and expected, as Hazan and Shaver have noted, it doesn't always happen. Researchers have found a number of different factors that contribute to the development (or lack thereof) of secure attachment, particularly a mother's responsiveness to her infant's needs during the first year of a child's life.
Mothers who respond inconsistently or who interfere with a child's activities tend to produce infants who explore less, cry more, and are more anxious. Mothers who consistently reject or ignore their infant's needs tend to produce children who try to avoid contact.
Children who are ambivalently attached tend to be extremely suspicious of strangers. These children display considerable distress when separated from a parent or caregiver but do not seem reassured or comforted by the parent's return.
In some cases, the child might passively reject the parent by refusing comfort or may openly display direct aggression toward the parent.
According to some older research, ambivalent attachment is relatively uncommon, with only 7% to 15% of infants in the United States displaying this attachment style.
In a review of ambivalent attachment literature, Cassidy and Berlin also found that observational research consistently links ambivalent insecure attachment to low maternal availability. As these children grow older, teachers often describe them as clingy and over-dependent.
Children with avoidant attachment styles tend to avoid parents and caregivers. This avoidance often becomes especially pronounced after a period of absence.
These children might not reject attention from a parent, but neither do they seek out comfort or contact. Children with an avoidant attachment show no preference between a parent and a complete stranger.
Children with a disorganized-insecure attachment style show a lack of clear attachment behavior. Their actions and responses to caregivers are often a mix of behaviors, including avoidance or resistance.
These children are described as displaying dazed behavior, sometimes seeming either confused or apprehensive in the presence of a caregiver.
Researchers suggest that inconsistent behavior on the part of parents might be a contributing factor in this attachment style. Parents who act as figures of both fear and reassurance to a child contribute to a disorganized attachment style.
Because the child feels both comforted and frightened by the parent, confusion results.
If you're unsure about your attachment style, this fast and free quiz can help you identify what your thoughts and behaviors may say about your attachment.
Oct 7, 2024 · Attachment styles are characteristic patterns for how people relate to others in close relationships. According to attachment theory, these styles are heavily influenced by early bonds with caregivers. The 4 styles of attachment that researchers have identified are secure attachment, anxious attachment, avoidant attachment, and fearful anxious ...
Mar 9, 2022 · Ambivalent attachment style (resistant or anxious attachment) is an insecure attachment style that significantly impacts child development and relationships in adulthood. Anxious ambivalent attachment style develops during early childhood due to inconsistent caregiving. Fluctuating levels of caregiving cause children to feel unworthy of love ...
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Jeremy, an infant, starts wailing as soon as his mother puts him in his crib. He often shows signs of anger when she returns and refuses to come to her. Sometimes, he clings to his mother and does not let her work. In the context of attachment styles in infants, Jeremy is displaying__. ambivalent/resistant attachment.
