Attachment Styles In Children

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Attachment is commonly referred to as an important developmental attribute in younger infants and children . It is a crucial bond formed between an individual and their primary care giver and according to Bowlby, it is critically important to the child that this bond is formed ( Cassidy, 1999). Bowlby emphasized the importance of the primary caregivers and the impact that they have upon a child. For example, if an infant fails to form a secure, affectionate attachment with the mother or main caregiver, then this can greatly impact upon the individuals later romantic relations later in life and can lead to the development of personality disorders (Emmelkamp & Timmerman, 2006). Many psychologist that have focused their attention into attachment …show more content…
This observation consisted of several controlled conditions aimed to spur a reaction out of the infant and observe how they react in such situations. The different patterns of attachment that were identified as a result of this study according to Ainsworth were the secure attachment, anxious-ambivalent and avoidant. These attachment styles then led to form the basis for most theorists to base their work …show more content…
(2011) conducted research into antisocial tendencies and gathered their data using a Relationship Scale Questionnaire to measure attachment using subjects from a prison in Bergen, Norway. This self-reported data produced results which showed that prison inmates scored highly on avoidance than on anxious attachment style. From these results, it can be inferred that due to the lack of caregiver sensitivity and low quality parenting, the individual developed the avoidant attachment style due to this factor showing it can pose a considerable impact on behaviour and attitude. When a child 's efforts to form an attachment is being consistently rejected and refused, there is potential for such reverberations to bring forth a negative impact upon the individuals life experiences, and according to Bowlby 's attachment theory, in order to function successfully on an emotional level children need a close and continuous relationship (Bretherton, 1992). If they do not form this essential internal working model for secure relationships it can posses the risk of making them volatile and socially distant which is implied by the results of this study. This research contributes to our understanding and knowledge of attachment in prisoners as it shows there is a correlation between attachment styles in explaining anti social personalities as the subjects participating in the study were then later convicted for violent crimes. Thanks to the contributions of Hansen et al. (2011),

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