Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
According to Bowlby, proximity-seeking to the attachment figure in the face of threat is the "set-goal" of the attachment behavioural system. [33] Bowlby's original account of a sensitivity period during which attachments can form of between six months and two to three years has been modified by later researchers. These researchers have shown ...
Mary Ainsworth developed a theory of a number of attachment patterns or "styles" in infants in which distinct characteristics were identified; these were secure attachment, avoidant attachment, anxious attachment and, later, disorganized attachment. In addition to care-seeking by children, peer relationships of all ages, romantic and sexual ...
John Bowlby implemented this model in his attachment theory in order to explain how infants act in accordance with these mental representations. It is an important aspect of general attachment theory. Such internal working models guide future behavior as they generate expectations of how attachment figures will respond to one's behavior. [2]
Bowlby believed that there were four distinguishing characteristics of attachment. These included: 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 fear or threat.
Attachment theory can be conceptualized as a theory of emotional regulation. [25] [26] Bowlby predicted that insecure attachment would be a risk factor for mental health difficulties based on ineffective, or overly rigid, strategies for reducing distress and maintaining psychological resilience. [27]
Attachment theory has always recognized the importance of intimacy. Bowlby writes: Attachment theory regards the propensity to make intimate emotional bonds to particular individuals as a basic component of human nature, already present in germinal form in the neonate and continuing through adult life into old age. (Bowlby, 1988, pp. 120–121 ...
Four different attachment classifications have been identified in children: secure attachment, anxious-ambivalent attachment, anxious-avoidant attachment, and disorganized attachment. Attachment theory has become the dominant theory used today in the study of infant and toddler behavior and in the fields of infant mental health, treatment of ...
John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth developed a theory known as attachment theory after inadvertently studying children who were patients in a hospital at which they were working. Attachment theory explains how the parent-child relationship emerges and provides influence on subsequent behaviors and relationships.