The third part of the series - Individual Differences and Interpersonal Interactions ...
The concept of attachment styles extends
the notion of Freudian psychoanalytic thought that childhood experiences play a
significant role in adult life. Attachment is a strong emotional bond to a
significant other person. For an infant, the parents/caretakers become an
attachment figure.
To grow up mentally healthy, the
infant and the young child should experience a warm, intimate, and continuous
relationship with his/her mother or caretaker, in which both find satisfaction
and enjoyment. There are three different types of attachment styles that an
infant may develop – secure attachment style, avoidant attachment style, and
ambivalent attachment style.
The secure attachment style occurs when the parent is generally
available and responsive to the child’s needs. The child with a secure
attachment style feels supported and secure. The avoidant attachment style occurs when the parent is generally cool,
unresponsive, or even rejecting. The infant due to this becomes detached from
the caretaker. The avoidant attachment style makes the child to suppress
feelings of vulnerability and neediness. The ambivalent attachment style occurs when the primary caretaker does
not respond consistently to the infant’s needs. This makes the child to be
vigilant for threats and feel anxious or angry.
The attachment style developed in
childhood determines the interaction patterns for future relationships, when
the child grows up. Depending on the attachment style, the child may grow up to
be sociable and have healthy interpersonal interactions, or may become
distrustful of others, be aloof, and end up feeling lonely.
A child with secure attachment style
grows up into an individual who seeks closeness with others, and thus becomes
friendly and sociable. Such a person will most likely enjoy being with others,
develop long lasting friendships, and be trustworthy of others.
In contrast, a child with avoidant
attachment style grows up into an individual who becomes fearful in
relationships and tends to avoid closeness with others in order to avoid social
rejection. This avoidance in closeness may lead to an unfulfilled need for
intimacy. The person prefers to stay alone and end up feeling loneliness.
Likewise, a child with ambivalent
attachment style grows up to be a person who is emotionally distressed in
social interactions and expects the worst from others. The person becomes
highly distrustful of others Due to this the emotional needs of the individual
are not fulfilled and brings about a feeling of lack of intimacy, and could
also lead to loneliness.
It should be noted that an avoidant or ambivalent attachment style does not always necessarily mean that the parents or caretakers have not been good to their child. It could also be that the parents did their best, but somehow the child perceived their interactions to be in that manner.
The attachment theory further suggests that
poor attachment or inadequate parental care may lead to psychological disorders
in adulthood. Inadequate parental care may lead to the development of the anxious attachment pattern, which
involves insecurity and dependency, and makes the individual prone to phobias,
hypochondriasis, and eating disorders. Inadequate parenting may also lead to
the development of the pattern of emotional
detachment in which the individual feels serious deprivation of affection,
and makes the person prone to antisocial and hysterical personality disorders.
These attachment styles could further
determine four adult interactions
patterns. These four interaction patterns are based on two underlying
dimensions, which are positive versus negative evaluation of self and positive
versus negative evaluation of others.
People who have a positive evaluation of the self tend to assume that others will
respond positively, expect to be liked by others, which makes them feel
comfortable with others, and thus have satisfying relationships. People with a negative self-evaluation makes them
expect that others will be rejecting, which makes them feel anxious with
others, and therefore tend to avoid others.
Individuals who have a positive evaluation of others expect
that they will be comforting and supporting, and thus will they will seek close
relationships. Individuals who have a negative
evaluation of others will expect them to be unavailable and non-supportive,
which makes them tend to avoid people and be aloof.
People with positive evaluations of
self and others have positive and healthy interpersonal interactions; they are comfortable being around others. People with negative evaluations of self and others tend to have maladaptive
interpersonal interactions; they may not have long-lasting relationships, they
may always be distrustful, and be distant from others.
Therefore, early interactions with caretakers, in terms of the different attachment styles determine the nature of interpersonal interactions that individuals may have in their life. These differing interpersonal interactions are also manifested in the adult interaction patterns, which are often found to be a result of the attachment styles.
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