What Is Attachment Theory?

Attachment is generally defined as a special relationship between a baby and its caregiver (usually a mother). It arises from the interaction between a baby and its parents. It is an emotional connection and bond. As a result, the original researchers focused their attention on how attachment and maternity relationships enrich and change as infants grow. At present, researchers generally believe that attachment is an important aspect of human adaptation to survival, because it not only improves the possibility of infant survival, but also constructs the characteristics of infant lifelong adaptation, and helps infants to develop better for life.

Chinese name: Attachment theory
Foreign name: Attachment Theory

Applied discipline: psychology
Application range: Developmental psychology

Emergence and development of attachment theory

Attachment theory was first proposed by British psychiatrist John Bowlby. In 1944 he conducted a study of 44 teenage thieves, which for the first time stimulated his interest in studying mother-child relationships. He then conducted a series of "mother deprivation" studies and pointed out that in the first few years of personal life, extending the time spent in public institutions and / or frequently changing the main caregiver has a negative impact on personality development. In 1969, the first of Bowlby's three important works on attachment was introduced, which expounded the connection between infants and caregivers. This view has epoch-making significance: Attachment does not come from the feeding behavior of mothers and the driving force of humanity. It is a part of the living system. Although it exists throughout the life, it is most obvious in early childhood. Children can only effectively explore their surroundings by using their parents as a safety base. If the infant does not seek and maintain closeness to the caregiver, this helpless human infant will die.

Since the intensive study of attachment by Bowlby in the 1960s, until now, the study of attachment has gone through three stages of development: the first stage, from the 1960s to the middle of the 1970s, was the stage of putting forward the concept of attachment and establishing the theoretical framework; The two stages, from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, were the most active areas in the study of Western children's socialization process due to the development of measurement tools. Deepen the research on attachment itself, and began to conduct cross-cultural research at the same time; the third stage from the late 1980s to the present is the stage of in-depth research on the psychological mechanism of attachment, such as the longitudinal study of children of different ages outside infancy Horizontal research on the interrelationship between attachment and other psychological processes and the neuropsychological mechanism of attachment; attachment on the development of psychopathology research and cross-cultural research on attachment and many other works.

Types of attachment theory

A major advance in attachment research comes from Ainsworth's recognition that the important difference between individuals in attachment relationships is the safety or insecurity of attachment. So she and her colleague (1978) designed a strange situation test to assess the safety of a one-year-old baby's attachment to its mother.

An unfamiliar situation test is an experimental toy room that observes the behavior and reactions of a baby, a caregiver (mostly a mother), and a friendly but unfamiliar adult in a range of situations. The key to this procedure is the standard sequence in which infants are separated and reunited with each adult. In the eight scenarios designed, the children experienced increasing levels of sorrow and greater need for closeness, and the entire process took about 20 minutes. The extent to which children need to be satisfied and the methods used are considered to indicate the quality of attachment. At first, mothers and children were invited to enter a comfortable laboratory with appropriate toys. When the children were quiet and started playing with toys, strangers joined. Later, mothers left, strangers got along with children, In situations such as when the mother returns, the stranger leaves, the mother leaves, and the child is left alone, the child's reaction is recorded with a videotape. Afterwards, attachments were categorized by assessing children's exploratory behavior, propensity to caregivers and strangers, and their response to mothers when they reunited after a simple separation based on the videotape records. Although all children's behaviors need to be considered, the behavior of reunion has the most significant significance when distinguishing the types of attachment.

Ainsworth's Strange Situation Test divides infant attachment relationships into three categories:

Full attachment (Secure). This kind of child can comfortably play with toys when he is with his mother. He is not always attached to his mother. When the mother is gone, he obviously shows distress. When the mother comes back, she will immediately seek contact with the mother, and soon calm down and continue to play games;

Insecure attachment, insecure-avoidant. These children have no nervousness or anxiety when the mother is gone. When the mother comes back, they also ignore or briefly approach and walk away, showing neglect and avoidance behavior. The comfort of strangers in this category is no different from that of mothers;

Insecure attachment and resistance (insecure-ambivalent). These children show strong resistance to the mother's departure. The mother returns and seeks contact with the mother, but at the same time shows resistance, even anger, and can no longer play games. However, in actual work, it is also found that some children's behavior does not meet any of the above three types, and these children have been affected by

The experience of abuse and neglect, so Crittenden (1988) proposed another type of attachment: insecure attachment, insecure-disorganized, this kind of children show indifference to the mother.

In Ainsworth's original research, about 65% of children were securely attached, 21% were unsafe and avoidant, and 14% were resistant. Later, 39 studies on attachment types among 2,000 children in 8 countries found that although there were some cultural differences, the distribution of attachment types was almost the same as that of Ainsworth's study. Ruptured unsafe attachments account for about 4%. Bowlby believes that the type of unsafe attachment is relatively stable and long-term preservation, but it can change with the surrounding environment. ^[1]

Important Concepts of Attachment Theory

Attachment theory

Attachment behavior system is an important concept in attachment theory. In Ballby's view, the attachment system essentially "questions" such fundamental questions as: Is the person to be attached nearby? Does he accept me? Does he care about me? If the child perceives the answer to this question as "yes", the child will feel loved, safe, confident, and will engage in exploring the surrounding environment, playing with others, and communicating. However, if the child perceives the answer to this question as "No", the child will experience anxiety and show various attachment behaviors: from searching with eyes to actively following and shouting. These behaviors will continue until the child re-establishes sufficient levels of physical or psychological closeness to the person with whom he or she is attached, or until the child is "exhausted", which may occur in a situation of long-term separation from the mother or a "missing" mother . Ballby believes that children will experience disappointment and depression in this helpless situation.

Attachment theory

The so-called attachment strategy is what kind of methods an individual will take when seeking an attachment relationship. Attachment strategies include primary attachment strategies and secondary attachment strategies.

The primary attachment strategy is that an individual can actively seek help when encountering a problem or needing assistance. For example, we can look for help from our friends for better adaptation. When we are depressed, we may find a friend to talk to, get his support and so on.

The secondary attachment strategy is when the primary attachment strategy is no longer effective, or when the individual's attachment is activated, and the attachment target does not respond, the individual has to find other attachment strategies. We often encounter such an environment in the psychological development from infants to adults. For example, an insensitive mother may have problems with the formation of individual attachment strategies. At this time, children often show two types of attachment response. One is excessive attachment: that is, the individual does not give up his attachment in an attempt to seek intimacy, but strengthens the attempt to approach it more violently, until the attention or response of the attachment object is obtained . The other is inactive attachment: the individual eventually abandons the attempt to seek attachment, and evades the attachment by passive defenses such as diversion.

According to the latest research, this may happen to everyone. The only difference is that some people will become more accustomed to adopting the latter two methods, so as to constitute the dilemma of interpersonal relationships in their lives. The reason for this habit is directly related to his childhood experience.

Attachment Security Base

Attachment theory believes that our psychological stability and healthy development depend on whether our psychological structure center has a safe base. As mentioned earlier, people have a need for attachment. The object that can be attached must be an important person that can be trusted and can provide us with support and protection. When we were very young, this security base was more borne by mothers. If the mother is a "good enough" mother, the safety base that the mother serves will be internalized into the safety base of the child, and the child will have an inherent sense of security when he grows up. What if there is no "good enough" mom? Then, as a child, they began to show certain characteristics, such as simply not wanting a mother, and when the mother came back, they would not bother to care about her. They pay more attention to their intellectual activities and have less emotional reactions (suppressed); or they behave very Contradictions, it seems to be close to mom, but mom is close to hug them, and struggling to leave, it seems to have a lot of anger, emotional swing, lack of rationality to mom. All of this is because they did not obtain the security foundation from their mothers, so they either developed a compulsive self-reliance, or they wanted their mothers without trusting them.

Internal working model of attachment theory

Ballby believes that infants form an "internal working model" of interpersonal relationships. If a child experiences love and trust in early relationships, he will feel that he is cute and trustworthy. However, if the child's attachment needs are not met, he will form a bad impression of himself. "An unpopular child not only feels that he is not welcomed by his parents, but also believes that he is basically not welcomed by anyone. On the contrary, when a child grows up, he believes not only that his parents love him, but also that others find him cute. "

The "internal working mode" formed by the individual in the early stage plays a leading role in establishing close relationships. Infants' mothers or caregivers have different ways of treating babies, such as sensitivity to the needs of the babies, neglect, etc., all will have some effect on the baby's psychology. Infants form adult expectations in this interaction with their caregivers every day. This expectation gradually develops into an "internal working model" that internalizes the relationship between the object of attachment and themselves and their relationship. The internal representation finally turns into an unconscious, automated operation. Once this behavior pattern is formed, it has a strong tendency to maintain self-stability, and will play a role in the subconscious mind of the behavior subject (infant). This behavior pattern will affect children's various social interpersonal relationships (such as mother-child relationships, teacher-student relationships, peer relationships, etc.), and will also have long-term effects on their interpersonal relationships and marriage relationships in adulthood. Therefore, the "internal work model" is essentially a stable understanding of children about self, important others, and interpersonal relationships. This "internal working mode" mainly operates in an unconscious manner, and once established, it tends to be permanent. It determines the way children behave and becomes the frame of reference for future interpersonal relationships. With age, individuals tend to use their own "internal work model" to understand new information. This is how early experience works for individuals' future development. It will guide individuals to think about how they should be treated and Attention, how to trust and support others, how to pay attention to the needs of others, and communication strategies in intimate relationships. Projected on other people who have a close relationship with them. ^[2]

Adult attachment theory

Until the mid-to-late 1980s, most of the research on attachment theory was confined to the field of children's studies. It was not until 1987 that the joining of personality and social psychologists allowed the research on attachment to reach the adult stage. The typical signs are Hazan and Shaver published a paper entitled "Romantic Love Can Be Viewed as an Attachment Process". They believe that the three types of attachment proposed by Ainsworth et al. Can also be applied to adult love. Therefore, they built a simple self-reporting scale based on Ainsworth et al.'S description of infant attachment patterns. In this measurement, the subjects asked to pick one of three descriptions of the type of attachment that best reflected their feelings and thoughts often in love. For example, the description of the security type is characterized by trusting the other person and likes to keep close, while the avoidance description is lack of trust and likes to maintain an emotional distance from the other person. , There is a strong, but not very satisfied, desire to be close to each other. Since then, a scale for adult attachment has continued to emerge, which has greatly promoted research progress in this field.

Attachment types for adults

Studies have shown that the characteristics of attachment shown in childhood children will still be revealed in adulthood, so adults should also have the same classification of attachment types as children.

A-Avoidance: Being close to others makes me feel a little uncomfortable; I find it difficult to fully trust and rely on them. I get nervous when others are too close to me, and I feel uncomfortable if others want me to be closer. About 20% of the population

B-Safety: I find it not difficult to be close to others, and to be able to depend on others and make others dependent on me with peace of mind. I don't worry about being abandoned by others, nor are they too close to me. About 60% of the population

C-Anxiety-Contradictory: I find others unwilling to be as close to me as I hope. I often worry that my partner doesn't really love me or doesn't want to be with me. I want to be very close to my partner, which sometimes scares people away. About 20% of the population

The proportions of these three types of adults are well matched with the infant's safety, avoidance, and anxiety-ambivalence ratios. This research also supports the point of view of the new Freudian theory: traces of his childhood experience can be found in adult behavior. ^[3]