What is attachment theory?
Attachment Theory Attachment theory is a joint work of John Bowlby (1969, 1973, 1980, 1988) and Mary Ainsworth (Ainsworth, 1985; Ainsworth et al., 1978; Ainsworth & Bowlby, 1991). It came from two main ideas. Longing for a felt sense of security and connection with close others, especially in times of threat, risk, pain, or ambiguity, is hard-wired (Johnson, 2019). The other is that early interactional experience with key caregivers shapes one’s attachment style and one’s internal working models of self and others (Bowlby, 1969).
Early interactional experience with a primary caregiver helps an infant shape their internal working model of self and others, which forms their perceptions and expectations of self and others and guides one’s interpersonal responses. Through interaction, infants learn whether they are lovable and whether they can trust others to be accessible, responsive, and engaging in times of threat, stress, and ambiguity. These working models and the infant’s felt sense of security are determined by the infant’s perceived primary caregiver’s accessibility, responsiveness, and engagement.
Based on the strange experiment (Ainsworth et al., 1978), three basic attachment styles were identified in children when they responded to separation from their primary caregiver: secure, avoidant and anxious-ambivalent.
A secure attachment style develops when caregivers are warm and responsive to children. Children with a secure attachment style display confidence and calmness. They can view themselves as lovable, entitled to care, and rely on their caregiver. They could explore their surroundings with confidence that their caregivers will be available and responsive when they need them.
An avoidant attachment style occurs when children learn that their caregivers are not accessible and responsive to their attachment needs and longings. Children with an avoidant attachment style show very little emotion when their caregiver leaves or returns. They are less likely to rely on their caregiver and withdraw by focusing on toys and objects in the room.
An anxious-ambivalent attachment style occurs when children learn that their caregivers are less accessible, responsive, and engaged. Children with an anxious-ambivalent attachment style show separation distress when their caregiver leaves. When their caregiver returns, they tend to cling to their caregiver and are angry or panicking.
Ainsworth’s strange situation has high internal validity for a controlled setting but low external validity such that an artificial environment cannot be easily replicated to the real world. There is also a generalization issue as their samples were primarily white middle-class mothers and children. More cross-cultural field studies are required to understand attunement in different cultures.
Otto and Kelly (2014) pointed out that Bowlby and Ainsworth were reformers and theorists that emphasized the critical developmental importance of sensitive, warm and responsive childcaring for healthy child development in the western context. In West African farming communities coming from a collective culture, children do not have one primary attachment figure. Mothers may seem less responsive and accessible to the children than mothers of western White middle-class mothers, but the community helps take care of the children (Otto & Kelly, 2014).
cited from Jenny Hsuan Fang Hsu (2021). Emotionally Focused Therapy with Lesbian Couples.