Bowlby's Attachment Theory

Developmental psychology is concerned with human growth throughout the lifespan of an individual. Including how our characteristics change throughout our lifespan including horizontal and vertical relationships. Horizontal relationships are formed between people of the same age or the same status, whereas vertical relationships are attachments to those who have greater knowledge or social power e.g. a child and their parent. Schaffer (2007) stated that both horizontal and vertical relationships influence development in later life as vertical relationships provide children with security and protection enabling them to gain knowledge and skills whilst horizontal relationships have important contexts for development and learning. In this study
the central issue that is looked at is if our experiences during childhood, which include vertical relationships between parent and child, influence later life relationships. One theory which looks at the importance of both horizontal and vertical relationships is Bowlby’s (as cited in Wood et al., 2007) attachment theory.
The central subject of attachment theory is that primary caregivers who are responsive to an infant's needs allow the child to develop a sense of security. This allows the infant to know that the caregiver is dependable, which in return creates a secure base for the child to then explore the world. Bowlby also explained how early relationships would provide an Internal working model. Bowlby believed that this first relationship forms a schema that gives the child a feel for what a relationship is. The child then uses this in future years to develop other relationships and is important in determining the parenting skills in later life. For example, an individual who was deemed as being securely attached when they were a child has led them to have greater emotional and social stability as an adult, whereas an insecure attachment is most likely to lead to difficulties with later
relationships.
Mary Ainsworth expanded upon Bowlby's work through her study known as the "Strange Situation" (1978). This was devised by Ainsworth and Bell to measure the type of attachment that a child has formed, and how an attachment between a child and its caregiver will have an impact on their development through their life span. This involves observing children between the ages of 12 to 18 months responding to a situation in which they were briefly left alone and then reunited with their mother. Based on the observations made, Ainsworth concluded that there were three major styles of attachment: secure attachment (Free exploration and happiness upon mother’s return), ambivalent-insecure attachment (Little exploration, great separation anxiety, and an hesitant response to mother upon her return), and avoidant-insecure attachment (Little exploration and little emotional response to mother). Researchers Main and Solomon (1986) added a fourth attachment style known as disorganized-insecure attachment this is when a child may exhibit a mix of avoidant and resistant behaviours. They empathised the main themes as being confusion and anxiety. They believed that disorganized-insecure children are at risk for a variety of behavioural and developmental problems. Numerous studies have supported Ainsworth's conclusions and additional research has revealed that these early attachment styles can help predict behaviours later in life.

Main (as cited in Wood et al., 2007) focused on by devising a standardized form of interview of attachment styles.
It includes a set of questions exploring how adults described their childhoods mainly on the form of communication. Individuals with a secure and autonomous attachment style were able to acknowledge the importance of relationships and talk freely in depth about their past and present attachments whilst showing feelings, motives, and influences on the self. This illustrates Bowlby’s idea that open communication is one of the trademarks for secure attachment and that secure individuals have better integrated internal working
models.
In this report the researcher had an ontological assumption that humans can describe their attachments with meaning and it was best to conduct the research from an insider viewpoint. This report aimed to explore the theory of attachment by conducting thematic analysis of a transcript and a semi structured interview. This study aims to answer the research question: how do adults perceive that significant others in their lives (people who are or have been important) have affected their development?