Secure and Insecure Attachment
We discover who we are through having intimate relationships with others. We learn how others feel about life and find out how to accept our differences. The emotional security and warmth derived from an initial close relationship with a loving parent provides us with a "home base" from which we can venture to take the risks that are inevitably part of a life of joy and accomplishment. In short, close, psychologically intimate relationships between babies and their caregivers are central to human life. The theory of attachment is about these relationships; how they are formed, what happens during the first intimate relationship with the nurturing parent, and what the consequences are for later development. …show more content…
“Not only because it enhances the likely hood of several in infancy but also because it optimizes adaptive personality development across the life span”, (Bowlby [1969] 1982, 1977a, 1977b).
A satisfying close relationship with a nurturing caregiver -- a secure attachment -- provides the base of operations from which a toddler can venture forth into independent activity. Throughout the life span, one continues to feel the rival tugs of closeness and autonomy. If we begin life with an experience of successful closeness, we are not only better able to create closeness in our relationships with friends and partners, but we are also more equipped to take the risks involved in having a sphere of separateness for