R322-S106-PSYCH-The Attachment Theory: How Childhood Affects Life

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The Attachment Theory: How Childhood Affects Life

•May 31, 2018

Sprouts

The attachment theory argues that a strong emotional and physical bond to one primary caregiver in our first years of life is critical to our development. If our bonding is strong and we are securely attached, then we feel safe to explore the world. If our bond is weak, we feel insecurely attached. We are afraid to leave or explore a rather scary-looking world. Because we are not sure if we can return. Often we then don't understand our own feelings.


Dealing with Attachment Issues:

Dealing with Attachment Issues is no easy task. For those who feel like they can’t help themselves, or can’t find trust through their partners of family, we recommend looking for professional support through a therapy.

If you are able to form a secure attachment to a therapist, he can become the one who provides you with that secure base.

Here three of possible therapies:

1. Psychoanalysis. The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to release repressed emotions and experiences, i.e., make the unconscious conscious. In order to do that, the therapist might try to bring back some childhood memories, to work at the root cause of the problem.

2. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). CBT is a psycho-social intervention that is widely used for improving mental health. Instead of trying to bring you back in time, it aims to explain to you what's going on inside your brain and how to cope with irrational feelings or fears.

3. The Hoffmann Process. This 7-8 day's guided process, designed by the American psychologist Hoffmann, brings participants back into their childhood to reconnect with their parents at the time when an attachment is formed. It's very intensive.







Transcript:

Attachment Theory

The attachment theory argues that a strong emotional and physical bond to one primary caregiver in our first years of life, is critical to our development. If our bonding is strong and we are securely attached, then we feel safe to explore the world. We know there is always that safe base, to which we can return to anytime. If our bond is weak, we feel insecurely attached. We are afraid to leave or explore a rather scary-looking world. Because we are not sure if we can return.

People who are securely attached are said to have greater trust, can connect to others and as a result are more successful in life. Insecurely attached people tend to mistrust others, lack social skills and have problems forming relationships. There is one type of secure attachment and there are 3 types of insecure attachments: Anxious/Ambivalent , Anxious/Avoidant and Anxious/Disorganized. In responses to distress, the first 3 react organized, while the last acts disorganized.

To understand the theory better, let's look at Mr and Ms Smith, who have 4 children. Luka, Ann , Joe and Amy. The Smiths are lovely parents, who cuddle, make frequent eye contact, speak warm, and are always there for their kids. But one day Mr Smith falls very sick and dies. For Mrs Smith life now becomes very difficult. She spend all day working, while at the same time trying to care for her children. And impossible task.

At 6 years of age, Luka’s brain is for the most part developed, his character strong and his world view shaped. The new situation does not affect him much - he knows there still is always mom - his safe-haven. He feels securely attached. Later he turns into a trusting and optimistic young man. His self image is positive.

Ann, who is 3, has problems coping with the new lack of attention. To Ann, her mother now acts unpredictable. She is anxious about their relationship, and as a result becomes clingy. To get her mom’s attention, she has to raise her emotional state and scream. When her mom finally reacts with a predictable response, she herself acts ambivalent and doesn't show her true feelings. Later in life, others think Ann is unpredictable or moody. Her self image is less positive. Her attachment style Anxious Ambivalent.

2-year old Joe, spends his days with his uncle, who loves him, but thinks that a good education means being strict. If little Joe shows too much emotions or is too loud, his Uncle gets angry and sometimes punitive. This scares Joe. He learns that to avoid fear, he has to avoid showing his feelings - also in other situations. As an adult he continues this strategy and has problems to enter relationships. His image of himself is rather negative. His attachment is: Anxious Avoidant

Amy, who is just one year old, gets sent to a nursery. The staff there is poorly trained, overworked and often very stressed. Some are outright abusive. Amy therefore becomes anxious of the very people she seeks security from - a conflict which totally disorganizes her ideas about love and safety. As she is experiencing fear without resolution, she tries to avoid all social situations. As an adult she thinks of herself as unworthy of love. Her self image is very negative . He attachment is anxious disorganized

Our attachment is formed in the very first years of our lives, a time when we are too young to communicate our anxiety and as a result can experience high levels of stress. Then our adrenal gland - an organ sitting on top of our kidneys - produces the stress-hormones adrenaline and cortisol. The heart rate increases, the blood pressure goes up and we become alert. If that happens frequently, it is called toxic stress. Toxic, because it impairs the development of a child's brain, and weakens the immune system. In embryos or at a very young age, toxic stress can even switch the expressions of genes, which can affect our health many decades later.

By simulating a Strange Situation, we can assess an attachment style, already by the age of one. To do this, we let the child play with their mothers for a few minutes inside a room. Then the child is left alone. The key moment is the child's reaction when her mother returns. Securely attached children first usually hug their mother, then can calm down and eventually get back to playing. Insecurely attached children can be ambivalent and avoidant. Some can't stop crying or refuse to continue playing.

The long term effects of our attachment in the early years, are well documented. Using the theory, researchers at Minnesota University were able to predict already at age 3, if a child would dropout of high school with 77% accuracy. In another study, undergraduates at Harvard were asked to assess how close they felt to their parents. 35 years later they were ask about their health. 91% of those who said they had a rather broken relationship with their mother, were also diagnosed with health issues, including coronary artery disease, hypertension, and alcoholism. For those that had reported a warm relationship, the figure of poor health diagnosis was just 45%.

But there is another reason why the early years deserve special attention. They are the starting place for subsequent behaviors. A kid that feels securely attached at age 2, can make friends at kindergarten. Their worldview gets reinforced with every interaction and they develop optimism. As a result they make good relationships at school, then at colleague and later at work. Highly insecurely attached children can miss out on this opportunity.

Psychologist John Bowlby, a pioneer in attachment theory, allegedly said, “What cannot be communicated to the mother, cannot be communicated to the self.” In other words: those who feel insecurely attached, might not quite understand themselves. To get to know who they are and what they feel, they might have to go way back in time.




Sources:

Harvard Study

https://arizona.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/feelings-of-parental-caring-predict-health-status-in-midlife-a-35

Minnesota Study

Researchers at Minnesota University were able to predict by age 3, whether a child would out of high school was predicted with 77% accuracy
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2857405/
Jimerson, Egeland, Sroufe, & Carlson, 2000

Attachment Theory

https://www.psychologistworld.com/developmental/attachment-theory

Parental Caring Predicting Health Outcome

https://arizona.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/feelings-of-parental-caring-predict-health-status-in-midlife-a-35

Further Readings:

In our study, these attachment assessments were robustly related to later aspects of individual characteristics, such as dependence/independence, self-esteem, self-management and school achievement, and are consistent predictors of later social relationships, from engaging preschool play partners, to forming close friendships in middle childhood, negotiating the complexities of the mix-gender adolescent peer group, and dealing with the intimacy of adult romantic relationships (Sroufe et al., 2005b). When based on comprehensive, observational data, the linkages were at times quite strong (e.g., correlations of .50).
At times, these linkages demonstrate complex, heterotypic continuity, as when avoidant attachment in infancy predicts greater dependence on teachers and counselors in preschool and middle childhood (Sroufe, 1983 Urban et al., 1991), in accord with Bowlby’s (1973) theory. Thus, rather than concluding that dependency is unstable, as was done in the Fels report (Kagan & Moss, 1962), there is strong continuity from failure to form an effective attachment in infancy and dependency later.
At other times the findings illustrate the unique features of particular developmental issues. For example, our infant attachment measures predicted certain adolescent peer outcomes as strong or more strongly than they predicted to middle childhood. The links were especially notable for certain emotional features of relationships, such as the capacity to experience vulnerable feelings (Sroufe, Egeland, & Carlson, 1999). We interpret this in terms of the salience of core issues of emotional closeness and trust in both infancy and adolescence.
Finally, at times predictions from infant attachment were uniquely strong. Disorganized attachment in infancy, the most anomalous attachment pattern, was related to numerous indicators of psychopathology in adolescence and adulthood, often beyond any other measure in the first years of life (with correlations in the .40 range; Carlson, 1998). Disorganized attachment has been proposed and confirmed to be predicted by frightening parental behavior (Abrams, Rifkin, & Hesse, 2006; Main & Hesse, 1990; Jacobvitz, Hazen, & Riggs, 1997; Schuengel, Bakermans-Kranenburg, & van IJzendoorn, 1999). When the parent is simultaneously the source of fear and the available “haven of safety” the infant faces an impossible dilemma that can only be resolved by segregating experience and by a collapse of behavioral organization. Liotti (1992) reasoned that these were micro-dissociative experiences, serving as a prototype for later dissociation. As predicted, it was related in our data to dissociative symptoms at multiple time points (Carlson, 1998). Likewise, in our study we found that infant disorganized attachment was an early predictor of young adult self-injurious behavior (Yates, 2005). We now find that disorganized attachment is related to adult borderline personality disorder symptoms more generally (Carlson, Egeland, & Sroufe, 2009).
Consider first, for example, the association between attachment relationship variation in infancy and later school achievement or dropping out of school. As with other associations, both of these outcomes were stronger when the predictor was the early care composite. By age 3 years dropping out of high school was predicted with 77% accuracy (Jimerson, Egeland, Sroufe, & Carlson, 2000).


Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjOowWxOXCg/https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v82PcEvf_G2iolc5ejPY5dQ2RtqU1Vj9V5L_iIKWUhk/edit