ATTACHMENT
STYLES
CONTEXTUAL DEFINITION
• Attachment is a special emotional relationship
that involves an exchange of comfort, care, and
pleasure.
• Attachment is a deep and enduring emotional
bond that connects one person to another across
time and space (Ainsworth, 1973; Bowlby, 1969).
• Attachment is characterized by specific behaviors
in children, such as seeking proximity to the
attachment figure when upset or threatened
(Bowlby, 1969).
CHARACTERISTICS
1. Proximity Maintenance
– The desire to be near the people we are attached
to.
2. Safe Haven
– Returning to the attachment figure for comfort
and safety in the face of a fear or threat.
3. Secure Base
– The attachment figure acts as a base of security
from which the child can explore the surrounding
environment.
4. Separation Distress
– Anxiety that occurs in the absence of the
attachment figure.
THREE KEY COMPOSITIONS
1. When children are raised with confidence.
2. Confidence is forged during a critical period
of development, during the years of infancy,
childhood, and adolescence.
3. Expectations that are formed are directly tied
to experience.
STAGES OF ATTACHMENT
1. Pre-attachment stage
– From birth to three months.
2. Indiscriminate attachment
– From around six weeks of age to seven months.
3. Discriminate attachment
– From about seven to eleven months of age.
4. Multiple attachments
– After approximately nine months of age.
PATTERNS OF ATTACHMENT
SECURE ATTACHMENT
• The majority (55% to 65%) of infants
demonstrate secure patterns of attachment,
considered the optimal attachment
classification.
• Marked by distress when separated from
caregivers and joy when the caregiver returns.
SECURE ATTACHMENT
CHARACTERISTICS
As Children As Adults
• Are able to separate from • Have trusting, lasting
parent relationships
• Seek comfort from parents • Tend to have good self-
when frightened esteem
• Greets return of parents • Are comfortable sharing
with positive emotions feelings with partners and
• Prefers parents to strangers friends
• Seek out social support
AMBIVALENT ATTACHMENT
• About 10% to 15% of infants demonstrate
resistant attachment patterns with their
caregiver.
• Usually become very distressed when a parent
leaves.
• A result of poor maternal availability.
AMBIVALENT ATTACHMENT
CHARACTERISTICS
As Children As Adults
• May be wary of strangers • Reluctant to become close
• Become greatly distressed to others
when parents leave • Worry that their partner
• Do not appear comforted does not love them
when parents return • Become very distraught
when relationships end
AVOIDANT ATTACHMENT
• About 20% to 25% of infants demonstrate
avoidant attachment patterns with their
caregiver.
• Tend to avoid parents or caregivers.
• When offered a choice, these children will
show no preference between a caregiver and
a complete stranger.
AVOIDANT ATTACHMENT
CHARACTERISTICS
As Children As Adults
• May avoid parents • May have problems with
• Do not seek much contact intimacy
or comfort from parents • Invest little emotion in
• Show little or no preference social and romantic
for parents over strangers relationships
• Unwilling or unable to share
thoughts or feelings with
others
DISORGANIZED ATTACHMENT
• There is a group of infants (15% to 20%) who
do not fit into Ainsworth’s original three-
category scheme. Mary Main, another
influential attachment researcher, added a
fourth category to include these infants.
• Often display a confusing mix of behavior and
may seem disoriented, dazed, or confused.
• Children may both avoid or resist the parent.
DISORGANIZED ATTACHMENT
CHARACTERISTICS
At Age 1 At Age 6
• Show a mixture of avoidant • May take on a parental role
and resistant behavior • Some children may act as a
• May seem dazed, confused, caregiver toward the parent
or apprehensive
REFERENCES
• Cherry, K. (2019, March 31). The Different Types of
Attachment Styles. Retrieved from verywellmind:
https://www.verywellmind.com/attachment-styles-
2795344
• Cherry, K. (2019, March 17). The Story of Bowlby,
Ainsworth, and Attachment Theory. Retrieved from
verywellmind: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-
attachment-theory-2795337
• NA. (2010, May 10). Attachment part two: Patterns of
attachment. Retrieved from AboutKidsHealth:
https://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/Article?contentid=740&la
nguage=English
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