Types of Attachment Styles: What’s Your Style?

Different methods of engaging and acting in intimate relationships define attachment styles. These attachment patterns focus on the interactions between young children and their parents in the early years.

In maturity, patterns of attachment in romantic relationships are described using attachment styles. The attachment theory and research that appeared in the 1960s and 1970s gave rise to the idea of attachment styles. Four primary attachment styles are now generally recognized by psychologists.

Attachment Meaning

Attachment is a special form of emotional relationship that involves sharing comfort, caring, and pleasure. Freud's ideas on love provide the basis for attachment study, but a different researcher is often credited with developing the concept.

John Bowlby conducted extensive research on the idea of attachment and described it as a "lasting psychological link between humans."

Bowlby agreed with the psychoanalytic theory that early events in childhood have a significant impact on subsequent development and behavior.

Childhood early attachment patterns are shaped by the caregiver/infant bond. Also, Bowlby thought that attachment had an evolutionary component and helped people survive.

Attachment Characteristics

According to Bowlby, attachment can be distinguished by four factors:

Proximity maintenance: The need to stay close to the individuals we are attached to is known as proximity maintenance.

Haven: Returning to the attachment figure because of fear or need for protection.

Secure basis: The attachment figure serves as the child's base of safety while they explore their surroundings.

Separation distress is anxiety that develops when an attachment figure is missing.

Additionally, Bowlby made three important claims regarding attachment theory. Secondly, he asserted that children are less likely to experience anxiety than those who are not nurtured with the sense that their primary carer will be there for them.

Second, he thought that the years of infancy, childhood, and adolescence—a crucial time for development—are when this confidence is developed. During the rest of the person's life, the expectations that are developed during that time tend to stay mostly intact.

He asserted that these developed expectations are directly related to experience. In other words, since their carers have historically exhibited responsiveness to their needs, children grow up with expectations that their carers will do the same for them.

Ainsworth's Strange Situation Evaluation

In her now-famous "Strange Situation" study, psychologist Mary Ainsworth built upon Bowlby's ground-breaking work from the 1970s.

Children between the ages of 12 and 18 months were observed in the study as they reacted to being momentarily separated from their mothers and then brought back together. The basic steps of Ainsworth's strange situation assessment were as follows:

• There is just a parent and child in a room.

• With the help of the parents, the child investigates the space.

• A stranger walks into the room, speaks with the parent, and then moves closer to the kid.

• Quietly leaving the room is the parent.

• The parent comes back and consoles the kid.

Based on his studies, Ainsworth concluded that there were three primary types of attachment: secure attachment, ambivalent-insecure attachment, and avoidant-insecure attachment.

The disorganized-insecure attachment style was introduced by researchers Main and Solomon as a fourth type of connection.

Several studies have backed up Ainsworth's findings, and more investigation has shown that these early attachment types can aid in the prediction of behaviors in later life.

Attachment Through Life

It's crucial to keep in mind that attachment styles developed throughout early childhood are not always the same as those displayed in adult love attachments before you start blaming your parents for relationship issues. Given the length of time between infancy and adulthood, intervening events also have a significant impact on adult attachment types.

Those who were regarded as ambivalent or avoidant as children may have securely attached personalities as adults, whereas people who had secure attachments as children may display insecure attachment behaviors as adults. Basic temperament is also believed to contribute somewhat to the attachment.

Secure Attachment Traits

Securely linked children typically show signs of distress when their caretakers depart and joy when their parents get home. These kids will turn to their parents or other adults for solace when they're scared.

Children who are securely attached are open to parental contact, and they behave positively when a parent returns. In the absence of a parent or carer, these kids can be somewhat consoled by others, but it's evident that they prefer their parents to others.

Parents of children with strong attachments are more likely to play with them. Also, compared to parents of children with insecure attachments, these parents respond to their children's needs more promptly and are generally more sensitive to them.

According to studies, kids who are securely linked develop more empathy as they get older. Also, these kids are said to be more mature, less disruptive, and less aggressive than kids with ambivalent or avoidant attachment styles.

Although it's expected and usual to develop a secure relationship with carers, Hazan and Shaver have noticed that it doesn't always happen. Researchers have identified a variety of factors, including a mother's attention to her infant's needs throughout the first year of a child's life, that affect the formation (or lack thereof) of secure attachment.

Infants born to mothers who are inconsistent in their responses or who interfere with their children's activities are likely to explore less, cry more, and be more anxious. Children who try to avoid contact are often the offspring of mothers who repeatedly reject or neglect their infant's needs.

Adults who are securely bonded typically need to form trusting, committed partnerships. High self-esteem, enjoyment of close connections, seeking out social support, and the capacity to communicate sentiments with others are further traits of those who are securely attached.

Women with secure attachment types felt better about their adult love relationships than women with insecure attachment styles, according to a study.

Ambivalent Attachment Characteristics

Youngsters who have ambivalent attachments are more likely to be wary of strangers. These kids show a lot of grief when they are removed from a parent or caretaker, yet they don't feel reassured or soothed when the parent comes back. In other instances, the youngster may publicly show blatant aggression towards the parent or may covertly reject the parent by denying comfort.

Just 7 to 15% of babies in the United States exhibit ambivalent attachment, according to Cassidy and Berlin, making it a very unusual attachment style.

Cassidy and Berlin also discovered that observational research consistently connects ambivalent insecure attachment to reduced maternal availability in their analysis of the ambivalent attachment literature. Teachers frequently describe these kids as being overly dependent and clingy as they get older.

Adults with an ambivalent attachment type frequently struggle with wanting to get close to others and worry that their spouse won't feel the same way about them. Because of how cold and distant the relationship feels, this results in frequent breakups.

Some people experience extreme grief when a relationship ends. Those with an avoidant attachment style sometimes struggle with closeness and intimacy. These people don't put a lot of emotion into relationships and don't get upset easily when one ends.

They frequently use justifications (such as long work hours) to avoid closeness or they could have sex fantasies involving other individuals. Those with an avoidant attachment style are also more accepting of and inclined to partake in casual sex, according to research. Additional traits include difficulty communicating feelings, thoughts, and emotions in relationships and a failure to support partners during trying times.

Disorganized Attachment Style Characteristics

There is a paucity of obvious attachment behavior in kids with disorganized-insecure attachment styles. They frequently exhibit a variety of behaviors in their actions and reactions to carers, including avoidance or resistance. These kids are regarded as seeming hazy and occasionally appearing uncertain or bewildered when a carer is around.

According to Main and Solomon, this attachment pattern may be influenced by the parents' inconsistent parenting. A chaotic attachment style, according to Main and Hesse's later research, is a result of parents who simultaneously serve as a child's source of fear and reassurance. Confusion occurs from the youngster feeling both soothed and frightened by the parent.

Lastly,

There is no doubt that our first connections with caretakers have an impact on development, even though adult love ties may not exactly resemble those in early childhood. You can have a better grasp of how early attachments may affect adult relationships by learning more about the function of attachment.