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John Bowlby AND Mary Ainsworth: Attachment Theory

John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth developed attachment theory. Bowlby viewed attachment as an evolutionary process important for survival. Ainsworth identified secure, anxious-ambivalent, and avoidant attachment styles in infants using her Strange Situation experiment. She found infants develop these styles based on their caregiver's responsiveness. Bowlby believed early attachment experiences shape mental models that influence future relationships.

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305 views15 pages

John Bowlby AND Mary Ainsworth: Attachment Theory

John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth developed attachment theory. Bowlby viewed attachment as an evolutionary process important for survival. Ainsworth identified secure, anxious-ambivalent, and avoidant attachment styles in infants using her Strange Situation experiment. She found infants develop these styles based on their caregiver's responsiveness. Bowlby believed early attachment experiences shape mental models that influence future relationships.

Uploaded by

Maurine Dollesin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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JOHN BOWLBY

AND
MARY AINSWORTH
ATTACHMENT THEORY
•

JOHN BOWLBY
Attachment Theory
Biography
1. John Bowlby (1907-1990)
 Psychoanalyst in England
 Pioneered the study on Attachment Theory
 Influenced by evolutionary perspective especially by Konrad Lorenz
2. Mary Ainsworth (1919-1999)
 Lecturer and professor in the US and Canada
 Moved to England to continue her researches on Attachment Theory
Attachment
An emotional connection and the need for such
connection is a basic element of human experience.
The mothers (or other caregivers ) who are responsive to
the infant create a secure base for the child.
Features and functions of attachment

Proximity maintenance: Secure base: having a base


staying nearby from which to explore outward

Safe haven: turning for comfort and reassurance


Three stages of separation anxiety
Stage 1 – Protesting:
 In this stage of distress, a child will scream, cry, resist soothing and
display anger if their primary attachment figure leaves.
 Older children may even attempt to cling to the attachment figure in
an attempt to prevent them from leaving.
Stage 2 – Despair: 
 In this stage, the child appears to calm down.
 The opposite is actually true because the child begins to internalize the
feelings of being separated from their primary attachment figure.
 This causes the child to withdraw, refuse comfort, and may display
little interest in anything around them.
 They are quiet, passive, listless and apathetic.
Stage 3 – Detachment: 
 In this stage, the infant becomes emotionally detached from other
people including their caregiver.
 As they become older, they play and interact with others with little
emotion. Their interpersonal relations are superficial and lack
warmth.
Adult attachment
 Bowlby believes that bonding relationship (or lack thereof )becomes
internalized and serves as a mental working model on which their
future relationships are built.

The first bonding relationship is the most


critical of all relationships
Mary Ainsworth and the Strange Situation
Strange Situation
 Technique used by Ainsworth in measuring infant attachment
style between the mother or caregiver and the infant
 Infant is left in a room for a brief period of time with a stranger
then the mother leaves the room.
 The critical point here is how the infant behaves when the mother
returns.
Four distinct types of attachment
1. Secure attachment
 Shows normal distress when the mother leaves and happy enthusiasm
when the mother returns.
 Interacts quite willingly with the stranger, secure in the thought that
his/her mother will return,
 Mothers are responsive to infant and make appropriate replies to a
variety of infant actions.
Insecure attachment
2. Anxious ambivalent or resistant
 Becomes very distressed and upset when his or her mother
leaves the room
 Reaction to mother’s return is rejection and anger; babies tend
to show they are upset by making fuss as a form of protest as if
saying “don’t do that to me again”.
 Described as clingy and are at risk of being overly dependent and
prone to feeling of separation anxiety.
 Mothers are inconsistent, sometimes responsive and sometimes not.
3. Anxious Avoidant attachment
 Displays little emotion when the mother leaves the room and shows
little reaction upon her return .
 As adults likely to become withdrawn and socially isolated
 Mothers are distant and sometimes outright rejecting or neglectful.

4. Disorganized attachment style (recently identified)


 Infants who are totally confused by their surroundings.
 Results form being exposed to chaotic and abusive environments.
Work relationship
1. Ambivalent - unhappy with the recognition they get from work and
are insecure.
2. Avoidant – desire to keep busy with work and they socialize less
during leisure time and use work to escape their lack of relationships.
Adult relationship
 Secure would experience more trust, closeness and positive emotions in
their adult love relationships.
 Avoidant would fear closeness and lack of trust.
 Ambivalent would be preoccupied with and obsessed by their
relationships.

Attachment patterns and the five-factor model of McCrae and Costa.


 Avoidants are introverted
 Secure are extraverted
 Ambivalents are high in neuroticism or anxiety proneness

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