AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -What Is Attachment? The central theme of attachment theory is that primary caregivers who are available and responsive to an infant’s needs allow the child to develop a sense of security. The infant learns that the caregiver is dependable, which creates a secure base for the child to then explore the world.

Detailed explanation-2: -In particular, attachment theory highlights the importance of a child’s emotional bond with their primary caregivers. Disruption to or loss of this bond can affect a child emotionally and psychologically into adulthood, and have an impact on their future relationships.

Detailed explanation-3: -Bowlby identified four types of attachment styles: secure, anxious-ambivalent, disorganised and avoidant.

Detailed explanation-4: -The theory of attachment was originally developed by John Bowlby (1907-1990), a British psychoanalyst who was attempting to understand the intense distress experienced by infants who had been separated from their parents.

Detailed explanation-5: -Bowlby’s evolutionary theory of attachment suggests that children come into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachments with others, because this will help them to survive. A child has an innate (i.e. inborn) need to attach to one main attachment figure. This is called monotropy.