Types of emotional attachment and their characteristics

There are different types of emotional attachment that determine the way we relate to others, from the choice of our partner to how our relationships progress. For this reason, recognizing our attachment style can help us understand our strengths and weaknesses in relationships. Attachment is established in childhood with our parents or caregivers and continues to evolve into adulthood as a working model for relationships.

Currently, psychologists recognize 4 main types of attachment that have different consequences throughout our lives. In this Psychology-Online article, we explain the types of emotional attachment and their characteristics.

Index

1. what is attachment
2. Infant attachment and its consequences
3. secure attachment
4. ambivalent attachment
5. avoidant attachment
6. disorganized attachment

Attachment is a special emotional relationship that involves an exchange of comfort, care, and pleasure. The study of attachment has its origin in Freud's theories on love, but John Bowlby is the author considered the father of the

The author shared the psychoanalytic view that early experiences in childhood are important for the development and behavior of the person throughout his life. In addition, Bowlby believed that attachment had an evolutionary component, aiding survival. "The propensity to make strong emotional attachments to particular individuals is a basic component of human nature." For example, we find attachment in the special mother-child bond.

This study consisted of observing how children between 12 and 18 months old reacted when they were left alone for a short time and when they were reunited with their mothers. This study had 5 sequences to examine:

• Mother and son are alone in the room.
• The child explores the room under the supervision of the mother.
• A stranger enters the room, talks to the mother and approaches the child.
• The mother leaves the room silently.
• The mother returns and comforts the boy or girl.

Based on these observations, Ainsworth concluded that there was three types of attachment: secure, ambivalent-insecure and avoidant-insecure attachment. Later, researchers Main and Solomon added a fourth attachment style known as disorganized-insecure.

Numerous studies have supported Ainsworth's finding, and subsequent research has revealed that early attachment styles can influence behavior later in life.

One of the types of attachment is secure attachment and it manifests itself differently depending on the vital period in which we find ourselves.

Secure attachment in infancy

The characteristics of secure attachment in childhood are the following:

• Ability to separate from parents: They can be cared for by other people and accept their comfort to some extent, although they prefer their parents to strangers.
• Seek comfort from parents when you are scared.
• Being visibly upset when parents leave and be happy when they come back, after not seeing them for a while. Parent-initiated contact is readily accepted by securely attached children and so they greet his return happily.

Parents of securely attached children tend to play more with their children. In addition, these parents are quicker to react to their children's needs and are generally more responsive to their children than are parents of insecure children. Studies have shown that securely attached children are more empathic during the later stages of childhood. In addition, they are also less disruptive, aggressive, and more mature than children with ambivalent or avoidant attachment styles.

To form a secure link with parents it is normal and expected, but it does not always happen. Researchers have found a number of factors that contribute to the development of a secure attachment, particularly the responsiveness of a mother to the needs of her baby during the first year of life.

Secure attachment in adulthood

The characteristics of secure attachment in adulthood are:

• tendency to have good relations with others, durable and reliable.
• Tendency to have a good self-esteem.
• Enjoy intimate relationships.
• Look for social support.
• Feel good when feelings are shared with partner and friends.

One study found that women with a secure attachment style had more positive feelings about their adult romantic relationships than women with insecure attachment styles.

One of the types of emotional attachment is ambivalent. It manifests differently in childhood than in adulthood. Next, we will see its main characteristics in each case.

Ambivalent attachment in childhood

During childhood, anxious attachment is characterized by:

• be extremely suspiciousThey are wary of strangers.
• extreme feeling of stress if the parents leave
• When their parents return, they find no comfort in them. In some cases, contact with their parents is even refused or violence is used to drive them away.

Ambivalent attachment is not very common and has been associated with low maternal availability. As these children grow older, teachers describe them as insecure and overly dependent.

Ambivalent attachment in adulthood

In adulthood, the characteristics of an ambivalent attachment are:

• Being reluctant to approach to others.
• Worry about whether your partner loves you, which leads to frequent breakups because the relationship feels cold and distant.
• great sorrow when the relationship breaks up.

Some authors speak of another pathological pattern in which anxiously attached adults cling to young children as a source of security. In this article you will see how to overcome anxious attachment.

Another type of emotional attachment is avoidant attachment. Let's see what are the consequences of this attachment in childhood and adulthood.

avoidant attachment in childhood

The characteristics of avoidant attachment in childhood are:

• avoid parents: this avoidance becomes especially noticeable after a period of parental absence.
• not seek comfort: Parental attention may not be refused, but contact or comfort is not sought from them.
• Show little or no preference for parents in front of strangers

Avoidant attachment in adulthood

On the other hand, the characteristics of an avoidant attachment in adulthood are the following:

• Problems with intimacy.
• express little emotion in romantic or social relationships and little distress when they end.
• inability to share thoughts and feelings with others.

An adult with avoidant attachment often avoids intimacy with excuses, or may fantasize about other people during sex. People with this attachment are more likely to have casual sex.

We continue talking about types of attachments, specifically, the disorganized attachment. Its characteristics are different in boys and girls than in adults.

Disorganized attachment in infancy

In infancy, the characteristics of a disorganized attachment are the mix of behaviors avoidant and resistant towards parents, showing lack of clear attachment behavior.

• Appear dazed or confused in the presence of the parents.
• assume a parental role, acting as caretakers of the parents.

Some authors proposed that inconsistent behavior on the part of parents could favor this type of attachment. Parents acting as figures of fear and reassurance to a child contribute to a disorganized attachment style, as the child is so comforted and frightened by the same parent that he is confused.

Disorganized attachment in adulthood

A disorganized attachment in adulthood is characterized by the following aspects.

• Having difficulty seeing others without significant distortions.
• Significant dysfunction in forming relationships and emotionally significant affects.
• Your relationships tend to be volatile.
• some people with personality disorders They have a disorganized attachment style.

This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Types of emotional attachment, we recommend that you enter our category of Emotions.

• Duarte Mendoza, K. d. (2019). Disorganized attachment, its incidence in the emotional development of a child (Bachelor's thesis, BABAHOYO: UTB.
• Gago, J. (2014). Attachment theory. The link. Agintzari S. Coop. of Social Initiative. Basque Navarre School of Family Therapy.
• Garcia de Leon, S. (2019). Attachment behavior: its various factors: A new type of attachment? Spanish Academic Editorial.