Attachment, Essay Example

Attachment refers to long-term psychological interconnectedness between two human beings. Some attachment behaviors among infants are positive while others are negative. Parents can use different attachment styles in order to deal with negative attachment experiences among infants.

Attachment enables infants to seek help and protection from the caregiver at a time when they are helpless and want to survive. However, some attachment behaviors result in overdependence on the parent or caregiver. In order to discourage this dependence, Feeney et al (1999) recommends that parents should be consistent when giving care to their children while at the same time inducing separation distress in the infants.

Attachment in infants enables them to live happier and more adaptive adult lives. Infants who lack attachment have difficulties adapting to new challenges in life. The quality of attachment determines the quality of adult life that one leads. It is good for the caregiver to display feelings of responsiveness, reciprocity and sensitivity in the child. This way, it is easy to teach the infant how to be independent and how to adapt to changing environments.

The parent or caregiver should be keen to induce separation distress whenever the infant is presenting achievements or discoveries that he wants approved. This is because at this time, the child exhibits intense sensitivity, which is ideal for the process of unlearning undesirable attachment experiences.

References

Feeney, J. et al. (1999). Attachment Style, Assertive Communication, and Safer-Sex Behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29, p. 1964-1983.