Attachment Issues in Adolescence: A Solution, Research Proposal Example

Introduction

On the social aspect of life, psychology is the scientific study of the mind. To a greater extent, the science of mind influence interactions among members of any society. In this regard, psychological studies aims at developing reliable knowledge on the various elements of psychology observed within a human population.  Some individuals within any given social setting experiences varied psychological problems. These problems may affect their relationship with their immediate environment, especially with fellow humans (Pearce, 2009). This calls for the need to acquire knowledge on how the society could address these problems in order to minimize the discomfort between individuals with psychological problems and their immediate environment. Within the field of psychology, numerous studies focus on solutions to different mental conditions. The body of knowledge collected and the information contained in these studies and their recommendations vary with respect to their applicability and reliability in addressing the mental conditions. In this context, psychologists are in a continual process of supplementing and solidifying the knowledge available concerning treatment and management of different psychological conditions among individuals (Pearce, 2009).

The process of acquiring knowledge needs application of practical mechanisms meant to study mental conditions at their respective contexts. Theoretical information may not be enough to provide information on how individuals with mental disorders could cope with their environment. This means that research exercises proves resourceful in supplementing knowledge in this field. The problem with theoretical information is that they may not work uniformly on all victims with twisted mental conditions. In addition, some methods proposed by theoretical information may not be within the reach of the society where the psychological conditions occur. This highlights the importance of research exercises when striving to formulate tailor made solutions to psychological conditions. Psychology employs both scientific and social research techniques in order to increase the reliability of findings (Smith & Wright, 2012). Scientific techniques ensure objectivity and accuracy, while social research techniques take into consideration the element of social dynamics and diversity among individuals. In this regard, a proportional blend of these techniques proves resourceful in formulating solutions to psychological conditions. At this juncture, this research focuses on attachment disorder, which is one of the most pronounced psychological conditions in close social relationships.

Attachment and Attachment Disorder

With respect to the social aspect of life, attachment is the connection that exists between a minor and a caregiver. In this context, a caregiver could be a parent of a guardian to the minor in subject. Attachment enables a child to develop and express emotions with easy in interpersonal relationships (Pearce, 2009). On the other hand, attachment disorder refers to a case where a minor lacks the ability to develop concrete emotions, and the inability to express these emotions in a healthy manner towards the immediate social environment.  Attachment disorder is a psychological condition prevalent among the youth, and extends to their later lives. It relates to the aspect of connectedness with close members of the society like individuals within a family. Minors with attachment disorders, especially during their teenage years, have difficulties sustaining interpersonal relationships. This inability to sustain relationships results from the lacks of skills for developing authentic emotions (Pearce, 2009). Most individuals with this mental condition ends up developing negative feeling s like low self-esteem, profound anger, lack of trust and a pronounced fear of getting close to other people. Attachment disorder develops during childhood. Certain factors makes a child develop a sense of insecurity when it comes to relations with the outside world. These factors may include instances when a child is isolated, abandoned, and uncared for. These make a minor susceptible to developing negative perception towards others. In the process, they will perceive that the external environment is a frightening and dangerous place. Such mental conditions, which are learned, can be unlearned. In this context, this research proposal focuses mentorship program as one of the possible solution of dealing with attachment disorder among teenagers.

Attachment and Mentorship

From a theoretical perspective, mentorship is a type of interpersonal relationship where a more experienced or an older person guides a younger one through a certain process. In this regard, mentorship is a personal development program meant to help a young person to develop desirable qualities. In this context, mentorship can facilitate development of positive emotional qualities among individuals with attachment disorders. This program is appropriate because the chief purpose of mentorship is to transform knowledge, psychological support or any other form of social capital to mentees. Since attachment disorder centers on the issue of low self-esteem, mentors should employ self-esteem building activities during the mentorship process. One such activity is martial arts. In a conventional context, people practice martial arts for combat reasons and self-defense purposes. However, this kind of combat art possess qualities related to physical fitness, mental and spiritual development. The negative emotion of low self-esteem in individuals can be reduced by employing skills directed towards achieving mental and spiritual health. In addition, physical fitness directly influences the aspect of self worth. Based on these qualities, martial art would be the most appropriate sporting activity for combating attachment disorder among teenagers.

My Personal Experience

At my personal level, I was a foster kid through my childhood. As I was growing, I developed some qualities of attachment disorder with respect to all the emotional and psychological challenges that comes with being a foster child. My foster parents had to intervene on this negative psychological condition by availing a mentor. Through my mentorship program, I acquired many social and psychological developments from my mentor. Through skills gained from martial arts, I learned to be consistently positive towards interpersonal relationships. The mental and physical development promoted a sense of self worth. In addition, all the direct combat practices during the training period facilitated my learning to trust other people. With respect to the concept of mental and physical development, all the positive social and psychological qualities that I gained through mentorship transformed to positive academic results.  Therefore, I am a living proof that mentorship is applicable as a reliable intervention program to teenagers with attachment disorder.

Research Hypothesis

This research will integrate appropriate elements of both the scientific and the social research techniques, to ensure collection of objective and reliable information. In this regard, the research will incorporate the element of a research question and a valid hypothesis. These two scientific research elements will provide the bases of direction throughout the entire research process. With respect to the underlying psychological problem, the most appropriate question would be to ask whether mentorship programs could solve attachment disorder among teenagers (McGarty, 2008). Upon adopting this question, the research will formulate a hypothesis with both the dependent and the independent variable characteristics. Therefore, the hypothesis statement states that regular activities like games that build up self-esteem among teenagers, prevents attachment disorder. Just like scientific research hypothesis, this statement contains both the dependent and the independent variables. In this case, the independent variable is the intensity or the frequency of administering self-esteem building activities to teenagers. On the other hand, prevention of attachment disorder depends on the independent variable. Relationship between the two variables materializes when one variable is manipulated or varied in order to study the behavior of the other variable.  Now, the entire research focuses on collecting data and information that will serve either to approve or to disapprove this hypothesis (McGarty, 2008).

Methodology

The next section entails adopting the appropriate methodology for conducting the various data collection exercises. Since the research incorporates elements of scientific and social research, the exercise will involve a blend of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. Quantitative research method facilitates collection of certain information in the research for example the frequency of activities like martial arts or base ball among individuals. On the other hand, qualitative method facilitates acquisition of information through techniques like observation and prediction (Smith & Wright, 2012). The most appropriate population for the research is a high school setting. Random sampling will serve the purpose of providing a representative research sample within the entire population. The sampling stage will involve carrying out a survey on a substantial population in order to identify those students depicting attachment disorder. The acquired sample will proceed to the next step of mentorship programs. In the process, researchers will take into consideration ethical concerns like acquisition of consent from the school’s administration and the participating students. Once we obtain the required sample, the exercise will proceed to the data collection stage.

From a theoretical perspective, treatment of attachment disorder may take quite a long period of time (Pearce, 2009). In this case, the data collection period of the research will take approximately three months. Sampled students will enter self-esteem building mentorship programs. Mentors, especially martial art experts and games trainers will be available in the school throughout the week, and during weekends, they will be available on Saturdays. Their duty will be to engage the identified students in rigorous exercises and physical activities during training hours. In addition, these mentors will manipulate scenarios for developing emotional support to the team. Appropriate scenes for emotional development may include story telling sessions and social functions like rock climbing. Data collection will involve tracing emotional development of these students through the mentorship period. Researchers will acquire quantitative data on the number of hours spent on the programs. In addition, data collection tools like the Likert scale will facilitate collection of qualitative information concerning the participants’ emotional improvement through the period (Smith & Wright, 2012). Once we collect all the data for the stipulated mentorship period, the research team will move to the data analysis stage.

Data Analysis and Presentation

Data analysis will adopt scientific and mathematical calculations of mean, standard deviations, and the mode. For deep analysis of the collected information, researchers will go for more insightful concepts like correlation coefficients. Once all the data has been documented, the research team will evaluate the relationships between the variables by calculating the values of these mathematical elements. Apart from the statistical calculations, the team will draw up graphs depicting the relationship between different variables under consideration (Smith & Wright, 2012). Most graphs will be included in the data representation part. The correlations between variables will be displayed in charts and graphs. Such variables may include time spent in training programs versus the perceived improvement in the ability to develop and sustain emotions in relationships.

Interpretation and Recommendation

The final stage of the research will incorporate components of interpretation and recommendations. After obtaining all the data analysis results, I will be upon the duty of the research team to give meaning to these mathematical values. This will involve translating mathematical relationships into social and psychological concepts. The main purpose of this part is to validate the hypothesis adopted during the research. Relationship between the dependent and the independent variable will determine whether to approve or disapprove the hypothesis statement stated earlier. In this context, the hypothesis statement will be approved if the frequency of games is directly proportional to the improvement or prevention of attachment disorder (McGarty, 2008). Upon validating the hypothesis, the team will draw various recommendations from the research exercise. These recommendations will provide information regarding the treatment of attachment disorder through mentorship programs.

Reference List

McGarty, C. (2008). Doing Psychology: An Introduction to Research Methodology and Statistics. Pittsburg: SAGE Publishing.

Pearce, C. (2009). Short Introduction to Attachment and Attachment Disorder. New York: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Smith, J. A & Wright, D. B. (2012). Research Methods in Psychology. Pittsburg: SAGE Publishing.