By Catherine A. Sanderson, Amherst College
A baby’s understanding of whether or not someone is available to respond to their needs and protect them from harm is what psychologists refer to as the attachment bond. The benefits of developing a secure attachment style are substantial during not only infancy but also in later years.
Effect of Bond on Babies
Babies who have a positive early experience with a primary caregiver develop a sense that people are trustworthy and the world is predictable. This belief, in turn, leads to all sorts of positive results, during childhood and beyond.
Children who develop secure attachment bonds show more enthusiasm and persistence in all types of situations. They spend longer working on challenging puzzles, get along better with other kids, are rated as more pleasant by their teachers, and so on.
A Survey
Around 1985, two psychologists focused on: If the attachment style creates a template for how you think about relationships, then how does this template influence your relationships throughout the rest of your life?
To test this question, professors Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver created what they described as a “love quiz” that they published in a newspaper. This survey asked people about their romantic history: experience of trust, jealousy, sexual attraction, love at first sight, and so on.
They also asked people to choose which of these three paragraphs best described them:
- I find it relatively easy to get close to others and am comfortable depending on them and having them depend on me. I don’t worry about being abandoned or about someone getting too close to me.
- I find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like. I often worry that my partner doesn’t really love me or won’t want to stay with me. I want to get very close to my partner, and this sometimes scares people away.
- I am somewhat uncomfortable being close to others; I find it difficult to trust them completely, and difficult to allow myself to depend on them. I am nervous when anyone gets too close, and often, others want me to be more intimate than I feel comfortable being.
Findings
The first paragraph describes a person with secure attachment, the second with anxious attachment, and the third with avoidant attachment.
This study provided compelling evidence that early relationships matter. First, the relative frequencies of the different attachment styles reported by the adults in this study were the same as that typically seen in research with infants, with about 60% classified as secure, 20% anxious, and 20% avoidant.
People endorsing the different adult attachment styles also differed substantially in both their reports of their family history as well as their current relationships with their parents. People who reported having a secure attachment model also reported warmer relationships with their parents, suggesting that positive experiences in childhood carry over into adult romantic relationships.
How Relationships Differ
People with a secure attachment style reported having positive experiences in prior relationships, full of trust, friendship, and happiness. They also believed in romantic love and that love lasts.
People with an anxious attachment style reported much less positive experiences. Their prior romantic relationships often included obsession and jealousy. They found it easy to fall in love but felt that others were unwilling to commit and quick to abandon them.
People with an avoidant style also reported more negative relationship experiences, including a fear of intimacy, difficulty feeling close to their partners, and a belief that romantic love rarely lasts.
These different beliefs about romantic relationships also correlated with the actual length of their relationships. Even after controlling for outliers, people with a secure attachment model showed an average relationship length of about 10 years, compared to about five years for those with an anxious/ambivalent style and six years for those with an avoidant style.
This article comes directly from content in the video series Introduction to Psychology. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
Strange Situation Experiment
In a study of the power of attachment styles, researchers watched couples who were facing a separation to see how different people would react. The separation, in this case, was short-term—one person getting on an airplane and the other person not. Basically, this is an adult version of the strange situation paradigm. So, the researchers asked couples if they would fill out a brief questionnaire.
Anxious women felt more distress at their partner’s departure. Secure women didn’t report feeling so sad. But the clearest effect was seen with avoidant women, who didn’t report feeling much distress at their partner’s departure and were more likely to pull away and refuse to make eye contact, basically seeming like they cared less.
The researchers didn’t really find much evidence that attachment styles influenced how men responded, perhaps because men generally are socialized to not openly express emotions.
Attachment Style and Workplace
Secure people report greater job satisfaction, feel good about their work performance, and feel valued by their colleagues. Anxious people, on the other hand, are constantly worried about their job security. They are easily distracted at work, don’t feel appreciated by their co-workers, and have trouble finishing projects.
Avoidant people have high job satisfaction and tend to advance regularly, probably because they aren’t so concerned about the impact of their career on their personal relationships. They also prefer to work alone and don’t really get along with their colleagues.
Religious Beliefs and Emotions
People with different attachment styles also report distinct types of religious beliefs and behaviors. Secure people tend to see God as more loving and less controlling. Anxious people are preoccupied with whether or not God loves them. Avoidant people, on the other hand, are not so worried about God. In fact, they aren’t even sure if God exists.
Attachment styles also influence how people cope with negative emotions. People with insecure models of attachment are more likely to engage in unhealthy strategies of managing negative emotions, including excessive alcohol use, risky sexual behavior, and disordered eating. These behaviors, in turn, can lead to negative health outcomes.
Common Questions about Effects of Attachment Bonds on Infancy and Later Years
Individuals with secure attachment styles experience more fulfilling love and work life. They find happiness and contentment with their positive approach to everything.
People with insecure models of attachment are more likely to engage in unhealthy strategies of managing negative emotions, including excessive alcohol use, risky sexual behavior, and disordered eating.
Babies who have a positive early experience with a primary caregiver develop a sense that people are trustworthy and the world is predictable. This belief, in turn, leads to all sorts of positive results, during childhood and beyond.
