Attachments theory as it affects adolescants Essay

Attachments theory as it affects adolescants - Essay ExampleAccording to attachment theory, primary c aregivers become increasingly differentiate from other people in the minds of infants during their first year of life.During childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, many individuals encounter difficulties in their relationships with parents and spouses that shake their confidence in the availability of these attachment figures. Such difficulties whitethorn fundamentally disrupt attachment bonds and dramatically reduce an individuals capacity to adapt to challenges outside the family. In the second volume of Attachment and Loss, Bowlby (1973) refined his definition of the commit goal of the attachment system. In considering the effects of separations on children, he moved toward the notion that security derives from a childs appraisal of an attachment figures availability (Bowlby, 1973). The child necessitate to experience a parent who is not only accessible but also responsive. Thi s aspect of security incorporated Ainsworths findings that it is the quality of day-to-day interactions, not and major separations, that influences infants attachment expectations. In contrast, various nonresponsive or insensitive forms of care can undermine the infants confidence or even lead to expectations for rejection or inapposite response. Separation distress results from the appraisal that a parent is inaccessible (Ainsworth et al., 1978). This perceived threat to a parents accessibility activates the attachment system and motivates a child to furbish up contact. Emotional reactions accompanying the appraisal of threat include fear and anger. Fear activates the attachment system and signals the childs distress. Anger results from frustrations that the child encounters in trying to regain access, and it mobilizes efforts to change contact.AdolescentsThe adolescent, by contrast, may act out her conflict about separating through fights with her mother and open defiance. Her upheaval may be more visibly presumable in her relationship with her mother, more provocative and dramatic. Girls may direct their acting out toward their bodies and engage in behaviors that are outside of the domain of parental control. They are at increased risk for eating disorders, reckless or promiscuous sexual activity, and self-cutting or other forms of mutilation. Adolescents may also use drugs and alcohol to rebel, explore, and ladder painful feelings. Self-defeating or destructive behavior may provide an illusion of independence while also serving to defend against regressive longings. The mission and power of reckless acting out can reduce their sense of vulnerability and distract from feelings of loss associated with the transition from childhood dependence. The attachment to a healer can take pressure off the mother-daughter dyad, as some dependence needs are being met in a relationship outside the family. However, the microscope stage is then set for the adolesce nt to recreate with the therapist elements of her struggle with her mother. Her dependence on the therapist can trigger resistance to treatment. Like the defiance at home, acting out within therapy may serve both to rebel against therapeutic influence and to pull for protective intervention (Cassidy et al., 2003).Similar patterns of maladaptation have been place in adolescents and adults who are classified as