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Impact of Poor Attachment on Personal Development

In: Social Issues

Submitted By cawa
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Impact of poor attachment on personal development

Attachment theory offers an understanding of personality development and behaviour in close relationships and provides an account of the difference in people’s emotional and relationship styles. It relates to how resilient children will become later in life when facing life stressors. In its earliest form, attachment theory concentrated on the dynamics and quality of relationships between children and their parents, but it has since been expanded to cover the lifespan. The clear result seems that early parent-child relationship, and the degree of successful attachment, mediates and influences the course of a person’s development.
(Howe, 1995)
This essay is based on theories and concepts put forward by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, the two most important people who have influenced the theory of attachment. In this essay I will look at the impact poor attachment has on a person’s development and the reason for choosing to explore this topic, is having developed a keen interest around the influence of poor attachment with my father and the impact it has had on my life in terms of loving, trusting and sexual relationships.

Pearce (2009) states that attachment is a term that can be used to describe the dependency relationship a child develops between them and their primary care-givers and progresses throughout the years of their lives. We are not born with attachment but “this special relationship emerges over time and through a series of stages”. Pearce (2009:19)
So attachment theory is, essentially, to do with human relationships.
Psychologist John Bowlby was the first attachment theorist, describing attachment as “a lasting psychological connectedness between human beings”. Bowlby (1969:194)
Bowlby believed the earliest attachments between children and their caregivers have a tremendous impact that

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