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Attachment Security

In: Philosophy and Psychology

Submitted By misslsix
Words 1559
Pages 7
Laura Morales
Psychology 102
Professor Frederic Halper

Attachment Security, Compassion and Altruism

In psychology there has always been an argument between whether certain things are learned or whether they are innate (born with). It can be many things like personalities, beliefs, emotions, desires, values etc. According to John Bowlby and his theory, when it comes to survival of the human species one of the things we do as infants is try to capture the attention of our caregiver in order to receive care and attention. Attachment security is the term we would use for describing this. This of course would be something innate, something natural that we as babies would use for protection "The propensity to make strong emotional bonds to particular individuals, a basic component of human nature". (Bowlby) Sometimes this is not always provided to an infant, and if it isn’t, it will supposedly affect the individual later in life. According to Bowlby "The operation of this system is affected by an individual’s social experiences, especially with early caregivers, resulting in measurable individual differences in attachment security". Attachment is a special emotional relationship that involves an exchange of comfort, care, and pleasure. Not only does attachment security aid in survival but it also has a huge influence on development, our behaviors and relationships later in life. In the article Attachment Security, Compassion and Altruism a series of studies were done by which it is claimed that compassionate feelings and values, and altruistic behaviors are also affected by the "attachment behavioral system." What I understand from this is if you are neglected of care as an infant it will affect how compassionate or altruistic you are later in life. Theoretically wanting to enhance compassion and altruism in the real world.

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