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How Do Adults Perceive That Significant Others in Their Lives

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Submitted By pauldonovan
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‘How do adults perceive that significant others in their lives (i.e. people who are or have been important to them) have affected their development?’

Abstract

John Bowlby’s theory of attachment asserts that in childhood attachments are formed between the infant and the caregiver. It also asserts that these attachments form the basis of adult relationships. This qualitative thematic analysis of an interview with Chloe attempts to show how early attachments form a framework of later development. This study shows some support for Bowlby’s theory of the continuity of attachment behaviour but also shows that the nature of attachments can change throughout life in particular due to adult relationships and life experience.

Introduction

The field of developmental psychology is concerned with understanding how our mental outlook can change over the course of a lifetime. It considers both the effects of cultural and environmental factors and the internal motivations of the individual. One of the main area of research is understanding the degree of continuity in how behaviour is formed and to what degree it can be influenced by past experience. In the area of human relationships, Attachment theory (as cited in Wood et al., 2007) explores how relationships develop. Bowlby (as cited in Wood et al., 2007) proposed that we have a basic biological drive to form an attachment to a ‘mother figure’ at birth. The nature of the attachment gives rise to a ‘internal working model’ in the mind of the child that has three components, a model of the self, the mother figure and a model of the relationship between the two. Bowlby considered that this model forms a basic paradigm that would influence all future relationships. A study by Ainsworth (as cited in Wood et al., 2007) gave support to Bowlby’s view by examining how children reacted to separation from their mother in a

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