Q1 Attachment Theories of Different Theorists
Bowlby described attachment from a psychoanalytic point of view where he proposed that attachment was instinctive. Hence, children from the time they were born they had the tendency to form a bond with one main care giver, usually the mother. The attachment happens in the first two years of a child’s life and it is reciprocal, where the mother also develops the attachment. If there is no attachment by age three, Bowlby posited that it would be difficult for it to happen. Secure attachment was also essential for future development of mental, social, and emotional development of a child. Interruption of the attachment according to Bowlby would lead to delinquency, aggression, reduced intelligence, affectionless psychopathy, and depression (Simpson & Rholes, 1998).
“Ainsworth noticed three attachment categories, which are secure, resistant, and avoidant in children between the ages of 1-3 years” (Simpson & Rholes, 1998, p. 23). Secure children were characterized by distress when primary care giver is absent, avoid strangers if alone and friendly if care giver present, positive and happy in present of caregiver, and will use care giver as a support to explore environment. Resistant attachment is signified by: distress symptoms if mother leaves, fears strangers, approaches care giver but avoids contact, and cries more with few exploration. Avoidance attachment is when child shows no symptom of distress if care giver is absent, child plays with strangers, child has little interest when care giver returns, and any care giver can comfort the child well.
Erikson attachment theory is seen in his 8 levels of psychosocial stages. The specific steps that highlight attachment in a child are in the first step (trust vs. mistrust) and the second step (Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt) (Simpson & Rholes, 1998). These steps are seen in the first two years of a child’s life. In the first step, the child is very dependent hence will develop trust in accordance to the consistence and love of the care giver. If not, the child grows up having fear and not trusting anyone. The second year, children were to be taught self-control and choices. If not by the completion of the second year, children developed self-doubt or inadequacy feeling.
Sigmund Freud described attachment as the necessity of satisfying certain drives. “The stages of human development he proposed were oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital” (Simpson & Rholes, 1998, p. 47). He insisted that each level was characterized by pleasure received on a specific body part. Attachment therefore was specific at the oral and anal levels, and was limited to the mother-child link and did not include other care givers in the child’s life. The image of the mother fulfilling the needs of the mother is thought to leave a lasting imprint on the infant’s brain which became the foundation the child based his/her relationships.
Q2. Piaget Conservation Principle
Piaget came up with a theory of logical thinking during a child’s early development, which he categorized as conservational. Conservational ability was seen between the ages of 7-12 years and fell into the stages of concrete-operational and at the onset of preoperative (Wadsworth, 2004). Conservation as described by Piaget is the recognition by a child that a certain capacity is constant despite alteration of a container or shape. Tasks of conservation assess a child’s ability to recognize that some properties cannot be altered even after an object is changed physically, for instance, rolling of a lump of clay into a snake like shape. Therefore, a child can be able to reverse a change mentally and understand the reason of the change. The most common task of conservation experimented by Piaget entailed a child choosing which of two dissimilar beakers had the most water after a similar volume of amount of water was transferred into the two containers. The child who picked one of the two containers as containing more water than the other had no conservation skills. The conclusion according to Piaget meant that the conflict stemmed from the pre-operational stage of the child. At this stage the child could not understand reversibility; he/she could not follow any transformation. This experiment is also used in the invariance principle used in cognitive linguistics.
References
Simpson, J.A., & Rholes, W. S. (1998). Attachment Theory and Close Relationships. New York: Guliford Press. Pp. 221-317
Wadsworth, B. J. (2004). Piaget's theory of cognitive and affective development. New Jersey: Pearson. Pp. 3+
