1. What is it about secure attachment in infancy that seems to set the individual up for better emotional health throughout life?
Secure attachment is considered one of the best forms of attachments that a child can ever be given. Children who are securely attached often feel upset when their caregivers or parents leave them and feel a sigh of relief when they return. Secure attachments help the children develop a binding relationship with their parents. The children usually prefer their parents to strangers. These children will tend to have some form of trusting relationships with their parents. They also develop high self esteem, enjoy intimate relationships and develop a tendency of sharing their feelings with other people.
Can you think of adults you know that you suspect have a secure attachment style?
Children, who get secure attachments when they are young, often develop some kind of behavior when they grow up. It is very easy to predict people who have a secure attachment. They usually have trusting and lasting relationships and also tend to show some form of self esteem. This group of people can also be seen to be very comfortable sharing their feelings with their friends and partners and also seeking out social support when they undertake various activities. However, people who lack secure attachment, often display negative characters especially on the way that they relate with others. They are usually confined in thoughts and often depict a sense of low self esteem. Such people can also be seen not to trust anyone for their safety. They usually live in isolation.
I have carried a research on five of my friends on the topic of secure attachment and came up with the findings in the table below
Moderately sociable and trusts her parents for financial help but not for security. The trend has changed in the recent past and presently confide with her parents.
These five friends have different relationships with their parents. Those who were very close to their parents and received close attention when young developed a good social relationship when they grew up. However, those who had no parents or their parents never took good care of, had a very poor social relationship with their mates as they grew up. This is much related to the topic of secure attachment whereby children who lacked secure attachment when they were young lose trust in their parents and other people.
2. Question 2
A child will often tend to imitate what they see and treat others later in life as they were treated when they were young. There are some attributes in a child development that are often ignored but plays a very important role towards the general well being of a child. Many people can assume that children are not aware of the happenings around the and therefore may try to mistreat the children thinking that they are not aware of the ill-treatments. However from this course, it has been established that children start to learn when they are still very young. At a time when the caregivers may think that they are too young to realize anything.
The social relationships that people usually develop when they grow up can give a researcher a glimpse of the type of attachment that a person was given when he/she was young. I can easily establish that I received secure attachment when I was young. My relationship with my parent is very close and I always find it very easy to trust them. I still hold up that attribute to date and feel that my parents are always able to protect me from any kind of mishap. I can also confirm this from the types of relationships that I develop with my friends. Some of my friends do get it very hard to trust anybody or form any kind of social association. However, on my side this is one of the areas that I enjoy a lot. I like socializing and seeking support from social groups both in academic setting and in other areas of life.
This course has changed what I used to think about psychology in a number of ways. Initially is used to think that psychology is only concerned with the study of human life. This course has helped me to establish that psychology covers more on the general development of human beings from childhood to adulthood. I have also been able to establish that psychology covers human development both physical and mental (behavioral). I have been able to establish the causes of different kinds of behaviors among my friends. Some of them are ecological while others depend on the type of relationships they had with their caregivers when they were young.
