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Chapter 6: Problem 6

Explain attachment in infancy and how it affects a person's future social competence. Attachment, a strong, positive emotional bond that forms between an infant and one or more significant persons, is a crucial factor in enabling individuals to develop social relationships. Infants display one of four major attachment patterns: securely attached, avoidant, ambivalent, and disorganizeddisoriented. Research suggests an association between an infant's attachment pattern and his or her social and emotional competence as an adult.

Short Answer

Expert verified
Attachment in infancy is a strong emotional bond formed with significant persons, categorized into four patterns: secure, avoidant, ambivalent, and disorganized-disoriented. This pattern of attachment links to an individual's future social and emotional competence, with securely attached infants typically showing a higher capability in forming positive social relationships and managing emotional responses as adults compared to those with insecure attachment patterns.

Step by step solution

01

Definition of Attachment

Attachment is a crucial aspect of the human developmental process, specifically during infancy. It is a strong, emotive bond that forms between the infant and one or more significant individuals in their life.
02

Four Major Attachment Patterns

Infants typically display one of four major attachment patterns including secure, avoidant, ambivalent, or disorganized-disoriented attachment. These patterns are characterized by varying degrees of comfort levels in the infant when they are either with or separated from their caregiver.
03

Relation to Future Social Competence

The type of attachment pattern an individual displays during infancy significantly influences their social and emotional competence in adulthood. For instance, securely attached infants usually gain a strong ability to develop positive social relationships as they mature. Conversely, individuals displaying insecure attachment patterns (avoidant, ambivalent, or disorganized-disoriented) might face challenges in forming healthy social relationships or managing emotional responses in the future.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Summarize how nonparental child care affects infants. Child care, a societal response to the changing nature of the family, can be beneficial to the social development of children, fostering social interaction and cooperation, if it is of high quality.

Define temperament, and describe how it affects a child in the first two years of life. Temperament encompasses enduring levels of arousal and emotionality that are characteristic of an individual. Temperamental differences underlie the broad classification of infants into easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm categories.

Discuss the development of relationships in infancy. Through a process of reciprocal socialization, infants and caregivers interact and affect one another's behavior, which strengthens their mutual relationship. From an early age, infants engage in rudimentary forms of social interaction with other children, and their level of sociability rises as they age.

Discuss how the gender of a child affects his or her development in the first two years of life. As infants age, gender differences become more pronounced, mostly due to environmental influences. Differences are accentuated by parental expectations and behavior.

Discuss how children express and experience emotions in the first two years of life. Infants display a variety of facial expressions, which are similar across cultures and appear to reflect basic emotional states.
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