I. INTRODUCTION
All the relationships that we share with other individuals exist because of attachment.
The degree of that attachment or that emotional connection/ bond can vary but the
essence remains the same. Since it is such a universal concept, at the end of the day
humans are social animals. This topic has been widely studied by psychologists,
ethologists and philosophers, etc. The biologists/ evolution researchers believe that
attachment is a survival instinct. Since human infants require a lot of nurturing and
support at birth and early developmental periods. This bond is beneficial for the
survival of the species meaning it has an inherent onset. Later ethologists came up
with imprinting suggesting that the bond is more stronger with one individual than
others. (Hess, 1958) Around the same time psychologists also studied comfort and
found out the infant monkey prefers comfort over food. (Harlow, 1958) Many such
researches were going on when Bowlby gave his theory on attachment which was
testified by Ainsworth. She came up with different attachment styles most of it being
secure, the rest being anxious and avoidant. (Mary & Bell, 1970)
Though Ainsworth research was on infants but both Bowlby and Ainsworth believed
that it was something that went on for the whole life of the individual. Bowlby
mentioned that adult forms the primitive system based on his interactions with the
primary caregiver, this becomes a prototype in their mind which they seek in later
relationships. Hazan and Shaver went on and did research on adult attachment styles
and found consistency with Ainsworth’s findings. Later researchers connected
different attachment styles to different areas like adjustment, well being and stress,
etc. One such area was emotional regulation. The term emotional regulation means
how effectively a person can manage and express their emotions. There are various
ways to do that, in this paper we would see how that process is related to attachment
styles and the effects they have on each other.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Attachment Theory: Early Influences
Attachment is the emotional bond that two people share, we can also say that it’s the
emotional bond between the caregiver and the infant since the early researches were done on
the same. When we talk about attachment one name that comes time and again is of Bowlby,
who was a British psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst. When John Bowlby was young his
parents didn’t spend much time with him. He was even sent to a boarding school at the age of
7 which he late said was traumatic for him. His personal experiences like working with
maladjusted children (who had disrupted relationships with the mother) after college and his
childhood, etc., made him interested in child development and attachment.
At the time two people who were popular in the filed were Sigmund Freud and Melanie
Klein. Both talked about the role of intrapsychic conflicts that arise from within. Bowlby
didn’t completely agree with this idea as he believed that the caregiver also plays some role
in any given situation. Now even though he was a trained psychoanalyst himself and deeply
admired Freud (Bretherton, 1992). He was still not convinced completely by his theory
suggesting mother is the source of nourishment for the child thus the relationship progresses.
Interestingly around the same time a new field of science was developing called Ethology
i.e. the study of animal behaviour in natural environment. Konard Lorenz who was the
pioneer in the field best known for is his work on “imprinting”. (Hess, 1958) Here he did an
experiment wherein he found that newly hatched ducklings imprint on the first moving thing
they see, making it their parent, this shows that it is a natural instinct to bond. We can say
that attachment is preprogramed. He also talked about “critical period”, a time frame of 3
years after which the bond cannot be formed (Forslund & Granqvist, 2016). This along with
Harlow’s experiment on rhesus monkeys showing that there is a “contact comfort”, babies
choosing comfort over food strengthened (Harlow, 1958)
B. Attachment Theory: Strange Situation
Inspired by such great influences, Bowlby gave his theory on attachment, also known as
“Monotropic Theory of Attachment”. Here he mentioned that attachments are innate, they are
adaptive i.e. important for the survival of the baby and the species, there are social releasers
factors like seeing a cute face compelling an adult to take care of the child (activating
mammalian attachment system), critical period, the time of up to 3 years where attachment
can take place, if not it would never will. Monotropy, he believed like ducklings imprint on
one person, we humans also more strongly bond with one care taker. He suggested that
attachment behaviour are triggered by various kinds of threat like availability of the
caregiver, distress due to hunger or pain (internal), and external distress. (Bowlby, 1982)
Based on this child develops “Internal working model”, they are mental schemas where
perceptual understanding of our social bond takes place, it also stores our relationships with
the primary caregiver. These mental models remain stable and form the foundation of
strategies for need satisfaction and affect regulation. Those who have a functional internal
model will seek functional relationships in accordance with the schema and vice versa.
(Eisenberg, et. el, 2018)
He also talked about motivating system or attachment behavioural system, the attachment
system looks at the caretaker whether or not they are paying attention to the infant’s need and
are present if the answer is yes then the infant becomes confident, independent, secure and
happy, if not the infant faces challenges like developing anxiety, etc. It is important to note
that Bowlby did mention that this can be changed if the relationship between the caregiver
and the infant improves. (Cassidy, et el., 2013)
Mary Ainsworth was a Canadian psychologist like Bowlby she also had an interest in the
topic particularly in infant security. She met Bowlby in London where she started working
with him. Later she moved to Uganda with her husband in 1950s she got interested in the
Ganda tribe where she saw that even when there were multiple caregiver the infant got
attached to one primary caregiver. Then she did studies in Baltimore, where she observed the
relationship between the mother and the infant. The mothers and the infants visited the
hospital for one year. There she came up with “Strange situation”, this produced the data for
the individual differences in attachments. The test was divided into seven stages, in summary
it starts with the caregiver and infant being in the room alone, caregiver interacting only
when chid interacts, after sometime a stranger enters and starts talking to the caregiver and
starts trying to play with the child, then caregiver leaves and the child is alone with the
stranger. Based on how the child interacts the stranger tries to respond like plays with the
child if they show interest. Later the caregiver comes back and tries to interact with the child
like if the child is crying they try to engage with the child to pacify them. Based on this
Ainsworth was able to identify three attachment styles:
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Secure: Most common type, where the infant shows distress when the caregiver
leaves but is easily soothed and is also able to explore new environments with less or
no fear.
Insecure resistant: Less common, wherein the infants shows deep distress when the
caregiver is not there and when they return the infant does not interact with the
caregiver. They are less likely to explore new environments.
Insecure avoidant: More common than insecure resistant but less common than
secure. Here the infant would show no separation anxiety, even though they may
show some distress when the caregiver leaves but would avoid interaction with them.
They explore new environments and play independently with ease. (Mary & Bell,
1970)
C. Adult Attachment
Now even though Bowlby focused on infants and children he did believe that there is a
lifetime effect of attachment. In 1987 Hasan and Shaver were the first two researchers who
started studying attachment in adults especially in romantic relationships. They wanted to see
if the infant-caregiver attachment translates to romantic relationships or not. They observed
that as a child grows the bond shifts to friends and romantic partners however the primary
attachment figure leaves a mark and somehow people seek the similar relationship that they
had with their primary caregiver. As when in distress, pain and wanting to seek comfort and
safety or we can say wanting to get their needs met they behave in the similar manner. They
made statements analogous to Ainsworth’s infant attachment study and asked adults which
statement did they resonate with and based on that they found that the results were similar to
what Ainsworth observed in infants and children. Most adults identified with falling under
the secure category, rest were either avoidant or anxious-resistant. With this they concluded
that the bond that infant has with the primary caregiver is replicated in adulthood. (Hazan &
Shaver, 1994). As Bowlby also talked about attachment behavioural system, Hazan and
shaver found that the system party remains the same. In the presence of threat every
attachment style has their own strategy. People with anxious attachment style would go into
“hypervigilance” state wherein there would be poor coping, rumination, high distress and
excessive dependence on others. On the other hand people with avoidant attachment style
would go into “deactivating” mode. Their strategies would be like going into their own shell,
less social support and more self-reliance. Both of these strategies become ineffective and
only secure attachment style leads to optimal adjustment. (Mikulincer, et. al., 2003)
D. Emotion Regulation
Emotion is a biological and psychological state where we feel something due to the stimuli in
the environment or thought or situation. When we manage these emotions, the experience of
it and the expression we can say that we are regulating emotions. Elaborating on the same
James Gross gave Process model of emotional regulation. The model focusses on two
strategies of emotion regulation antecedent and response focused. The antecedent focused
strategies are the ones we follow before the event (emotion) has taken place. For example a
test is coming up and you are thinking of it as a learning experience rather than a pass or fail
event. Response focused strategies are where our emotions are already there but we are trying
to control. For example seeing your sister leave home you are anxious but trying hard to not
show that. They are further divided into various categories like situation selection, choosing
to either go or to not go to an event to regulate emotions. Situation modification where in you
are already there but you are trying to control the situation such that the emotions can be
regulated, etc. There is attentional deployment where you focus to pay attention to what you
want to such that emotions can be modulated. Now once you have selected the situation the
cognitive change takes place therefore the results are achieved. Finally there is response
modulation where you try to control the degree of the reaction once it has already
occurred.(Gross, 1998b)
There are lots of component in emotional regulation and it requires a change in the “emotion
dynamics” like the duration, magnitude, onset and offset, etc. (Thompson, 1990)