Attachment theory (Solomon & George, 1999) has become a prominent theory for explaining and predicting parent-child bonding patterns. Describe the key concepts of this theory and analyze the relevant...

Attachment theory describes the dynamics of long-term relationships between humans
Attachment Theory: Concepts and Its applications in parental training
The Attachment theory proposed and expanded by Bowlby (1958) and Ainsworth (1978) respectively, describes role and extent of impact of parent-child relationships on development. In other words, it talks about dynamic nature of development and sustenance of long-term interpersonal relationships across the developmental stages of human life. The basic assumption of this theory is that an infant/child does need a primary caregiver to establish a relationship for normal social and emotional development as part of personality. The infant feels attached to the consistent, sensitive and reciprocal caregiver/s in mutual interactions, especially during infancy stage of development. This type of reciprocity is called ‘sensitive responsiveness’. Such responsiveness of caregivers give rise to a particular patterns of attachment which, in turn, leads to an internal models of working within the child/individual facilitating a guidelines to the individual’s own ways of cognitions, beliefs, memories, emotional make-up and expectations in mutual relationships in prospective developmental stages (Bretherton & Munholland, 1999). On the contrary, loss of such attachment leads to ‘separation anxiety’ which is a kind of adaptive response on the part of the normally developing increasing his/her probability towards sustenance and survival in life. It happens in case of unresponsive and unavailable object of attachment to be followed by despondence and sadness. However, physical absence or separation does not leas to any threat by the age of 3-4 years. In relation to comparatively older children and adults, prolonged absence, communication failures, lack of emotional fulfillments, rejection/ abandonment are major sources of security threats (Kobak & Madsen, 2008).
Basic Concepts
The basic concepts and tenets of Attachment theory are as follow:
Concept of Attachment: It implies an affectionate and reciprocal bonding between the infant/child and the object of attachment (i.e., the caregiver, parent/s etc) which depends on needs for safety and security of the child during infancy and childhood. This theory further emphasizes that the attachment of the child with the caregiver is instinctive wherein the biological objective is survival and psychological aim is security (Schaffer, 2007). At times, initially the infant shows attachment to more than one object but does show discrimination among them during the second year of development arranging the objects of attachment in a hierarchical order of preference.
Role of Behaviour: The differential and myriad of behaviours in ongoing developmental stages support the child in achieving and maintaining close relationship with the object of attachment. For example, the infants smile, seek attention of caregiver/s through crying, or babble during first eight weeks of development. Later, between 2-6 months of age (i.e., sensitivity period as per Bowlby), their behaviours are directed towards the object of attachment in proximity or vicinity of the child by the dint of discriminatory learning and perception of known and unknown objects. During this stage, the infants perform behaviours of following and clinging etc. In the third and last stage of development, i.e., between 6-24 months, the children develop conspicuous attachment with their caregiver and perform organized and goal-directed behaviours making them to feel safe and secured in ambience. Such feeling are observed in their behaviour like disliking or protesting absence or departure of the caregiver, greeting him/her through smiles, joyous screeches on their returning, clinging with them in fear etc. Such close attachment helps them finding a safe place of exploratory behaviour alongside the development of locomotion with growing age. The exploration of the child is paramount when the consistent presence of the caregiver relaxed the attachment system. Finally, the child perceives the caregiver as a separate and independent individual, and, plan actions as per the feelings and objectives of the object of attachment (Kobak & Madsen, 2008). Attachment is very easily developed by young adults. Their experiences of attachment in previous stages enable them to develop and strengthen capabilities and abilities to reflect and communicate about dynamic interpersonal relationships as well as to steer novel social interaction and relationships (Bretherton and Munholland, 1999). In addition, their internal models of working consistently help them in coping with developmental milestones like friendships, marriage, parenthood, old age etc. Albeit, the nature of attachment is determined by mutual impact of the child and object of attachment on each other, however, significant or prolonged separation from and frequent changes of the...