ATTACHMENT THEORY AND SEXUAL TRAUMA

Attachment Theory and Sexual Trauma



Attachment Theory and Sexual Trauma

Introduction

The attachment theory is a field of psychology that deals with relations between human beings. Its basic principle is that a young child needs to experience a normal social and emotional development, to develop an attachment relationship with at least one person who takes care of him in a consistent and continuous. This theory was formalized by the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby, after the work of Winnicott, Lorenz and Harlow.

For the purposes of attachment theory, the behavior associated with infant attachment is essentially looking for proximity to an attachment figure during the occurrence of situations of stress. The young children cling to adults who are sensitive and attentive to social interactions with them, and keep their status as a stable caregiver at least several months during the period from the age of six months about two years. Towards the end of this period, children begin to use attachment figures (that is to say, the familiar surroundings) as a secure base from which they will explore the world, and to whom they know that 'they can return. The responses of those around the child's behavior guide the development of patterns of attachment (operational models of the environment and the body built and developed by the child) they will in turn basis of the development of internal working models that will govern the feelings, thoughts and expectations of individuals over their relationships, and beginning in childhood. Separation anxiety or grief following the loss of an attachment figure is seen, from a young child, as a normal and adaptive response. From a standpoint of evolution, this set of behaviors may be apparent that it increases the probability of survival of a child (Michetti, 2009).

Discussion and Analysis

Attachment theory has followed a tradition close to experimental psychology, which has led perhaps to make some difference in the construction of the conceptualizations. Since it is not made ??from retrospective reconstruction with a patient, however, through direct observation of children in certain situations. This may have contributed to the impression that attachment theorists consider the categories of attachment regardless of the mental processes that underlie these behaviors.

Relevance of attachment theory

It is a theory that, despite their declared affiliation ethological, adaptation, properly handles many psychological concepts and skills of the relationship. It is further emphasized by investigating the evolutionary perspective of attachment, which is not common in other models.

Bowlby believed that the earliest bonds formed by children with their caregivers have a tremendous impact that continues throughout life. According to Bowlby, attachment also serves to keep the infant close to the mother, thus improving the child's chances of survival. Based on the theory of control systems, Bolwlby argued that instinctive behavior is not a fixed pattern of behavior that always plays the same way to a given stimulation, but a scheduled plan corrected objectives in terms of feedback, adapting, changing, environmental conditions (Kirkpatrick, ...