The Strange Situation Protocol Was Developed By British...

Attachment theory, originally developed by British psychoanalyst John Bowlby (1907-1990), is based on caregiver-child relationships. Bowlby indicated that the attachment style developed in infancy, has a true correlation to our adult relationships, and is a result of recurring interpersonal interactions with caregivers during childhood. Children develop different attachment styles based on their experience and interactions with primary caregivers. Several various ways of evaluating attachment in children have been introduced. One such evaluation mentioned in our textbook, Lifespan Development, 2014 the Strange Situation Protocol was developed by Mary Ainsworth (Boyd Bee, 2014, p.136 ). These attachments styles have been linked to how we form attachments as adolescents and even into adulthood and consists of four main attachment styles; Secure, Insecure -avoidant, Insecure-ambivalent and insecure- disorganized. Secure Attachment Style is described as â€Å"a pattern of attachment in which an infant readily separates from the parent, seeks proximity when stresses, and uses the parent as a safe base for exploration† (Boyd Bee, 2014, p.136). There is a vast amount of research regarding the importance of the parent-child relationship to the development of children into adulthood. According to an article in the Journal of Adolescence, â€Å"In the context of emotional development, according to secure base theory, parents who function as available and responsive care-givers (i.e., are