Attachment is the bond between two people characterized by a great emotional intensity, this is usually a long-term relationship with an important, special and binding component, in this sense Mary Ainsworth was the pioneer in the development of the first tool to evaluate the type of attachment specifically in children. It was known as the technique of strange situations.
This mother-baby bond is not unique to the human being, as many animal species show, however, it is the one that requires the most time to form this bond, the bond is consolidated when there is unconditionality on the part of the other.
- Achieving the health of the first attachment links is essential.
- So its purpose is to ensure the safety.
- Comfort.
- Protection and satisfaction of the basic needs of the baby.
- So.
- Depending on the style of attachment they develop in relation to their guardians.
- Children will be able to find more or less closeness.
- An emotional refuge.
- A protest against separation and a safety base.
This link not only influences the immediate well-being of the child, but also marks their psychoevolutive development, so early-stage deficiencies can affect other later stages of adulthood and maturity.
For the first attachment to be formed, a number of minimum conditions that a baby must meet must be met, requirements that ensure the development of this link in an appropriate way:
The strange situation technique is a laboratory process that was designed by American psychologist Mary Ainsworth in 1960, whose goal was to study the type of interaction a (strange) mother or adult has with the child in an unknown environment. participation in developmental psychology that is currently used to classify attachment types.
The strange situation technique attempts to simulate certain contexts to analyze the child’s behavior when leaving his comfort zone. In other words, his transition from the safe environment of the home to the exploration of another stranger. From observation it is especially interesting to know what the child’s reactions are when separated from his mother. And then when I see her again.
This simulation consists of 8 episodes and was designed to be performed with children from one year old, it is in these 12 months that the relationship between baby and caregiver must be clearly established.
In one of the most common variants of this technique, Ainsworth placed the child with his mother in a room full of toys, a time later, a stranger entered the room and the mother left, leaving the child with the stranger. Mother came back. Later, she and the stranger left the room and left the child alone, then the adult would return home.
With this, the psychologist was able to evaluate the reactions and interactions that occurred between the attachment figure and the child, both in the presence of toys and when the little one was with a stranger and alone.
Based on the technique of strange situations, 3 types of attachment have been established: safe, avoidable and ambivalent.
Currently, a child’s attachment does not fully determine the personality and quality of personal relationships between adults, however, it can greatly influence the interactions he establishes in later stages of his development, so from the 1960s his study was one of the most fundamental pillars of developmental psychology.