How does attachment style influence emotional management?
These are the ways in which attachment styles influence us in emotional management.
When we experience emotions, what we feel is subjective and private; a person will never have a complete notion of how another person feels, but will only be able to approximate this kind of experience thanks to the use of language and the complete communication system available to human beings.
For example, art reminds us that it is impossible to fully delimit affections and feelings using words to classify and describe them objectively through labels: we need to use other creative resources to capture and express them.
However, it would be a mistake to consider that human emotion is a totally individual phenomenon, which is born and dies in the person who feels it. In fact, the raison d'être of emotions is to help us interact with our environment in the best possible way for our survival. And this includes the way we manage our relationships with others. This is why it is so important to to understand the link between emotions and the type of attachment we establish with those who matter most to us, from the moment we are born.from the moment of our birth.
What is attachment style?
In the field of developmental psychology (the branch of psychology that studies the growth and maturation of people, from gestation in the womb to old age) attachment is considered one of the most important concepts for understanding the way in which individuals develop psychosocially.
Defined mainly on the basis of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth's Attachment Theory, attachment is understood as a set of psychological predispositions that people adopt with respect to a referent figure, usually represented by fathers, mothers and/or caregivers in early childhood. psychological predispositions that people adopt with respect to a referent figure, usually represented by fathers, mothers and/or caregivers in early childhood.. Thus, attachment gives rise to a type of emotional bonding that occurs from the first weeks after the birth of the baby, and which unites the child with the closest adults who take care of its survival, care and education in the main aspects of life.
However, this emotional bond is not always of the same type, and depends to a large extent on the way in which the interaction between these protective figures and the child takes place. Some of these forms of attachment are functional and beneficial for the child, while others are dysfunctional and capable of greatly hindering the child's psychological and even physical development. In addition, the way in which one or the other attachment style the way in which one or another attachment style is established during infancy often has significant consequences in the establishment of the individual's personality and in the way he or she manages his or her emotions and emotions. and in the way they manage their emotions and social relationships during adolescence and adulthood.
The relationship between attachment style and emotions.
As we have seen, attachment has implications for people's behavior many years after it has been established during childhood. Although it is not in itself an innate psychological element and is based above all on unconscious and internalized learning during the first years of life, this does not mean that it is easy to "unlearn" its imprint in one's own mind: sometimes, what has originated through experience is more difficult to correct than certain genetic or congenital alterations.
This is true of the different attachment styles and the way in which they predispose people to manage emotions in one way or another. As much of our personality is built on what we learn during early childhood through interaction with our surroundings and with others, subtle differences in the emotional bond that unites us with our fathers, mothers and caregivers can generate as a "chain reaction" an emotional and cognitive development towards some attitudes or others, some attitudes or others, some attitudes or others. towards some attitudes or others, some beliefs or others, etc.
These are the different attachment styles and the way in which they influence our emotional facet.
1. Anxious-avoidant attachment
This type of attachment occurs when protective figures do not provide the necessary protection and emotional support and are close to parental neglect.. As a consequence, people who grow up in this context get used to not expecting much from others, and develop from the idea that they themselves should take care of their own well-being, without the participation of others.
2. Ambivalent anxious attachment
As its name suggests, this attachment style is characterized by ambivalence. In infancy, it occurs when fathers, mothers or caregivers behave in an inconsistent and difficult to predict manner.This causes the child to suffer when they are not present to provide protection, but at the same time to feel anxious when they are around.
In adulthood, this type of development gives rise to a predisposition to generate bonds based on dependency: one feels that one needs the other person, but his or her presence does not bring peace of mind.
3. Secure attachment
This style of attachment is the most beneficial.It occurs when reference figures provide a balance between protection and emotional support, on the one hand, and freedom to explore the environment on one's own initiative. In adulthood, it takes the form of a relative ease in maintaining a good emotional balance and equitable and healthy personal relationships.
4. Disorganized attachment
This is the most damaging attachment style, and occurs in highly unstructured and dysfunctional family contexts, in which it is common for there to be a high degree of emotional balance and healthy personal relationships.where psychopathologies or illnesses such as addiction or even domestic violence are common. It is capable of generating an anomalous development prone to cause psychiatric alterations in children.
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(Updated at Apr 14 / 2024)