Attachment Disorder Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Attachment Disorder - Essay Example When we examine the word 'attachment', it provides us a vision in the realm of socio-emotional development and measures the security of infant-mother attachment that proves equally successful in documenting systematic associations between development at the end of the first year of life and subsequent functioning as late as the early school-age years (Belsky & Nezworski, 1988, p. 4). Attachment theory as defined by Bowlby from its beginning was concerned with the implications of atypical patterns of attachment as well as the formation and course of normal infant-parent relationships. In order to explain the theoretical part of attachment disorder, Bowlby formulated his ideas of personality development to explain the link between early emotional deprivation and later pathology as a guide for the diagnosis and treatment of emotionally disturbed children and families. Thus, 'attachment' acts as a tool that exists in between psychopathology and normal development. Investigations carried out in a number of laboratories suggests that infants whose relationships with their mothers can be characterized as secure as opposed to insecure using the Strange Situation paradigm generally look more competent as toddlers, preschoolers, and even as children beginning public school. This does not indicate that individual differences in the security of attachment are deterministic of later development, but rather that theoretically meaningful associations between development in infancy and later functioning have been repeatedly established in studies focusing upon socio-affective functioning. The meaning of attachment disorder associated on the basis of attachment theory stipulates that feelings of security and control when grow out of the infant-mother relationship contribute to the regulation of 'attachment affect' or 'disorder' where the establishment of other social relationships, and the child's negotiation of subsequent developmental tasks evaluate the extent to which the child is affected from the disorder. Many researchers argue that misconceptions attributed to attachment theory do not support the basic assumption of guiding attachment research in context with the relationship between mother and infant. Reactive Attachment Disorder The diagnosis of attachment disorder is based upon the scientific enquiry and is described as ICD-10, Reactive Attachment Disorder or RAD that marks the severe disorders of attachment affecting children. RAD takes place whenever the process of developing relationships starts perturbing, thereby finding it very difficult to maintain social relations. The RAD analyzes disorders that evolve from distortions in the adaptive functioning of anxiety in early development. Anxiety serves as indicator to this disorder that prompts infant distress signals and proximity-seeking behaviour that, in turn, elicits regulatory assistance from the caregiver, reducing the likelihood of harm. Thus in order to avoid RAD, separation distress may be adaptive in the context of responsive, sensitive care giving. Clinical implications of attachment disorder provide significant insight into the common foundations of typical and atypical development which can be described at multiple levels. On the