Types and Phases of Attachment According to Bowlby and Ainsworth

The Early Attachment and Development Paper
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Research has shown that early attachment experiences can have far reaching effects on development. The work of Bowlby and Ainsworth have illustrated the importance of early bonding with caregivers to the healthy development of the child.
The Early Attachment and Development Paper
The four phases of attachment identified by Bowlby
Attachment is a special emotional relationship and is linked to the exchange of care, comfort, and pleasure. Bowlby’s attachment theory emphasizes that early childhood experiences influence later human behavior and development, and an individual’s attachment style is established based on how children relate to caregivers. Bowlby identified the pre-attachment phase, attachment-in-making phase, clear-cut attachment phase, and goal-oriented partnerships (Vaughan et al., 2017). There is a development of attachment in four stages.
In the pre-attachment phase (0-2 months), the infant readily accepts any person capable of offering comfort. Children have maternal recognition, but the attachment bond is still weak. In the attachment-in-making phase (2-6 months), an infant prefers a particular person and recognizes their parents or caregivers but does not exhibit separation anxiety when separated from parents. In the clear-cut attachment phase (6 months-3 years), separation anxiety begins when a child loses contact with adults, but a child does not outrightly reject interaction with strangers. The child adjusts his or her behavior, and there is a more straightforward response in how the child interacts with the caregiver. The goal-oriented partnerships phase is the last phase that develops from three years. The infant understands the parents’ presence is temporary, and decreased separation protests are reduced.
The four types of attachment identified by Ainsworth
Ainsworth expanded on Bowlby’s original work and identified secure, anxious-insecure, insecure-avoidant, and disorganized-insecure attachment (Simon et al., 2019). Mary Ainsworth proposed the strange situation classification (SSC) technique to assess attachment type and variations between children.
 In the secure attachment style, infants can trust easily ...