Attachment and Emotional Regulation

Attachment and Emotional Regulation

Introduction

A major contribution to the development of attachment theory in humans is brought by Bowlby. He described the behavior of the system (attachment behaviors), through which the child establishes and reinforces the unique and intimate relationship between him and the environment in which they live and on which it is dependent. This system is based on five forms of behavior: suction (mouth is here as a learning tool, as in Piaget) and sticking to strengthen the relationship through physical contact, smiling at and following of (which are maintaining closeness) and cry-cry - designed to draw the attention of a guardian. In this article the relation between emotional regulation and attachment is discussed along with the attachment styles.

Discussion

Bowlby (1980) identified as operational models internal rants, expectations child would see about himself and others and that make it possible to anticipate, interpret and respond to the behavior of their attachment figures, since they integrate present and past experiences das in cognitive and emotional patterns. In Similarly, Fonagy et al. (1995) note that from repeated experiences with their figures attachment, children develop expectations as to the nature of the interactions. Thus, early attachment relationships have influence on the ability to regulate the emotions, stress, attention regulation and the function of subjects metalizing (Fonagy & Target, 2002).

The expression and regulation emotional attachment quality is fundamentally depending how well the dyadic emotional regulation is the service of exploration and mastery (Sroufe, 2000b). Thompson (1994) defines emotion regulation as "the process of initiating, maintaining, modular or changing the occurrence, intensity or duration of internal affective states and physiological processes, often with the aim to achieve a goal "(p. 106). This definition is kept fixed, allowing conceptualize emotional regulation as a process that helps humans to handle emotional states, ...