User talk:Lok04457

Lok04457 (talk) 00:13, 1 December 2011 (UTC)Attachment styles are observed when a child is temporarily separated from their caregiver, and their reactions are assessed. Children who develop an ambivalent attachment style (AAS) tend to have caregivers who aren't very sensitive to their need for security and physical proximity. These caregivers usually respond to ambivalent children inconsistently; sometimes the caregiver ignores the child (negative response) and sometimes the caregivers are dependable sources of security (postive response). As a result, ambivalent children usually seek closeness with their caregiver while simultaneously displaying discomfort and even anger in stressful situations (ex: clinging insistently while crying). Because the child’s distress signals are met with inconsistent responses from the caregiver, the child learns that negative emotions are ineffective for eliciting responses, and tend to exaggerate negative emotions--especially with the attachment figure (Fuller, 1995). AAS are characterized by infants being extremely aware and wary of threats such as illness, fear, or separation, to their relationship or their self. Ambivalent people are usually insecure, and want more intimacy than most people.

Once the ambivalent child creates an internal working model based on how their caregivers treated them, the child uses this model as a basis of defining themselves, and to interpret the goals and intentions of each person they are romantically involved with. Therefore, the internal working model regulates their attachment behavioral system, causing children to act accordingly to their parents. So with anxious ambivalent children, when their parent is cold, rejecting, unpredictable, frightening, or insensitive, the anxious-ambivalent child learns that others cannot be counted on for support and comfort, and he or she regulates her behavior to excessively demand attention and care (Maio et al, 2000).

In romantic relationships, the partner is essentially the secure base/caregiver used as a source of safety, comfort, and protection. Ambivalent adults want close relationships, but because they fear rejection, they will seek extreme forms of intimacy to the point that they become very dependent on their partner (McCarthy, 1999), and respond to stressful situations within the relationship the same way they did as children in stressful situations. They experience more negative affect in their relationships than those who were securely attached to their caregivers as kids. Ambivalent adults develop models of themselves as being misunderstood and underappreciated, and of significant others as being typically unreliable and either unwilling or unable to commit themselves to permanent relationships. AAS are usually correlated with the mania love style, which is known as the possessive, dependent love, and is was negatively related to positive relationship characteristics, except for passion.Lok04457 (talk) 00:13, 1 December 2011 (UTC)