Attachment styles play a critical role in shaping the emotional response in the child and, subsequently, in the emotional functioning of the adult. The relationship between the child and the caregiver allows for the conceptualization of oneself and others, which forms the concept of emotional connections in the early stages of life. Secure attachment provides comfort and prevents the development of feelings of rejection that is associated with emotional trauma. Thus, attachment styles provide both psychological and neurobiological foundations for emotional functioning in a person.
Childhood emotional maltreatment and trauma are often related to the development of psychopathologies later in life. Fuchshuber et al. (2019) underline that “the influence of childhood trauma on primary emotion dispositions in adults is mediated by deficits in personality organization and insecure attachment” (p. 7). In particular, secure attachment is associated with the manifestation of positive and pleasant emotional traits, while insecure one leads to the experience of such emotions as anger, sadness, and others. An exception is anxiety and fear of being rejected, which is developed when the caregiver giving excessive attention to the person (Fuchshuber et al., 2019). Thus, secure attachment plays a key role in personality organization development and emotional functioning.
Additionally, disturbances in attachment patterns are characterized by the development of various personality disorders. For example, anxious attachment is associated with the development of “dependent and hysterical personalities” (Levy et al., 2015, p. 199). The avoidant pattern can result in later psychopathic personalities and narcissistic personality disorder. Moreover, the link has been identified between preoccupied attachment and histrionic, avoidant, and dependent disorders; between dismissing attachment and paranoid, narcissistic, antisocial, and schizoid disorders; and between fearful attachment and schizotypal, paranoid, avoidant, borderline, obsessive-compulsive, and narcissistic disorders (Levy et al., 2015). Different patterns of attachment are associated with expressions of negative emotions such as aggression, self-harm, impulsivity, anxiety, unstable feelings of self and others.
Thus, depending on the style of attachment between the child and the caregiver, at an early stage of development, a certain system of emotional functioning is formed, which later characterizes the adult. Insecure forms of attachment are associated with psychopathologies and manifestations of the negative emotional states, while secure attachment is related to emotional stability, as well as the healthy perception of self and others.
References
Fuchshuber, J., Hiebler-Ragger, M., Kresse, A., Kapfhammer, H. P., & Unterrainer, H. F. (2019). The influence of attachment styles and personality organization on emotional functioning after childhood trauma. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10, 1-10.
Levy, K. N., Johnson, B. N., Clouthier, T. L., Scala, J. W., & Temes, C. M. (2015). An attachment theoretical framework for personality disorders. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 56(2), 197–207.