Work and love balance

Compelling Events in Childhood and Adult Intimate Relationships

It is considered that compelling events in childhood, particularly within the child caretaker connection, have a substantial influence on the nature and quality of one's intimate relationship in adulthood. Recently, psychologists began to experiment with adult love relationships and the functioning of the parent-child relationship.

Passionate Love as an Attachment Process

According to Hazan and Shaver (1987), passionate love is an attachment process. This is due to the fact that an adult develops attached or emotionally tied to a fellow adult romantic partner, just as a newborn becomes attached to the caretaker. Adult attachment styles include avoidant, secure, and anxious attachment. Secure attachment is a pattern of response to activation characterized by seeking and attaining a feeling of security while avoidance of closeness characterizes avoidant attachment style because of negative expectations and maintenance of their sense of self-worth. The last attachment style is anxious and is always characterized by anxiously seeking approval from others to seek for safety and security.

Impact of Attachment Styles on Love Relationships

Adults with different attachment styles experience their most important love relationships differently, for instance, secure adults are likely to be trustworthy in their relationships, and anxious partners tend to fall in love at first sight. These attachments provide a healthy and unhealthy relationship, negative and positive emotions and separation of loss and how loneliness and love are related.

Participants and Method

The participants involved included infants, caregivers, and adults. The infants were below one year, and the adults were above the age of 25. The infants were observed how they react in presence and absence of their caregivers. In adults, it involved their intimate relationship with their partners and also their relationship with their work.

Observation and Procedure

The method involved was direct observation. The procedure of the experiment begins by observing the child behavior in presence and absence of his/her caregiver. Besides, those adults are observed be the attachment to work and their life partners.

References

Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of personality and social psychology, 52(3), 511.