ious-ambivalent, avoidant, and disorganized (Lyddon, 2001, p. 406). Children who form secure patterns of attachment view the caregiver as available and responsive to their needs. This patterns leads to the healthiest development, ôThe child caregiver relationship is characterized as a secure base to which the child feels safe to return for comfort when exploration becomes particularly anxiety provoking or uncomfortableö (Lyddon, 2001, p. 406).
Infants with the anxious-ambivalent pattern of attachment exhibit behavior that includes clinging to the caregiver instead of exploring the environment. Upon separation from the caregiver there is extreme anxiety and reuniting with the caregiver does not comfort the child. Caregivers are perceived as unreliable by the infants in meeting security needs. Infants who exhibit the avoidant pattern of attachment display a ôpervasive indifference before and after separationö (Lyddon, 2001, p. 406). Such infants show indifference to the caregiver before and after separation and the caregiver is avoided upon reunion. The disorganized attachment pattern refers to infants who ôdisplay a pronounced mixture of ambivalent and avoidant patterns of behaviorö (Lyddon, 2001, p. 407).
Each kind of attachment pattern affects the emotional development of the child across the lifecycle. Infants with secure attachment demonstrate a balance between assimilative and accommodative processes, creating a secure self-system that is flexible and open to new learning and change. Insecurely attached individuals tend to be closed to new information. Any attachment pattern other than secure leads to the risk of the development of psychopathology. As Robinson (2002, p. 6-7) explains, ôDisturbances in attachment behaviors represent significant risk factors in the development of later psychopathology.ö
The work of Bowlby and other attachment theorists demonstrates that children who do not form secure atta...