Good/Bad Parenting Determines Your Outcome

During my Psychology lecture today, we learned about childhood attachments. There was a basic experiment that we were shown, involving a baby, his parent and a stranger. Basically what they were testing was the reaction of the baby given exposure to novel things.

1) Baby & Parent introduced to a play room with lots of toys.
2) Parent watches but does not respond to the baby.
3) A stranger walks in, sits down, and talks to the parent.
4) Parent walks out, and stranger responds to the baby.
5) Parent returns and responds to the baby.

With this 5 steps, psychologists were about to classify and categorise the babies into 4 main groups.

1) Secure Attachment - Baby explores the room when parent's around, gets distressed when parent leaves but calms down when parent returns. He also keeps an eye on the stranger.

2) Anxious-Avoidant Attachment - Baby goes about playing and exploring. He doesn't care when parent leaves or when stranger comes in.

3) Anxious-Resistant Attachment - Baby is easily distressed and clings on to the parent even before being released in the play room. When parent leaves, baby is very distressed and very resentful when parent returns.

4) Disorganised/Disorientated Attachment - Baby is confused and has a dazed look. He might sometimes cry for no apparent reason unexpectantly.

Now all these results were recorded and then when the babies were older, their characters were noted. The following was the general consensus:

1) Secure Attachment - More tolerant, sociable, and feel less anxious in relationships.

2) Anxious-Avoidant Attachment - Less trusting of others, feels negative self-worth, and less likely to seek help when needed

3) Anxious-Resistant Attachment - Less persistent, enthusiastic, and compliant; expresses more anger and frustration; likely to be exploited by peers.

4) Disorganised/Disorientated Attachment - Some evidence shows that they are most likely to show hostile and/or aggressive behaviour.

So with these in mind, what kind of baby were you and did it pre-determine how you'd turn out to be? And when people claim that you were brought up badly by your parents, they could be right.