Attachment Theory and Personality of an Abusive Person - Term Paper Example

For this reason, availability and responsiveness of primary caregivers creates a sense of security in an individual and results to the formation of positive models. On the other hand, the failure by primary caregivers to be responsive promotes insecurity, which leads to the formation of negative models. Therefore, the attachment theory is instrumental in shaping the personality of an individual. While responsiveness and availability of primary caregivers results to positive models of personality, unresponsiveness and unavailability of caregivers is responsible for negative personality models such as abusive personalities among individuals.

Dutton (2007) notes, “Abusers harbor a long-held, chronic resentment that they were not, or are not, valued in some way” (p. 11). In this case, abusive people nurse continuous bitterness based on their past regarding their upbringing, which makes them develop an abusive personality. Bowlby (1969) noted, “Infants are equipped at birth with a biologically based behavioral and motivational system that has evolved with the purpose of promoting proximity to a caregiver” (as cited in Lyddon & Sherry, 2001, p. 406). Thus, the definition of the attachment pattern that a child adopts depends upon the responsiveness, or failure to respond, by the caregiver.

In effect, the attachment pattern that children adopt determines the personality that they will develop and grow with, which will play a significant role in their adult life. Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, and Wall (1978) experimented on children and identified “three patterns of attachments called secure, anxious/ambivalent, and avoidant patterns. The anxious/ambivalent and avoidant are considered insecure patterns” (as cited in Mayseless, 1991, p. 23). Once adopted by children, these insecure patterns lead to negative models of personality such as abusiveness in an individual.

Bowlby (1988) supports this argument by pointing out that the internal working models, which are the three patterns of attachment, are “central components of personality which characterize everyone later in his/her life as an adult” (as cited in Mayseless, 1991, p.23). In this case, an abusive personality in an individual is a result of the internal working model the individual adopted in their earlier lives although Livesley (2001) noted, “People with the same personality disorder can differ with respect to attachment orientation” (p. 223). Nevertheless, an abusive personality, which is an example of a personality disorder, is a result of either anxious/ambivalent or avoidant attachment patterns.

Mayseless (1991) noted the main characteristic of the internal working model as the “uncertainty and low predictability that the parent or caregiver will be available, responsive, or helpful when called upon” (p. 23). In effect, this creates a situation whereby the child will always want to be around the company of a caregiver. In effect, Mayseless (1991) observed that such children developed clinginess and always protested in instances where the caregiver was not responding to them, which resulted to a manifestation of unresolved anger or some instances of overt hostilities (p. 23). In this regard, these children are the ones who develop into adults who regarded themselves as people who were uncared for while young.

As a result, such people will develop hostile personalities since their caregivers failed to respond to them in their time of