Describe attachment theory and the major attachment styles.

• A. Bowlby and Ainsworth; styles: secure, avoidant, resistant, disorganized.
• B. Bowlby and Ainsworth; styles: secure, anxious-ambivalent, anxious-avoidant, and disorganized.
• C. Skinner and Pavlov; styles: secure, anxious-ambivalent, anxious-avoidant, disorganized.
• D. Freud and Erikson; styles: secure, avoidant, ambivalent, disorganized.

Answer: (B)

Attachment theory explains how early bonds with caregivers shape a child’s sense of safety and patterns in later relationships. John Bowlby proposed that children are biologically wired to seek closeness to a caregiver when stressed, using that caregiver as a secure base for exploring the world. Mary Ainsworth built on this by watching how infants respond in the Strange Situation and identifying four attachment patterns that reflect how consistently a caregiver meets the child’s needs. The four styles are secure, anxious-ambivalent, anxious-avoidant, and disorganized. Securely attached children feel confident exploring with their caregiver as a reliable base, show distress when the caregiver leaves, and are quickly comforted upon return. Anxious-ambivalent (also called anxious-resistant) children are highly distressed by separation and have difficulty being soothed upon reunion, due to inconsistent caregiver responsiveness. Anxious-avoidant children tend to show little distress during separation and avoid the caregiver afterward, often reflecting a history of rejection or unresponsiveness. Disorganized attachment combines inconsistent, confused, or fearful behaviors and is often linked to chaotic or traumatic caregiving contexts. The option that credits Bowlby and Ainsworth and lists these four styles aligns with the established framework. The other choices point to researchers who aren’t the originators of attachment theory (for example, behaviorists or psychoanalytic theorists) and use different or less accurate stylistic labels, so they don’t fit as well.