Impact of Parental Attachment on Achievement Motivation

Background of the Study

Humans are born more dependent and in need of physical care, teaching, and emotional support for a longer period of time than any other animals. If people feel they belong to a family group, if they have a deep, personal emotional involvement(negative or positive)with this group, and if their identity is defined by the group, then we must accept them as a family.

Today, young people do not become completely independent financially until they finish their training and take their first full time job in their field.

It is hardly appropriate to refer to college students and graduate students as adolescents. And yet they are not usually defined as adults, especially by their parents, until they have completed their training and are economically self sufficient-more or less.

The present study specifically traces the impact of parental attachment on the achievement motivation of the students. This chapter deals with orientation to this study, introducing the topic for research, explanation of the variables, and the objectives of this study.

Situational Analysis/Overview Developmental Perspective of Youth

Developmental psychology is concerned with the scientific understanding of age-related changes in experience and behaviour. Psychologists study individuals as they grow, mature and age during the developmental stages of infancy,childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age.

According to Elizabeth B Herlock the stages of development includes:- infancy(from birth to 18 months), early childhood(18 months to 3 years), middle childhood(3-5), late childhood(5-12), adolescence(12-20), early adulthood(20-30), mature adulthood(30-65), old age(65 years till death).

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Adolescence is a period of transition from childhood to adulthood which extends from 12-20 years. During this period the individual attains puberty leading to many changes.

These changes have enormous implications for the individual’s sexual, social, emotional and vocational life. These changes make the individual to find an identity, which means developing an understanding of self, the goals one wishes to achieve and the work/occupation role. The individual craves for encouragement and support of caretakers and peer groups. If he is successful he will develop a sense of self or identity, otherwise he will suffer from role confusion/ identity confusion. Early adulthood stage extends from 20-30 years. As an adult, the individual takes a firmer place in society, usually holding a job, contributing to community and maintaining a family and care of offspring. These new responsibilities can create tensions and frustrations, and one solution involves is, an intimate relationship with family.

Psycho-Social Problems Faced by Youngsters

Understanding regarding psychosocial problems concludes that it is a state of emotional and behavior disorders synonymous with internalizing and externalizing conditions, respectively. Most common disorders include depression and anxiety (internalizing disorders), and delinquency, aggression, educational difficulties, and truancy (externalizing disorders). Adolescence and young adulthood is mainly affected by home and school environments. Schools and colleges play a vital role in the development of youngsters, as they spend much time attending classes,, engaging in extracurricular activities, and completing scholastic work at home. School/college represents an institution that contributes to the overall educational and socialization processes, critical in personality development of a person.

The students included in the 18-21 age group who are adolescents/ young adults always try to carve out their own secret world, inventing private codes of style and behaviour designed to communicate only within the peer group and to exclude or offend adults. It is said that their lives are stressful, filled with social pressures including worries about safety, education and fears of being stereotyped. Mobile phones and internet makes it harder for parents to read their kids. Even with interaction also the secret lives of youngsters are likely to remain secret. They are as bounded as the internet, a daunting world for any parent to enter. Even though they are the masters of the new domain they still need adult guidance on their travels.

Globally, 1 out of 10 (20%) adolescents encounter at least one behavioral problem. Half of lifetime mental disorders begin before the age of 14 years, and 75% begin by the age of 24 years. Compared to developed countries, in developing countries, such as Nepal and other south-Asian countries, scenario of mental health and its care system is worse.

In the Indian context, 14–40% of adolescent students are assumed to have mental health problems. Lack of attention to the mental wellbeing of adolescents and young adults, in a key phase of socialization, may lead to mental health consequences that may remain throughout life and reduces the capacity of societies’ socioeconomic productivity. More precisely, it can be claimed that proper psychosocial development of youngsters is reflected with sound academic performance, physical health and adequate social, emotional, and psychological health. This ultimately contributes in reducing the risk of psychosocial and behavioral problems, violence, crime, teenage pregnancy, and misuse of drugs and alcohol.

Attachment Theory

Attachment theory advocates appropriate and adequate human behaviour. It mainly focuses on the emotional connection between individuals in every stage of human life. Experiencing and establishing a positive bond evinces an enduring relationship between individuals. At the same time if the bond is negative, the behaviour between individuals becomes vulnerable.

Attachment theory, in fact, is a derivation of psychoanalysis that gives emphasis to the early affinity between mother and child (Bowbly, 1982). It highlights that humans are born with an attachment system, which motivates them to seek proximity, comfort, and assistance from parents, and, later on, other protective figures such as, teachers, friends, romantic partners, and counselors especially when some threat or adversity is imminent (Moss, 2008).

Bowlby (1982) and Mary Ainsworth (1985), have delineated attachment as an affectional bond that one person establishes with another. This bond initially initiates in infancy and is sustained until the end of the life of an individual. In early childhood the bond instinctively forms based on the experience with a mother or a caregiver. As a result the child identifies with that person as its attachment figure. When children start exploring the environment freely and when they experience a sudden threat or danger, their attachment system instantly activates and elicits behaviour that invites attention from their mother or caregiver. Ultimately, it is to maintain proximity with their caregiver. If the attachment figure is not available or is not responsive, individuals experience a sense of anxiety (Bowlby, 1969;1982).

Attachment Characteristics

The established attachment has three distinguishing characteristics which clearly describes the evolutionary benefits of attachment. They are the following: proximity maintenance, secure base, and safe haven. The proximity maintenance refers to the desire to be near to people one is attached to.

The secure base denotes an attachment figure whom the child assumes as a security base from where the child explores the surrounding environment securely. And the safe haven refers to the comfort zone to which a child returns whenever it faces any fearful situation. On the other hand, if the child could not find or have the attachment figure, the child undergoes an irrational experience that is known as separation distress. The concept of a secure base is important, because it links attachment and exploration and provides the basis of a secure attachment. A securely attached child does not only seek comfort from an attachment figure, but also through feeling safe to explore develops confidence, competence and resilience.

Attachment Styles

Attachment theoreticians gradually evolved attachment styles to explain attachment behaviour of individuals. Initially, three styles of attachment, secure, ambivalent and avoidant styles have been brought out by Ainsworth . Subsequently, it has been applied to adults behaviour by introducing four styles of attachment, such as, secure, preoccupied, dismissive, and fearful styles. The four prototypic attachment styles are defined in terms of the intersection of two underlying dimensions the positive or negative model of the self and positive or negative model of hypothetical others. The four styles and their relations to the underlying dimensions.

Parental Attachment

Parental attachment is the tendency of human infants and animals to become emotionally close to certain individuals and to be calm and soothed while in their presence. Human infants develop strong emotional bonds with a caregiver, particularly a parent, and attachment to their caregivers is a step toward establishing a feeling of security in the world(Nugent, Pam M.S, 2013).

Achievement Motivation

Achievement motivation: latest disposition which is manifested in overt striving only when the individual performance as instrumental to a sense of personal accomplishment(Atkinson and Feather, 1966). Achievement motivation seems to vary from person to person.  Some people have high achievement motivations in school, while others in sports, while others in nothing at all. Extrinsic motivators are rewards that we get for accomplishments from outside ourselves (grades, salary etc.).

Intrinsic motivators are rewards we get internally, such as enjoyment or satisfaction. Motivation is the driving force behind a person’s actions. There are many different types of motivation, and everyone is inspired by something different. The influence of an individual’s needs and desires both have a strong impact on the direction of their behavior. Motivation is based on your emotions and achievement-related goals. There are different forms of motivation including extrinsic, intrinsic, physiological, and achievement motivation. There are also more negative forms of motivation. Individuals will satisfy their needs through different means, and are driven to succeed for varying reasons both internal and external.

Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation is defined as the enjoyment of and interest in an activity for its own sake. Fundamentally viewed as an approach form of motivation, intrinsic motivation is identified as an important component of achievement goal theory. Most achievement goal and intrinsic motivational theorists argue that mastery goals are facilitative of intrinsic motivation and related mental processes and performance goals create negative effects. Mastery goals are said to promote intrinsic motivation by fostering perceptions of challenge, encouraging task involvement, generating excitement, and supporting self-determination while performance goals are the opposite. Performance goals are portrayed as undermining intrinsic motivation by instilling perceptions of threat, disrupting task involvement, and creating anxiety and pressure (Elliot & Harackiewicz, 1996).

Importance-Social Work Perspective

Interventions designed to help adolescents are typically targeted at the reduction of specific problems (e.g., depression or delinquency), and there are many effective interventions for helping troubled adolescents (e.g., Dishion & Kavanagh, 2003; Stein, Zitner, & Jensen, 2006). Increasing adolescent attachment security may also be an effective means of reducing adolescent problems. In other words, does an intervention focused on the adolescent-parent attachment relationship increase the likelihood of reduced problematic adolescent behavior? There has been remarkably little research on this important question.

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