H O W H O R M O N E S A F F E C T AT TA C H M E N T S

by Yukta and Letisha

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 AT TA C H M E N T S

• Attachment is the predominant factor in long-term

relationships. While lust and attraction are pretty much
exclusive to romantic entanglements, attachment
mediates friendships, parent-infant bonding, social
cordiality, and many other intimacies as well.
• oxytocin - Oxytocin is often nicknamed “cuddle
hormone” for this reason. Like dopamine, oxytocin is
produced by the hypothalamus and released in large
quantities during sex, breastfeeding, and childbirth.

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 OXYTOCIN
Oxytocin is a nine-amino-acid neuropeptide that is synthesized in the hypothalamus, it then travels to and is
stored in the posterior pituitary gland and has been shown to enhance activation in brain areas related to
bonding and empathy and functional connectivity between those areas.

The organization of oxytocin availability is critical to the limbic and neocortical systems – those structures
related to emotion and depends on early caregiving experiences. Neurobiologically oxytocin directs the
young infant to preferentially select species-specific social stimuli to form dyadic attachments.

Oxytocin helps to regulate the autonomic nervous system, with consequences for sensory, visceral,
metabolic, and smooth motor systems
 METHOD
Ruth Feldman, psychology professor, conducted the first study to demonstrate the links between oxytocin
and bonding in human mothers. Feldman and colleagues measured plasma oxytocin from sixty-two pregnant
women during their first trimester, third trimester, and the first postpartum month. They also observed the
mother and child interact, defining the level of attachment along four aspects: gaze, affect, touch, and
vocalization. Stronger attachment would mean that the mother focused her gaze mostly on the child,
exhibited a positive energy towards the child, maintained constant affectionate and stimulating touch with
the child, used a “motherese” speech with the child, and these species-typical maternal behaviors were
adapted to the infant’s alert state. After the mothers completed an extensive survey and an interview on their
bond- related thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, the researchers computed the link between levels of
oxytocin and bonding.
 R E S U LT S
Initial levels of oxytocin at the first trimester predicted bonding behavior. Therefore, mothers with a high
level of the hormone at the beginning of the pregnancy engaged in more of the bonding behaviors after birth.
Additionally, mothers who had higher levels of oxytocin across the pregnancy and the postpartum month also
reported more behaviors that support the formation of an exclusive relationship. These mothers were also
more preoccupied by thoughts of checking on the infant, the infant’s safety when they are not around. This
study, which appears in the November issue of Psychological Science, suggests that women with higher
levels of oxytocin during their first trimester are primed to the formation of an exclusive bond with their
infants. Oxytocin seems to be preparing mothers to engage in bonding behaviors. The findings also show that
oxytocin is related to the mental, as well as the behavioral, aspect of bonding.
S E C U R E AT TA C H M E N T S
• Increased oxytocin levels lead to more feelings of secure attachment in insecurely attached
people. These individuals end up more willing to trust significant others to provide care,
safety, and protection.
• Attachment avoidance, in contrast, provides a model about others, such that individuals
lower on attachment avoidance feel they can depend on others to be available when needed,
and are comfortable with closeness and intimacy
AV O I D A N T A N D A N X I O U S
AT TA C H M E N T S
• For people with avoidant attachment, oxytocin reduces the fear of being exploited by others.
This effect potentially makes the avoidant attacher more open to healthy, long-term
relationships
• But what works for some may not work for others. Anxious attachers struggle predominantly
with trust in their relationships, so healthy oxytocin levels may not be enough to mitigate this
difficulty. Therefore, this effect once again demonstrates that oxytocin levels may impact
attachment styles in differing ways.
 CONCLUSION
Attachment styles are typically developed in infancy based on our relationships with our earliest
caregivers. Researchers believe attachment style is formed within our first year of living, between 7 to 11
months of age, according to mental health counselor Grace Suh, LMHC, LPC.
Just the simple act of touch can increase the levels of oxytocin release.
Oxytocin facilitates feelings of love and compassion and plays an important role in the development of
affiliative motivation and social behavior
In humans, attachment style has been linked to individual oxytocin levels and to genetic oxytocin
receptor polymorphisms, so that it appears to reflect an endophenotype determining the responsiveness of
an individual’s oxytocin system (Bartz et al., 2015; Shamay-Tsoory and Abu-Akel, 2016). Consistent with
this view, attachment style has already been identified as a potent moderator of oxytocin effects on several
types of human cognition and social behavior in previous studies (Bartz et al., 2010b, 2015; Olff
et al., 2013; Fang et al., 2014; Waller et al., 2015).
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