The default center alignment behavior in Illustrator will average all selected objects to a new position. That's usually not what anyone wants. If you want a certain object to stay locked in place while other objects align to it you'll have to select the objects and then while they're selected click the object you want to lock in place as the key object. It will highlight the object's stroke blue in color. Press the desired function in the Align palette and the objects will align in a more predictable manner.
Thanks for reaching out. Would you mind sharing more details, like the OS/Illustrator version, if Illustrator behaves this way with all files, and a link to a sample file after uploading it to a file-sharing service (if possible) so I can better assist you?