research findings that challenge the learning theory of attachment

Learning Theory of Attachment

Saul McLeod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul McLeod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

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Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

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The learning theory of attachment suggests that attachment is a set of learned behaviors instead of innate biological behavior. The basis for the learning of attachments is the provision of food.

This theory encompasses two types of learning: classical conditioning, where an infant learns to associate the caregiver with comfort and eventually forms an attachment.

Operant conditioning, on the other hand, assumes that infants are in a drive state of internal tension or discomfort, and their actions focus on removing this discomfort.

Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning involves the formation of associations between different events and stimuli.

This process explains how an emotional bond is formed through associations with comfort and security, contributing to the infant’s attachment to their mother.

Classical conditioning, as explained in the context of attachment theory, posits that infants learn to associate their caregivers (usually the mother) with satisfying their needs and the subsequent pleasure.

Here is a basic breakdown of how it works:

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) : The infant’s biological needs, such as hunger, creates discomfort. When these needs are satisfied, such as feeding, it leads to pleasure.
Unconditioned Response (UCR) : The infant feels pleasure when their needs are satisfied.
Neutral Stimulus (NS) : Initially, the mother is a neutral stimulus, as she is not innately associated with satisfying the infant’s needs.
Association : Over time, the infant begins associating the mother (NS) with satisfying their needs (UCS). The mother is present when feeding results in the infant associating the comfort and pleasure of feeding with her.
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) and Conditioned Response (CR) : The mother becomes a conditioned stimulus. This means that her presence alone is enough to trigger a sense of security and pleasure in the infant (now a conditioned response), even without the original unconditioned stimulus (feeding). This formed association is what we understand as the attachment between the infant and the mother.

Dollard and Miller

John Dollard and Neal Miller created the learning theory of attachment, combining elements from Freud’s and Hull’s drive theories , unifying psychoanalysis and behaviorism. Their model posits that attachment is a learned behavior from classical and operant conditioning through drive reduction.

Operant conditioning proposes that infants are in a drive state, a form of internal tension or discomfort that motivates an organism to engage in behaviors that will reduce this discomfort. It is an impulse that prompts action to fulfill a need and restore equilibrium.

Dollard and Miller emphasized that a child’s attachment is primarily due to the caregiver providing food rather than an emotional bond.

When an infant is hungry, they experience discomfort, which creates a drive state and motivates them to reduce this discomfort.

The drive is reduced when fed, satisfying their hunger and making them comfortable.

Over time, the infant learns to view the food as a primary reinforcer or reward. This association leads to the development of an attachment, with the infant seeking the person’s presence associated with comfort.

The theory consists of four processes: drive, cue, response, and reinforcement. Over time, infants learn to associate discomfort relief with their caregiver, forming an attachment.

The secondary drive hypothesis is also a key part of their theory, explaining the development of complex systems of secondary drives from primary drives.

It asserts that primary drives, like hunger, become associated with secondary drives, like emotional closeness. As infants grow and experience different situations, these primary drives evolve into complex secondary drives.

The person providing the food becomes associated with this comfort, thus becoming a secondary reinforcer.

The hypothesis views attachment as a reciprocal learning process between child and caregiver, facilitated by negative reinforcement, wherein the caregiver seeks to alleviate the infant’s distress.

The infant’s behavior is also reinforcing for the caregiver (the caregiver gains pleasure from smiles etc. – reward). The reinforcement process is, therefore, reciprocal (two-way) and strengthens the emotional bond/attachment between the two.

Critical Evaluation

Learning Theory’s understanding of attachment has been scrutinized based on various empirical findings. For instance, Shaffer and Emerson (1964) found that attachments seem to be formed in responsive individuals rather than those who provide the care.

Schaffer and Emerson discovered that fewer than half of infants primarily bonded with the individual who typically fed them. This evidence challenges the theory’s assertion that feeding is the main driver of attachment formation.

Another notable critique comes from Harlow’s study of monkeys . His research indicated that the monkeys formed stronger attachments to the soft, comforting surrogate mother than the one providing food. This finding opposes the learning theory, which posits attachment formation largely through the provision and association with sustenance.

The learning theory of attachment does not explain why there is a critical period in most animals and humans, after which infants cannot form attachment, or attachment might be more difficult. It does not explain why infants seem to go through the same stages at about the same age in the formation of attachment

Furthermore, Lorenz’s research involving goslings demonstrated imprinting on the first moving object they perceived. This seemingly instinctive behavior contradicts the learning theory’s proposition that attachment is a learned behavior, suggesting an innate predisposition instead.

Learning Theory is also critiqued due to its reliance on animal research, calling into question the validity of extrapolating its findings to humans. Though behaviorists argue that human and animal learning processes are similar, this perspective is overly simplistic and disregards the complexity of human behavior.

This simplification is a limitation of the theory, as it may not encompass all behavioral facets, such as attachment, which could also involve innate predispositions.

Another critique of the learning theory is its overemphasis on the role of food in attachment. Conflicting evidence, such as Harlow’s study, argues that comfort might play a more significant role than food in attachment formation.

Despite its focus on habit formation, critics note the theory overlooks factors like sensitive caregiving and interactional synchrony.

This is echoed in Schaeffer and Emerson’s findings, where the infants clung more to the cloth-covered wire mother, which provided comfort, not nourishment.

Additionally, the drive reduction theory, which forms part of the learning theory’s explanation, is no longer widely accepted, as it is overly simplistic. It fails to address behaviors driven by secondary reinforcers and cannot explain actions that cause discomfort rather than reduce it.

Despite these criticisms, learning theory offers valuable insights into attachment’s nature. It emphasizes the role of association and reinforcement in learning, implying that consistent responsiveness and sensitivity to a child’s needs from a caregiver can facilitate attachment.

The infant learns acceptable behaviors by replicating this responsive and sensitive behavior, indicating a potential interplay between innate and learned aspects of attachment formation.

Learning Check

Andrea provides most of the care for her son, Oliver, feeding, comforting, and playing with him. She has noticed that, whilst he is happy to spend time with his father, Oliver seems most content when he is with her.

Use your knowledge of the learning theory of attachment to explain Oliver’s behavior. (2 marks)

As Andrea provides most of the care for Oliver, he associates her with the satisfaction of primary drives, such as hunger and thirst. She has also become associated with other pleasurable things, such as comfort and security, through classical conditioning. In contrast, his father provides little care, so Oliver has not associated him with pleasure and comfort. Therefore, Oliver prefers to be with Andrea than with his father.

Miguel’s mother gave up work when he was born and stayed home to look after him. Miguel’s father works far away, so he is rarely home before his bedtime. Miguel is nine months old and has a very close bond with his mother.

Use learning theory to explain how Max became attached to his mother rather than to his father. (6 marks)

According to the learning approach, attachment is a learned behavior. It can be learned through classical conditioning, learning through association, and operant conditioning, learning through consequences. According to classical conditioning food

(UCS) produces pleasure (UCR). Miguel’s mother started as a neutral stimulus but was associated through repeated pairings with the food and became a conditioned stimulus. So Miguel felt pleasure when he saw his mother (CR).

According to operant conditioning, food satisfied Miguel’s hunger and made him feel comfortable again (drive reduction). Food was, therefore, a primary reinforcer. His mother was associated with food and became a secondary reinforcer. Miguel became attached to his mother because she was a source of reward.

However, his father being absent often was not associated with pleasure as he did not feed Miguel or make him feel comfortable, so the child shows no attachment to him.

Who developed the learning theory of attachment?

The learning theory of attachment, also known as the behaviorist explanation of attachment, is associated with psychologists such as John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner. This approach posits that attachment is a set of learned behaviors, emphasizing operant and classical conditioning principles.

However, it’s important to note that this differs from the attachment theory developed by John Bowlby , which incorporates cognitive and evolutionary elements.

What is the learning theory of Dollard and Miller?

Dollard and Miller’s learning theory suggests that attachment behavior is learned through conditioning principles. Infants learn to associate caregivers with the comfort of meeting their needs, forming an attachment. Positive interactions reinforce this attachment, while negative experiences may lead to avoidance.

How are Dollard and Miller different from Skinner?

While Skinner’s theory focuses on the role of reinforcement in attachment behavior, emphasizing how a caregiver’s response can reinforce or discourage attachment, Dollard and Miller’s theory integrates both behavioral and psychoanalytic concepts. They suggest that attachment forms from learned habits, driven by a desire to reduce the discomfort of hunger and make them comfortable.

Dollard, J., & Miller, N. E. (1950). Personality and psychotherapy; an analysis in terms of learning, thinking, and culture . New York, NY, US: McGraw-Hill.

Harlow, H. F., Dodsworth, R. O., & Harlow, M. K. (1965). Total social isolation in monkeys . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 54 (1), 90.

Harlow, H. F. & Zimmermann, R. R. (1958). The development of affective responsiveness in infant monkeys . Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 102 ,501 -509.

Lorenz, K. (1935). Der Kumpan in der Umwelt des Vogels. Der Artgenosse als auslösendes Moment sozialer Verhaltensweisen. Journal für Ornithologie, 83 , 137–215, 289–413.

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A Learning Theory Approach to Attachment Theory: Exploring Clinical Applications

Affiliations.

1 Clinical Psychology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. [email protected].
2 Clinical Psychology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
3 Clinical Child and Family Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
4 Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, USA.
5 Centre for Psychology of Learning and Experimental Psychopathology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
6 Department of Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
7 Research Department of Clinical, Education and Health Psychology, Faculty of Brain Sciences, UCL, London, UK.
PMID: 35098428
PMCID: PMC8801239
DOI: 10.1007/s10567-021-00377-x

Although clinicians typically acknowledge the importance of insecure attachment as one factor that can contribute to children's psychopathology, translating attachment theory into clinical practice has proved a challenge. By specifying some of the mechanisms through which the child's attachment develops and changes, learning theory can enhance attachment based approaches to therapy. Specifically, interventions building on operant (parent management training) and classical (exposure therapy) learning can be used to stimulate new learning that increases the child's security and confidence in the parent's availability and responsiveness. To explore the clinical application and utility of a Learning Theory of Attachment (LTA), we focus on two attachment-focused interventions: Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD) and Middle Childhood Attachment-based Family Therapy (MCAT). VIPP-SD is an evidence-based parent management training designed to promote sensitive parenting and secure attachment in early childhood. MCAT is a recently developed intervention that uses exposure to stimulate secure attachment in middle childhood. LTA sheds light on the mechanisms set in train by VIPP-SD and MCAT facilitating the induction of professionals in clinical applications.

Keywords: Attachment; Attachment-based Family Therapy; Early childhood; Intervention; Learning theory; Middle childhood; VIPP-SD.

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Conflict of interest statement

Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg and Marinus van IJzendoorn are the developers of the VIPP-SD parent coaching program, together with Femmie Juffer. Guy Bosmans and Leen Van Vlierberghe are the developers of the MCAT program. They all work on a non-profit basis and do not receive any financial recompensation.

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Operant conditioning and the Learning Theory of Attachment. Sd Discriminative Stimulus; R behavior;…

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A Learning Theory Approach to Attachment Theory: Exploring Clinical Applications

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Published: 30 January 2022
Volume 25 , pages 591–612, ( 2022 )

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research findings that challenge the learning theory of attachment

Guy Bosmans ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9057-6027 1 ,
Leen Van Vlierberghe 1 ,
Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg 2 ,
Roger Kobak 3 ,
Dirk Hermans 4 &
Marinus H. van IJzendoorn 5 , 6

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Although clinicians typically acknowledge the importance of insecure attachment as one factor that can contribute to children’s psychopathology, translating attachment theory into clinical practice has proved a challenge. By specifying some of the mechanisms through which the child’s attachment develops and changes, learning theory can enhance attachment based approaches to therapy. Specifically, interventions building on operant (parent management training) and classical (exposure therapy) learning can be used to stimulate new learning that increases the child’s security and confidence in the parent’s availability and responsiveness. To explore the clinical application and utility of a Learning Theory of Attachment (LTA), we focus on two attachment-focused interventions: Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD) and Middle Childhood Attachment-based Family Therapy (MCAT). VIPP-SD is an evidence-based parent management training designed to promote sensitive parenting and secure attachment in early childhood. MCAT is a recently developed intervention that uses exposure to stimulate secure attachment in middle childhood. LTA sheds light on the mechanisms set in train by VIPP-SD and MCAT facilitating the induction of professionals in clinical applications.

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Medical Ethics

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In the current contribution, we review how the basic principles of our Learning Theory of Attachment (LTA) might inform and be applied to clinical practice. We demonstrate that LTA can help understanding how early attachment relationships become incorporated in children’s minds. Beginning in infancy, children experience major developmental shifts in how they maintain attachments to their caregivers that may contribute to fluctuations in their attachment security (Groh et al., 2014 ). The LTA identifies opportunities to stimulate shifts toward more secure attachment as children grow older. Therefore, we will illustrate the clinical utility of the LTA by considering two interventions that were designed to stimulate and/or repair secure attachment bonds in young children and in middle childhood (the age period that typically starts when children are 6–7 years old and ends around 12–13 years). Understanding this process will illuminate what goes on in attachment and parenting interventions and may also help us sharpen our interventions to make them more effective. To set the foundation of this argument, we first review the basic premises of attachment and then present and discuss LTA. Finally, we will examine how LTA shows up in the two attachment-focused therapy models. It should be emphasized that the LTA itself is not a therapy or intervention but a theory that seeks to elucidate the mechanisms that may be targeted by clinicians and other professionals to increase children’s attachment security.

Enhancing children’s attachment security, that is their confidence in a parent’s or other caregiver’s ability to provide protection and care when needed (Bowlby, 1969 ), might add an important component to the effectiveness of parenting programs and evidence-based psychotherapies for children (Bosmans, 2016 ). Unfortunately, there are few manualized and empirically supported interventions to increase children’s trust in their parents or caregivers. Designing such interventions has proved challenging given attachment researchers’ struggles with clearly specifying and measuring the processes through which children develop and maintain secure attachment relationships (e.g., Verhage et al., 2016 ). Bosmans et al. ( 2020 ) began to address this problem by proposing that attachment development can at least in part be explained with principles of safety learning. This is a specific type of conditioning, also called conditioned inhibition, whereby stimuli become predictors of relief from stress after repeated learning trials during which these stimuli precede the experience of relief (Craske et al., 2018 ). Applied to attachment theory, Bosmans et al. ( 2020 ) argued that children’s trust in parents reflects in part a conditioned level of certainty or confidence that parents will provide support when the child encounters distressing situations.

Traditional Attachment Theory

According to attachment theory with its Darwinian roots, every newborn infant is preadapted to develop an attachment relationship with an attachment figure (Bowlby, 1969 , 1988 ). Newborns cannot survive without the protection, stress- and thermoregulation and nurturing by caregivers whose ‘inclusive fitness’ through transfer of their genes into next generations depends on the survival of offspring into procreative age. On this species-wide foundation of preparedness to become attached, individual differences in type of attachment relationships emerge during the first few years of life. When children experience that attachment figures consistently provide sensitive support to (di)stress, they tend to become securely attached (Bowlby, 1969 ). These experiences are stored in what Bowlby ( 1969 ) labeled Internal Working Models (IWM) to emphasize their dynamic nature, and their core of cognitive representations of past experiences reflecting the degree of confidence in future support from significant others (Bretherton et al., 2005 ). Securely attached children are suggested to strike a balance between exploring their environment and seeking proximity to and support from attachment figures during (di)stress (Dujardin et al., 2016 ). Attachment figures can be any caregiver with whom the child interacts on a regular basis and who might provide protection, nurturance and emotional support (Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2021 ). In this contribution, we will focus on parents as primary attachment figures. However, what follows can be applied to any attachment figure.

When children experience parents to be less consistently available for support or consistently unavailable, they may develop an insecure attachment relationship with them and an insecure IWM about their parents’ availability. On the one hand, children may become more ambivalent in their attachment relationships and keep their attention focused on the attachment figure instead of balancing it with exploring the wider social or physical environment. This means that their attention and behavior express anxiety for rejection, and that they continue to seek support even in the absence of distress (Cassidy, 2016 ; Kobak et al., 1993 ). On the other hand, children may develop more avoidant behavior in an attachment relationship with parents who are consistently ignoring or even rejecting the child’s bids for care and protection in times of distress. Insecure-avoidantly attached children try to keep their attention focused on the environment, away from the attachment figure. They minimize the overt signaling of attachment needs during distress presumably in an attempt to avoid potential parental rejection and to keep optimal proximity to a less than optimally protective caregiver (Cassidy, 2016 ; Kobak et al., 1993 ).

Accumulating research and meta-analyses robustly show that insecure attachment predicts higher levels of internalizing and externalizing problems across the lifespan (e.g., Groh et al., 2017 ). The effect sizes suggest that insecure attachment is not psychopathology itself. Instead, research shows that insecure attachment provides a context in which risk factors develop that are linked to elevated chances of developing psychopathology. These include, among others, less adequate emotion regulation (Verhees et al., 2021 ), social skills (Bastin et al., 2021 ), and maladaptive cognitive schemas about the self and others (Simard et al., 2011 ). As a result, children may divert their attention away from their caregivers and wait longer to seek their support during distress, or they keep focused on the attachment figure at the cost of exploring the environment, both attentional strategies resulting in higher chances of developing psychopathology (e.g., Dujardin et al., 2016 ). Insecure attachment has been proposed as a robust, transdiagnostic risk factor, rendering it a valuable target for therapy or intervention.

It should be noted that disorganized attachment (Main & Solomon, 1990 ) as a hypothesized consequence of experiences of traumatizing fear will be left out of our discussion of attachment implications for therapy and interventions. At this point in time still too many unsettled theoretical and empirical questions limit the possibility of deriving specific clinical implications for disorganized attachment (e.g., see Granqvist et al., 2017 ).

A Learning Theory of Attachment

Attachment theory has often been often criticized for being vague about the concept of the IWM and on how experiences with sensitive and supportive parents translate to its development (e.g., Rutter, 2014 ; Thompson, 2016 ). Indeed the IWM seems to be the black box in attachment theory (Bosmans et al., 2020 ) illustrating how hard it is to identify the mechanisms of attachment development on the micro level of dyadic relationships. Knowledge about these mechanisms might be helpful to identify the intervention targets that are needed to stimulate or restore secure attachment development (Bosmans, 2016 ). In this section, we briefly present the recently proposed LTA (see Bosmans et al., 2020 , for details). This theory describes mechanisms of attachment development and how experiences with parental support or lack of support are internalized into internal working models.

Safety Learning and Secure Base Script Development

Although Bowlby left room for learning processes in attachment development, attachment researchers were often opposed to integrating learning and attachment theories (Bosmans et al., 2020 ). However, empirical data provide some evidence that variation in attachment (in)security may at least partly be explained by learning processes that play a role in safety conditioning. This does not contradict the observations leading attachment researchers to emphasize the inborn nature of the species-specific preparedness to become attached to a protective caregiver (e.g., Kraemer, 1992 ; Rajecki et al., 1978 ). According to the LTA, infants are biologically prepared to be attuned to their caregivers as stimuli that facilitate attachment-related learning through classical and operant conditioning (Bosmans et al., 2020 ).

In brief, classical conditioning refers to learning about the co-occurrence of stimuli/events, while operant conditioning refers to how specific behaviors are related to their antecedents and consequences. Classical conditioning (see Fig. 1 ) occurs when an initially neutral stimulus (the Conditional Stimulus; CS) is presented in association with a meaningful stimulus (typically food or a pain-inducing stimulus like an electro-shock; this is named the Unconditional Stimulus; UCS). The UCS gets its meaning because it is by default linked to several positive or negative reactions (e.g., reduction of hunger or increase of stress, the Unconditional Reaction; UCR). When the CS and UCS are repeatedly presented together, the CS becomes the predictor of the UCS/UCR and elicits a Conditional Response (CR). Once the CS elicits a CR, conditioning is said to have occurred. For example, the CS can elicit the expectation (CR) that the rewarding or unpleasant experience of a parent’s (un-)availability during distress will follow.

Classical and operant conditioning. a depicts that if the Conditional Stimulus (CS) gets paired with the Unconditional Stimulus (UCS), which automatically elicits the Unconditional Response (UCR), the CS elicits a Conditional Response (CR). b Depicts that a discriminative Stimulus (Sd) elicits a behavioral Response (R) if that behavior is reinforced by increase of positive consequences or decrease of negative consequences (reinforcing Stimulus, Sr). Figures 2 and 3 will illustrate the application of these schemas to attachment-related constructs

The CR occurs at different levels of processing, ranging from more strategic to more automatic processes (Gawronski & Creighton, 2013 ). An example of a more strategic CR is the expectation about parent’s availability that one can report about. When these expectations reflect specific themes, they are called cognitive schemas, and when the expectations reflect a chain of events that might unfold, they are called cognitive scripts. Examples of a more automatic kind are biases in the cognitive processing of the CS such that information about the CS is more easily recalled, attentionally encoded, or interpreted in congruence with learned expectations about the CS. Such information processing biases are less easy to control. They may explain why certain expectations about the CS cannot be changed by merely exposing individuals to corrective information about the CS (Baert et al., 2011 ).

Operant conditioning (see Fig. 1 ) occurs upon exposure to a Discriminant Stimulus (S d ). This is a context in which a certain behavior (R) is likely to be reinforced (Reinforcing Stimulus; S r ). Behavior is repeated when followed by a positive reinforcer (e.g., feeling cared for, annotated as +Sr+) or the omission of negative reinforcers (e.g., reduction of stress, annotated as −Sr− or °Sr−). However, when behavior is followed by negative reinforcers (e.g., feeling rejected, annotated as +Sr−) or by the reduction of positive reinforcers (e.g., absence of care, −Sr+or °Sr+), behavior fades out. For an overview of all possible reinforcers, see Table 1 .

Safety learning is a specific type of conditioning that occurs when individuals are exposed to distressing stimuli and when these stimuli are presented together with a CS which predicts the omission of the feared outcome (indicated as CS−). Specifically, this occurs when an organism learns that a stimulus (CS1) is followed by an aversive consequence (CS1+). However, when CS1 is presented in compound with another stimulus (CS2), the aversive consequence does not occur (CS1/CS2−). Thus, the CS2 becomes a conditioned inhibitor or a safety signal. In the LTA, the CS− is typically the parent or whoever is the child’s attachment figure. Through repeated learning experiences, the CS− will elicit confident expectations that negative emotions associated with the distressing stimulus can be effectively managed. According to the LTA, each interaction with the parent when the child is distressed can be considered a single learning trial (see Fig. 2 ). When the parent provides support (the UCS), children will automatically experience decreased distress (e.g., relief) and increased positive feelings of being cared for and reassured of their parents’ availability and responsiveness (Bosmans et al., 2020 ). The reduction of distress combined with positive feelings of security can be considered the UCR. Through a process of classical conditioning, over learning trials, the parent becomes a safety cue (CS−) that, for the child, predicts support, comfort and relief (UCS/UCR) during distress due to which children develop trust in the availability and support of the parent (CR).

Safety conditioning and the learning theory of attachment. CS − Conditional Stimulus predicting that the negative effects of stress will stop; UCS Unconditional Stimulus; UCR Unconditional Reaction; CR Conditional Reaction; SBS Secure Base Script

After repeated learning trials, securely attached childrens’ confident expectancies in their parents’ availability and support become organized in a secure base script to be considered part of a secure IWM of attachment (Waters & Waters, 2006 ). A secure base script reflects a child’s knowledge of the interactions during which the child experiences that parents successfully provide support during distress (also described as secure base interactions ) . Because these interactions always follow the same scenario, the secure base script refers to the expectation that upon exposure to distress, care-related interactions will follow this predictable scenario. Specifically, when children encounter a threat or challenge, distress is communicated to the parent directly (the child shows distress, turns toward the parent and signals the need for comfort). The parent reads the child’s behavior and understands that the child needs comfort and support. Subsequently, the parent responds with emotional support and may provide practical support. This open communication and the parental responses to this communication help the child get back on track and return attention to exploring and engaging the environment.

A secure or confident expectation that the caregiver will be available and responsive increases the likelihood that the securely attached child will enact the secure base script when confronted with dangerous, distressing, or challenging situations. When support seeking behaviors are met with sensitive parental response, these behaviors are further reinforced through a process of operant conditioning (see Fig. 3 ; Bosmans et al., 2020 ). Specifically, when secure children encounter distressing situations (Sd), they will seek support (the behavior, R), which is reinforced by the reduction and regulation of distress and the comfort provided by the parents’ sensitive response (Sr). Support seeking behavior will be repeated when followed by feeling cared for (+Sr+) or the reduction or avoidance of stress (−Sr− or °Sr−). However, when support seeking is followed by feeling rejected (+Sr−) or by interrupted care or absence of care (−Sr+ or °Sr+), support seeking behavior will fade out.

Operant conditioning and the Learning Theory of Attachment. Sd Discriminative Stimulus; R behavior; +Sr+ : a positive reinforcing stimulus follows

Insecure Attachment Learning and the Development of Negative Interpersonal Schemas

In contrast to the securely attached child who likely experiences sensitive and responsive support (UCS) from the parent (CS) during distress, the insecurely attached child experiences the parent as unavailable or unresponsive (UCS) when the child encounter distressing situations which elicits painful feelings of being rejected or ignored (UCRs). As a result of repeated experiences with an insensitive caregiver, the child not only anticipates the parent’s failure to provide safety and protection, but also anticipates painful feelings of rejection (CR). Instead of developing a secure base script of how to signal and rely on others at times of distress, insecure children develop cognitive schemas about others as being unavailable (CR) and about themself as being unworthy or incompetent (Simard et al., 2011 ). Examples are Young’s early maladaptive schema’s (Young et al., 2003 ; see Supplementary File 1) that are adaptive to the (less than optimal) environment in which they were developed (Hochberg & Belsky, 2013 ) but put individuals at elevated risk to develop relational problems and even psychopathology at a later stage. Main ( 1990 ) already argued that insecure attachment behavioral strategies could be adaptive as a short-term strategy for reducing conflict with the caregiver, and Belsky and others suggested that these strategies may be embedded in fast reproductive strategies (Hochberg & Belsky, 2013 ).

Maximizing the signaling of attachment needs may have the immediate advantage to increase the likelihood of support from a less available parent (+Sr+). However, because the parents is inconsistently available, the +Sr+ will only intermittently follow support seeking behavior. Through this intermittent reinforcement behavior increases in frequency and becomes highly resilient to extinction. At the same time, it increases the risk to elicit negative reactions from the caregiver and triggers rejection (+Sr−), in which case the child again feels the frustration of not being cared for (+Sr−). If support seeking is only intermittently reinforced, it becomes a highly stable behavioral pattern (Bosmans et al., 2020 ). In the long run, repeated experiences of disappointment culminate to frustration and anger (+Sr−) that feeds into demanding and hostile behavior that further distorts signaling of attachment needs and that perpetuates an insecure cycle of interactions with significant others (Kobak & Bosmans, 2019 ). Minimizing the signaling of attachment needs has the immediate advantage that it helps avoiding feared feelings of rejection (°Sr−). Moreover, resolving distress quasi-autonomously gives a sense of competence (+Sr+). However, in the long run, these strategies may come with a sense of isolation and enhanced chronic stress when they are insufficient to meet the need for proximity and protection (+Sr−).

Exploring the Clinical Applications of the LTA

The LTA proposes that to understand attachment development, it is important to distinguish trait- and state-like attachment components that interact over time and may explain changes at the trait attachment level brought about by therapy or interventions. State attachment refers to the sense of being loved and comforted during distress or lack thereof and of the associated sense of relief or rejection (Gillath et al., 2009 ). Specifically, state attachment can be considered equivalent to the UCR. Hence, state attachment is dynamic and responsive to fluctuations in interactions with caregivers. If the CS parent − UCS support contingency increases, children will more frequently experience state secure attachment and high levels of state trust. When the CS parent − UCS support contingency decreases, children will more frequently experience state insecure attachment. State attachment is not only affected by ongoing care-related interactions with parents (Vandevivere et al., 2018 ), but also by cues that activate memories of past experiences of support or lack thereof (Bosmans et al., 2014 ). Over learning trials, more frequent experiences of state (in)secure attachment will eventually be reflected at the trait attachment level. Trait attachment can be situated more at the level of the CR and refers to a generalized expectation that the caregiver is mostly available and responsive for support during distress or mostly unavailable and unresponsive. This generalized expectancy feeds into the child’s attachment-related information processing biases, explicit and more automatic attachment-related expectations, and secure base script or alternative insecure scripts and early relational schema development.

CRs change when the CS–UCS contingency changes over time. New learning subsequently inhibits the activation of old CRs and old behavior extinguishes (Craske et al., 2018 ). Consequently, restoring or promoting secure attachment in children, adolescents and adults (‘from cradle to grave’, Bowlby, 1969 ) is feasible and a relevant target for clinical intervention. Although this is a hopeful message for clinicians, there are two important limitations to take into account. First, old knowledge never gets unlearned (Bouton et al., 2021 ; Rescorla & Wagner, 1972 ). So, it is always possible that old CRs to CSs get reactivated. If the CS–UCS contingency gets reversed again, or if old memories get primed by contextual cues, old CRs and related behaviors are likely to re-emerge. Because CS–UCS contingency is never 100% or 0%, each individual is likely to be confronted with a composite of positive and negative attachment experiences, and even though these memories might not immediately manifest at trait attachment level they can still be reactivated and influence the cognitive processing of ongoing interactions and influence subsequent interpersonal behavior. Second, attachment (in)security becomes more resistant to change with increasing age (Waters et al., 2020 ). Experiences get increasingly stored as prototypes that form a blueprint, negatively affecting the likelihood that new information updates expectations (Waters, Facompre, et al., 2019 ; Waters, Facompré, et al., 2019 ; Waters et al., in press). This implies that restoring or stimulating secure attachment development will be easier at younger ages.

In essence, the LTA suggests that attachment-focused interventions should aim at creating corrective learning experiences during which parents provide care when the child experiences distress. To alter the CS–UCS contingency, multiple learning trials will be needed during which the quality of the parent–child interactions is improved. For younger children it is likely sufficient to merely train parents to respond in a more supportive way to their child during distress. The LTA predicts that this will increase the CS parent − UCS support contingency, thus increasing children’s trait attachment security. Older children have developed more explicit insecure schemas (Rijkeboer & de Boo, 2010 ), with increasingly stronger information processing biases (e.g., Dudeney et al., 2015 ). Because such biases reduce the likelihood that children will notice and interpret parents as being more supportive than expected (Bosmans, Sanchez-Lopez, et al., 2019 ; Bosmans, Waters, et al., 2019 ), merely exposing children to corrective information during care-related interactions with parents will not result in corrective learning experiences (Baert et al., 2011 ). One way to overcome this, is to make the corrective experience emotionally more salient. This can be done by explicitly activating negative expectations during care-related interactions. If negative expectations and fear are more strongly activated, rule-violations get better encoded and more likely result in changed expectations and new behavioral strategies (Craske et al., 2014 ).

The Insecure Cycle: A Model to Capture the Familial Dynamics Underlying Insecure Attachment Development

In order to make clear how family dynamics leading to insecure attachments look like from a LTA perspective we outline its application to the development of the child-parent relationship which might result in self-perpetuating cycles to be dealt with in interventions. The model of the insecure cycle (Kobak & Bosmans, 2019 ; see Fig. 4 ) helps capturing the family dynamics that explain how the interactions between children and parents (CS) unfold up to the point that children no longer experience their parents as support figures (UCS-UCR). The insecure cycle model builds on the basic assumption that infants’ inborn tendency to form attachments continues into later developmental periods as a need to rely on parents in difficult situations ( need for care) and in parents’ need to protect and encourage their children’s competence and well being ( need to care ). Successful pursuit of the child’s attachment needs and the parent’s caregiving needs is repeatedly threatened by cycles of mistuned communication. Mistuned communication can prime children’s negative memories of past interactions with parents that were experienced as unsupportive. Mistuned communication can reinforce children’s negative expectancies of parents availability and responsiveness. The child’s fear that parents will be unavailable in situations of danger or distress activates defensive attentional and behavioral strategies aimed at reducing distress. These affect regulation strategies either reflect amplified approach motivated by the hope of receiving care, or more common shifts of attention away from attachment figures motivated by a search for independence and control (Kobak et al., 1993 ; Main, 1990 ). These two defensive strategies translate into behavior that either exaggerates the display of attachment needs as clingy or demanding and frustrated, or that seems to minimize needs through quasi-autonomous behaviors.

The Insecure Cycle of mistuned communication between parent and child. This figure shows how mistuned communication between children and parents sets off a negative interaction that feeds into the development of insecure attachment-related expectations, anxious and avoidant defensive strategies that lead to children’s distorted signaling of attachment needs to which parents respond in a non-supportive way that further confirms children’s insecure attachment expectations

Children’s insecure attachment behaviors run the risk of perpetuating insecure cycles instead of triggering protective parenting. This is because the child’s attachment signals challenge caregivers’ ability to read and respond to their child’s needs for protection and support. The child’s angry, demanding or withdrawn behaviors may prime parents’ own past negative attachment memories or they may reinforce parents’ negative view of their child, their child’s development, and of themselves as failing in their parenting task or as not being worthy to be loved. These negative expectations bias parents toward reading the child’s signals as inappropriate behaviors that need to be stopped. As a result, they miss the child’s underlying need for protection and support. Instead, they unintentionally confirm the child’s lack of trust in their parents’ availability and responsive support. This cycle of children’s insecure signals and of parents’ misattuned responses might reduce the CS parent − UCS support contingency and promote children’s trait-like expectations that parents will not provide care during distress.

The insecure cycle can also be intensified by well-meant advice from therapists and parent management trainers to parents to change their approach to their children. Such advice can activate parents’ own memories and representations of past experiences with their attachment figures during which they felt inadequate, insufficient, a failure, or not loved. This can activate anxious or avoidant defensive strategies in the parents’ approach to the therapist and can set off an insecure cycle between the therapist and the parents. This may decrease therapy alliance and increase drop-out risk. Hence, working with families’ insecure cycles requires therapists to acknowledge the parents’ competence (they know their child best) and their desire to be a good parent. Therapists may prevent getting drawn too deeply into insecure cycles by always keeping their focus on the parents’ underlying attachment needs and related fears. This allows therapists to become an ad hoc attachment figure fostering parents’ positive or corrective attachment learning experiences (Bowlby, 2005 ; Byng-Hall, 1990 ; Verschueren & Koomen, 2012 ).

Finally, it is important to note that the insecure cycle model complements the coercive cycle model of parent–child interactions by adding an affective layer to the reinforcers that explain the maintenance of children’s challenging behaviors. A coercive cycle is an interactional pattern that is typically observed in children with behavior problems (Reid et al., 2002 ). The coercive cycle has been described as an operant conditioning process during which children show increasingly demanding behavior to achieve their immediate goals (e.g., receiving toys or candy) and during which parents increasingly concede to the child’s demands to escape from the conflict and stress raised by the child (see left half of Table 2 ). However, these reinforcers disregard possible underlying attachment-related relational meanings or functions. The right half of Table 2 suggests some possible insecure cycle-related reinforcers that can perpetuate the coercive cycle and that can increase the risk that coercive cycles will repeat in the future.

When parents feel that their child refuses to obey and that they fight in vein to control their child, a set of negative reinforcers can be elicited. Parents can feel incompetent or loved nor respected by their child (+Sr−). Subsequently giving in to the child’s demands is positively reinforced by decrease of distress linked to failure and rejection (−Sr−) and return of a positive interaction with the child who shows love and connection (+Sr+). When children feel intense desire for an object and parents refuse to give in, for children this can feel as a lack of acknowledgement of their stress and as rejecting (+Sr−). In addition, for some children who feel not seen by their parents, parents’ negative attention can feel rewarding as well (+Sr+). To reach their desired goal, children will increase their demanding behavior until the parents finally give in (+Sr+).

However, when parents give in after a conflict with the child, this typically comes with more or less explicit emotionally laden negative relational messages, expressing irritation and criticism towards the child and explicit or implicit rejection of the child (e.g., McCarty et al., 2004 ). Hence, although at first sight the fact that children get what they want seems like a mere positive reinforcement of their unwanted behavior, these parental behaviors are a discriminative stimulus for children (Sd) which activates insecure schemas and fears in children about not being loved and being a failure in the eyes of their parents. This is actually a CR that reflects children’s past classical learning experiences during which their parents (CS parent ) got paired with negative care-related experiences (UCS rejection ). These fears elicit more distorted signaling of attachment needs (e.g., oppositional behavior, R child ). This behavior gets reinforced because it shifts the focus away from feelings of loneliness and abandonment (−Sr−), because it prevents those feelings to be activated (°Sr−), or because it elicits parental attention (+Sr+) and the hope that parents might respond more sensitively after this new attempt (+Sr+). However, this in turn becomes a Sd for the parents due to which the insecure cycle continues. We propose that the reinforcers identified in the coercive cycle (reduction of stress in the parent, achieving desired goals in the child) have a stronger immediate impact than the reinforcers identified in the insecure cycle. The latter, however, shape the relational environment for coercive cycles to reoccur as the resulting negative appraisals of each other increase the likelihood for new coercive cycles to set off.

The model of the insecure cycle integrates family dynamics and learning processes. When families get caught up in insecure cycles, CS parent − UCS support contingency decreases and children learn that they cannot trust in their parents’ availability and support. Hence, to stimulate or restore attachment development, interventions are needed that prevent, interrupt, and/or restructure insecure cycles. This can be done by altering the context (Sd-oriented interventions), by altering the consequences of parent and child behaviors (Sr-oriented interventions), and by altering the meaning that children attribute to parents and that parents attribute to children (CS-oriented interventions). This way, the LTA also suggests that improving parent–child attachment relationships requires bridging family and behavior therapy. Behavior therapists may benefit from being more attachment-emotion-focused and relational therapists may benefit from being more mindful of classical and operant learning processes.

Parenting Support in Families with Young Children: Antecedent and Consequent Control Training

Previous research on the impact of parent management training on the parent–child attachment relationship suggests that addressing parenting skills may also have a positive effect on the parenting behaviors known to stimulate children’s secure attachment development (e.g., Matias et al., 2014 ; O’Conner et al., 2013 ). Preliminary work on Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) for example shows that integrating an attachment perspective in parent management training may stimulate attachment-relevant parenting practices (Allen et al., 2014 ) but the impact on children’s attachment development may be limited (Kohlhoff et al., 2020 ; O’Conner et al., 2013 ; Timmer et al., 2011 ). From the LTA perspective, one reason might be that these interventions do not sufficiently account for the relational dynamics of insecure cycles and that they do not specifically target parental support to children’s insecure attachment needs.

At younger ages, interrupting and restructuring coercive cycles can be achieved working mainly with parents using, for example, Antecedent and Consequent Control Training (e.g., Forgatch & Patterson, 2010 ). Antecedent and consequent control training targets resolving coercive cycles using operant learning techniques (van der Oord & Tripp, 2020 ). Antecedent Control training targets the Sd that elicits the child’s misbehavior using rules, instructions, or by changing the stimuli in the context. If the Sd changes, misbehavior will be less functional and will decrease. Consequent Control training aims to reduce unwanted behavior by targeting the Sr. Praise, reward, and mild punishment results in decreases in unwanted child behavior and increases in wanted behavior. Successful antecedent and consequent control training first requires function analysis. Specifically, the clinician needs to explore and analyze the circumstances that elicit unwanted behavior (the antecedents) and the outcomes of this behavior that act as reinforcers and that render unwanted behavior functional, increasing the likelihood that this behavior will be repeated (the consequents).

Building on this function analysis, successful antecedent control training addresses parents’ disciplinary communication, parents’ ability to anticipate and plan for misbehavior, parents’ ability to structure the environment so that it elicits less misbehavior, parents’ use of prompts and cues to stimulate wanted behavior, parents’ use of distraction to avoid triggers for unwanted behavior (Van der Oord & Tripp, 2020 ). Successful consequent control training helps parents to no longer reward unwanted child behavior and to reward and stimulate instead wanted or neutral behavior. For this, parents learn to stop reinforcing unwanted behavior (e.g., using distraction or ignoring) and positively reinforce and praise wanted child behavior (Van der Oord & Tripp, 2020 ). Both antecedent and consequent control techniques help to interrupt coercive cycles and improve child behavior (Forgatch & Domenech Rodríguez, 2016 ).

Attachment-Focused Antecedent and Consequent Control Training

Attachment-focused antecedent control could consist of parents (1) paying more attention to the relational–emotional distress in the child’s context (CS/Sd), (2) providing safety through helping the child to manage threatening stimuli in their environment, and (3) enhancing the predictability of their availability. First, parents could learn to monitor the CSs/Sds that trigger emotions linked to not being wanted or loved and that are typically associated with problem behavior and behavioral escalations. An example could be a situation where a sibling gets more attention from the parents (e.g., during his birthday party). Second, parents can then help the child understand the situation, acknowledging that children typically feel jealous and ignored in such situations and that this is tough to deal with, but at the same time setting clear rules about what behavior is acceptable and what behavior is unacceptable. Third, parents can also explain to the child that during the birthday party they will be busy accommodating guests, but that during the party, the child can always ask for help and that after the party they will spend some time together. This approach is sensitive and supportive, and at the same time it decreases the likelihood that conflicts emerge.

Attachment-focused consequent control requires parents not only to stop reinforcing the unwanted child behaviors, but also to address children’s underlying attachment needs. For example, a child might be very attracted to a toy in a shop and show demanding behavior. Next to refusing to give in to the demanding behavior, the parent could also pay attention to the fact that desiring the toy and not getting it is distressing. By acknowledging that it is normal for children to feel like that (meaning that the child is not “bad”) and by providing comfort for the sadness and disappointment renders parents more responsive to children’s genuine attachment needs. Thus, children may learn that parents are a safety signal. This helps the parent to provide secure base support more often, which increases CS parent − UCS support contingency and facilitates secure attachment learning.

Such an approach fits with the well-known authoritative parenting style (e.g., Baumrind, 1967 ). On the one hand, authoritative parents enforce consistent limits and rules that are clearly articulated to children. On the other hand, they sensitively acknowledge children’s stress and attachment needs. Authoritative parenting requires parents to become aware which child behaviors signal the child’s distress and to express empathy for their child’s efforts to comply even if the child’s attempts fail. For example, in response to sibling aggression, a parent could say: “I see that you feel hurt and I understand that is hard to bear, but you know you cannot hit your brother”. This is secure base support. Specifically, the parent provides acknowledgement and support for the stress the child felt during the interaction with the brother. This elicits relief (e.g., my parent does not think I am a bad boy, −Sr−) and gives comfort (+Sr+). If parents’ alternative approach improves parent–child interactions, these new parental behaviors are reinforced by the child to become a stable part of the parenting repertoire. However, if parents struggle to provide that support, it becomes important to explore the reinforcers that maintain their initial parenting behavior and focus more on parents’ own psychopathology, or own attachment learning history. One way to help parents adapt their parenting behavior to new insights on their insecure cycle with their child is to work with exposure therapy.

Attachment-Focused Therapy in Older Children: Exposure Therapy

At older ages, children’s increased information processing biases might render intervention strategies insufficient if they solely focus on changing parenting behavior. Due to these biases, older children might fail to pick up changes in their parents’ attempts to respond to their attachment needs. As a result, insecure cycles can endure even if parents manage to respond more sensitively to children’s underlying needs. Moreover, with passing time, parents’ processing of their child’s behavior will get more biased, making it harder to respond to their child’s attachment needs more sensitively. To bypass these information processing biases and related therapeutic blocks, it is necessary to create an emotionally intense learning experience that violates both parents’ and children’s expectations about feared outcomes (Tryon, 2005 ). One therapeutic strategy that could prove useful here is Exposure Therapy, a classical learning technique. This is a therapy during which patients are exposed to feared stimuli (CS). During exposure, the CS–UCS association will get disrupted by creating an inhibitory association. This occurs by abstaining from relying on avoidance behavior. This enables corrective learning experiences whereby patients learn that feared outcomes do not occur (Abramowitz et al., 2019 ).

Successful exposure therapy again requires a function analysis to chart the circumstances that elicit avoidance behavior and the reinforcers or function of this behavior. Function analysis needs to identify the stimuli or situations that elicit fears and negative expectations, the precise content of those fears and expectations, and the precise behavioral responses to those stimuli or situations (with the goal to avoid or escape the feared outcomes, which reinforces avoidance behavior). Once this information is collected, and the function analysis is sufficiently completed, exposure therapy will require participants to confront the fear eliciting stimuli or situations. During exposure excercises, therapists ensure the maximal activation of the fears and negative expectations by helping participants to abstain from avoidance behaviors and to rely on behaviors that further activate fear and negative expectations. The more all relevant fears and negative expectations are activated during exposure, the more such an exercise increases the likelihood that corrective learning occurs (Craske et al., 2014 ). Finally, to ensure generalization of exposure therapy effects, it is critical to repeat those exercises in different situations (Craske et al., 2014 ).

Attachment-Focused Exposure Therapy

The LTA points at exposure therapy as a relevant strategy to interrupt and/or repair insecure cycles because the theory implies that the confusing signals children and parents emit during insecure cycles are equivalent to avoidance behaviors driven by fear. Children fear and avoid the emotional pain linked to being ignored, misunderstood, left alone, or rejected by the parent. The fact that exposure therapy targets avoidance behaviors which underlie attachments could lead one to expect that exposure therapy is only a useful intervention for avoidant attachment-related behaviors. However, the repertoire of behaviors that serve to avoid a feared outcome is much broader than merely avoiding proximity. For exampe, ambivalent attachment behaviors such as protest and persuasion can help avoid feeling unseen (°Sr− or −Sr), or they can stimulate parents to try harder to accommodate the child (+Sr+). This may reduce children’s fear that their parents are unavailable (−Sr−). So, the broad spectrum of insecure attachment behaviors can be seen as avoidance behaviors to be targeted in exposure therapy.

Parents, in turn, fear and avoid the emotional pain linked to feelings of failure in their caregiving role. Attachment-focused exposure therapy is expected to be most effective when children and parents are both confronted with care-related interactions because those are the clinically relevant stimuli that elicit family members’ attachment-related fears and negative expectations. Although the precise form of the fear eliciting care-related interactions will be different from family to family, the LTA suggests that, at the most abstract level, these interactions consist of the ingredients of the insecure cycle. Thus, function analysis requires to clearly map the elements of the insecure cycle and then design exposure excercises that elicit children’s (distorted) attachment signaling which elicits parents’ non-supportive responses that feed into the insecure cycle. For corrective learning to occur during exposure, parents are stimulated to abstain from their typical responses and to attend to children’s underlying attachment needs in spite of the fears the interaction with their care-seeking child elicit. Children are stimulated to communicate their needs in a more direct manner in spite of their fears that their parents will not understand them.

If exposure excercises stimulate corrective attachment interactions, the ultimate challenge is to promote children’s secure base script development. We do not propose to expose the child to a negative parent until they no longer feel scared. Instead we expose the child to a newly trained, attachment promoting parent until this exposure challenges and revises the child’s internal negative expectation. We have shown that it is hard for insecurely attached children to process information that is incongruent with mistrust (Verhees et al., 2019 ). Specifically, we found in a set of cognitive bias modification experiments that attention and interpretation biases need to be bypassed before exposure to incongruent attachment information can change attachment-related expectations about the parent. To achieve this during an exposure session, therapists need to help parents and children to focus on the evidence of the secure base script during the session to support consolidating the corrective learning experience. Research on parental reminiscence suggests that discussing with the child what occurred during an interaction with parents is one promising avenue to help organizing support-related experiences in a secure base script like fashion (e.g., Apetroaia & Waters, 2018 ). So, clinically, it is important that the therapist explicitly points parents and children to the secure base-congruent elements of the interactions that unfolded during exposure excercises. Finally, to further stimulate secure base script learning, it is important to repeat the exposure exercises in different situations. This can include expanding the number of relevant topics that require parent–child interaction, or expanding the locations where exposure is practiced.

Exploring the Clinical Utility of the LTA in Two Intervention Programs: VIPP-SD and MCAT

We will now explore the clinical utility of the LTA presenting two systematic interventions designed to improve parent–child attachment relationships. We will describe the background and clinical components for each intervention program. The first intervention program illustrates the application of attachment-focused antecedent and consequent control therapy, an intervention following operant learning techniques: Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD) focused on young children (Juffer et al., 2017 ). VIPP-SD was developed some 3 decades ago before we formulated the LTA. However, the intervention was designed with the same goal to bridge the gap between attachment theory and social learning theory (Forgatch & Patterson, 2010 ; Juffer et al., 2017 ). Extensive research with randomized controlled trials points at positive effects on both attachment-relevant parenting behavior and on children’s secure attachment development (Juffer et al., 2017 ; Van IJzendoorn et al., in preparation). In this case, we will explore whether the probable mechanisms of change can be understood from the LTA model.

The second intervention program illustrates the application of attachment-focused exposure therapy, an intervention following classical learning techniques: Middle Childhood Attachment-based Family Therapy (MCAT; Van Vlierberghe & Bosmans, 2020 ). This intervention has been developed recently, explicitly building on the LTA’s insights. MCAT is developed because of the lack of systematic attachment-focused interventions that target attachment in 6–12 year old children. The intervention was designed following the logic of Attachment-based Family Therapy (ABFT; Diamond et al., 2014 ) an effective intervention aimed at treating depressed and suicidal adolescents by restoring parent–child attachment relationships (Diamond et al., 2016 ). This intervention program illustrates how the LTA can help to design new interventions in such a waythat they maximize the likelihood that secure attachment development gets restored and/or stimulated.

Attachment-Focused Therapy for Young Children: VIPP-SD

VIPP-SD was designed to move the age for prevention of externalizing problems in young children significantly downward. Typically, families of young children who display signs of externalizing problems participate in prevention programs that build on social learning theory and that target parenting skills to disrupt or prevent coercive cycles (e.g., Patterson et al., 2004 ; WebsterStratton & Hammond, 1997 ). These programs prove effective with moderate effect sizes (e.g., Gardner et al., 2019 ; Piquero et al., 2016 ). VIPP-SD adds attachment theory to Patterson’s model of social learning to break coercive cycles. It was the first intervention that was developed with the explicit aim to integrate learning principles in an attachment-focused coaching program. The program supports parents struggling with the terrible twos, threes and older children with conduct problems (O’Farrelly et al., 2021 ). The program was developed with the aim to break coercive cycles and promote sensitive parenting to enhance parent–child attachment relationships (Euser et al., 2021 ). Given the overlap between coercive and insecure cycles, the program aligns with the abovementioned LTA-goal to interrupt insecure cycles as a mechanism to enhance the quality of parent–child interactions and attachment relationships. As we will demonstrate, to achieve this goal VIPP-SD relies partly on principles of antecedent and consequent control.

Secure Base Interactions in Early Childhood

VIPP-SD’s goal to shape parent–child secure base interactions requires a thorough understanding of how these interactions unfold in early childhood. Whereas in the first year of life infants frequently need physical contact to feel safe and secure, in the early childhood years the balance shifts in the direction of emotional availability of the parent in addition to moments of close physical contact when the child is tired or (di)stressed. Exploring the world is a central developmental task for the child, and this is not without the inclination to explore things such as the remote control, a precious china vase, or a road with busy traffic that the parent would rather not seeing explored by the child. In other words, parents need to balance support of their child’s explorative behavior with protection of the child and their own and others’ material possessions. Moreover, lovely babies turn into terrible twos and threes that are strong-willed and test the effects of their “No” in response to parental requests. In a secure relationship, toddlers will be non-compliant; they even have to be non-compliant to explore what they can achieve and what response will follow their ‘daring’ behavior. One can see the toddler check with the parent while doing something that they know they are not supposed to do. In addition, their limited behavioral control and executive functioning abilities account for little success in inhibiting themselves when doing something that they know is prohibited.

In the secure relationship, parents are aware of the children’s developing independence, and do not feel rejected by the child. They know that their child’s challenging behavior is not challenging them or their relationship. They know that it rather follows from the child’s innate drive to explore the world, and that the child will master specific skills after many trial-and-errors. These parents choose their battles, and know when to stay their grounds and when to turn a blind eye. They are consistent once they have asked a child to do something or to refrain from doing something, while showing empathy for the child when it is struggling to comply, and complimenting whatever little effort in the right direction is shown. Doing so, parents let the child know that its efforts are seen and appreciated, and that the relationship is valued.

VIPP-SD: Description of the Program

VIPP-SD is a six sessions program (see Table 3 ) that consists of two integrated components focused on stimulating secure base interactions. The attachment component is related to one of the basic goals of the VIPP-SD which is to stimulate parents’ sensitive responsiveness to the child’s signals of (di)stress and the need for physical or mental proximity to cope with distressing or threatening situations. According to attachment theory, the core of sensitive responsiveness is the parent’s ability to see the child’s attachment signals, to interpret them accurately, and to respond promptly and effectively to these signals (Ainsworth et al., 1978 ). Social learning is central to the second component of VIPP-SD which is to promote sensitive discipline or limit setting when the child tends to misbehave. Attachment-based interventions have focused mostly on the ‘sensitiviy’ dimension of parenting, neglecting the limit setting or discipline dimension and thus leaving parents with empty hands for example when they are faced with a toddler throwing a tantrum to have its way.

The core of sensitive discipline is preventing the occurrence of coercive cycles or interrupting these cycles when they have started. As an example, coercive cycles may start with the child wants a sweet soft drink in the supermarket, and the parent refuses to buy one because it is almost dinner time. The child throws a fit in the public space, and after a while the parent gives in, out of despair or shame. VIPP-SD aims to help parents look beyond those distorted signaling of attachment needs, set sensitive limits and at the same time provide the needed support for children’s actually experienced attachment needs. During VIPP-SD, parents learn to no longer give in, the typical and powerful immediate reinforcer of children’s unwanted behavior. Instead, they learn to approach the child’s misbehavior in such a way that it is either prevented or no longer immediately rewarded, while recognizing the child’s wishes and emotions. At the same time, parents learn to shape wanted behavior through sensitive support as a reinforcer that has both immediate rewarding effects (decrease of distress and increase of feeling connected) and long-term rewarding effects (building a more secure attachment relationship). This way, VIPP-SD fosters corrective learning experiences and the increase of CS parent − UCS support contingency. During VIPP-SD children learn to trust in parental support (CR) thanks to which they can start develop new behaviors to seek for parental support (R).

Essential for VIPP-SD is the use of video-feedback. Parents are not instructed in how to prevent or break a coercive cycle, or how to interact with a distressed or oppositional child. In fact, VIPP-SD uses video-taped clips of home-made, carefully selected real-life interactions between parent and child to induce a learning process at the parental level based on positive reinforcement. The emphasis in selecting video-taped fragments is on interaction sequences that were at least partially successful. Parents watch their own steps toward adequate limit setting at some (perhaps rare) occasion and see how effective their behavior can be. They experience their own ability to set limits and at the same time watch the child accepting the limits and continuing to interact with them in a trusting way.

Each of the six sessions (see Table 3 ) takes about one hour. Sessions are usually conducted at home although due to COVID-19 an online version has been developed as well. Video-taped interactions of the previous session are carefully studied by the coach and for each theme pertinent fragments are selected. The program is protocolized with detailed guidelines for the coaches how to proceed through the six sessions. In two-parent families the primary caregiver is present in the first four sessions, enabling the establishment of a trusting relationship between the parent and the coach. Both parents can be present in the two booster sessions.

LTA-Related Components of VIPP-SD: Attachment-Focused Antecedent and Consequent Control

To achieve antecedent and consequent control on insecure cycles, VIPP-SD identifies coercive cycles in the interaction between parents and their child and enhances parental strategies to prevent the occurrence of coercive cycles or to break coercive cycles at the earliest stages. In keeping with the social learning perspective, interrupting a coercive cycle means that the immediate reinforcers (see Table 2 ) are either removed (−Sr+) or avoided (°Sr+). This is typically achieved by having parents gently but firmly reject the child’s demand, offering an alternative or explaining why the demand cannot be fulfilled, keeping the communication open. This acts as a reinforcer of the child ending the demanding behavior (+Sr+) and shapes new interaction patterns between parents and children. VIPP-SD integrates these typical strategies with an attachment-focused approach to the coercive cycle. Specifically, VIPP-SD adds three attachment-focused elements to regular antecedent and consequent control training. These elements relate to discipline strategies, the parents’ support of children’s attachment needs, and the therapist’s positive approach to the parent, modeling the desired parent–child interactions.

First, concerning the strategies needed to interrupt coercive cycles, VIPP-SD promotes sensitive discipline to protect the parent–child attachment relationship from further ruptures. This addresses the immediate reinforcers that maintain coercive cycles, but they also ensure that parents can remain sensitive to their children’s underlying (attachment) needs. The child stays engaged with the parents and repair of the momentary rupture in the relationship is pursued (+Sr+). If achieved, this serves as a positive reinforcement for the attachment relationship and future acceptable limit setting.

Regarding sensitive discipline, parents learn not to just reject children’s demands, but to also provide reasons why the demand is misplaced or mistimed. The goal is to help parents use, for example, distraction as a means of replacing reinforcing but forbidden objects or activities with attractive alternatives. Regarding a sensitive pause, parents learn to keep its duration short and to stay in visual contact with the child. It serves the function of downregulating stress levels more of the parents than of the children. Induction is providing reasons for the limits set by the parent, making clear that the misbehaving child remains considered a valued interaction partner with the attachment relationship intact (+Sr+). Moreover, parents are encouraged to compliment the child for any tiny effort they show to comply with a parental demand. All this maximizes parent–child engagement and allows repair of momentary ruptures in the relationship resulting from limit setting. This serves as a positive reinforcement for the attachment relationship and promotes future adequate authoritative limit setting. The child’s response to sensitive limit setting is reinforcing the parents’ consistent approach to the child’s challenging behavior.

Second, to promote parents’ authoritative support of children’s attachment needs, VIPP-SD helps parents to become aware of the child’s sometimes subtle signals, and respond to them promptly and adequately. With young children, parents learn to speak for the child, to let the child know that they are seen and heard, even if a wish of the child cannot be immediately fulfilled. The parent is encouraged to share the child’s positive emotions as a way of compensating for more difficult moments. Lastly, the coach highlights so-called chains of sensitivity. Such chains of sensitivity can be made visible in the videotaped interaction when a parent responds adequately to a child signal and the child shows it is satisfied or happy with that response. For instance, this happens when the child reaches for something it is not allowed to have, the parent comments: “I see that you want another cookie but you cannot have that now, but I can make you a fruit salad if you are hungry?” and the child complies with the alternative and happily follows the mother to the kitchen. This awareness of child signals and chains of sensitivity contribute to preventing coercive cycles and ensures that positive attachment-related interactions remain a more powerful immediate reinforcer than the stimuli children gain by their demanding behavior. This way, the vicious coercive cycles are transformed into rewarding spirals of sustained interactions.

Third, to prevent the onset of insecure cycles between the coach and the parents, the coach does not act as a teacher who knows better. Instead, the coach enables the parents to explore their interactions with the child and experience the reinforcing effects of some of their more successful reactions to misbehavior of the child. In the first two sessions only positive interaction sequences are emphasized and the parents are affirmed in their role as having expert knowledge of their own child. The coach always maintains a non-judgmental attitude and acts as an empathic guide for the parents to reflect on specific rewarding parts of the videotape. Through video-feedback, already available parental skills that serve VIPP-SD’s goals are identified, shared with parents, and amplified so they can be used more in future interactions that threaten to elicit coercive cycles or in future ongoing coercive cycles.

VIPP-SD considers the role of the coach of crucial importance because the interactions and relationships of the coach with the parents function as a model for the way in which the parents interact with their child. In fact, the operant component of the LTA is relevant here. The parents feel stressed because of their problems with the child and the presence of a potentially threatening and punitive stranger who is perceived as expert and witness of their failed child rearing. It is critical in the first session to establish a non-evaluative rapport with the parents and create an atmosphere of open communication. The coach strives for empathy and sensitive responsiveness toward the parents similar to what (s)he wants to attain in the parent–child relationship. This sensitive coaching becomes then a safety cue and the discriminative stimulus on which parents can rely to seek the coach’s help and support (R) while trying to learn from VIPP-SD. The coach subsequently supports the parent while learning to break coercive circles to the point where parents feel that stress lowers (−Sr−) and state trust increases (+Sr+).

Middle Childhood Attachment-Based Family Therapy: MCAT

Middle childhood has been long neglected in (attachment) research, and the development of attachment-focused interventions in this age-group is equally lagging behind (Bosmans & Kerns, 2015 ). Although VIPP-SD can be used in middle childhood as well (Runze et al., in prep.), the LTA suggests that children need to play a more active role in attachment-focused interventions as they grow older. With the LTA as basis, MCAT was developed as a transdiagnostic treatment targeting both parents and children. MCAT aims at promoting children’s secure attachment relationship with their parents to prevent further exacerbation of their emotional and behavioral problems and protect them against the impact of future (adolescence-related) stressors.

MCAT combines therapeutic elements from family therapy and behavior therapy. MCAT uses exposure therapy techniques to shape new attachment behavior in both parents and children. To facilitate attachment-focused exposure therapy in families, it is important to work with the family specific relational dynamics that drive parent–child interactions. This requires a family systems therapy approach (e.g., Bateson, 1979 ; Haley, 1962 ; Minuchin, 2018 ; Satir et al., 1988 ) as already pioneered by Bowlby ( 1949 ). Several family based attachment therapy models have been described in the literature such as Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (Lafrance et al., 2020 ) and Emotion Focused Family Therapy (Furrow & Palmer, 2019 ). However, MCAT was designed building on the ABFT model because of its strong evidence base (Diamond et al., 2016 ) and its explicit focus on restoring and restructuring attachment relationships. MCAT uses attachment-focused exposure therapy to restore attachment relationships and to help restructure insecure cycles. In what follows, we will mainly focus on the MCAT attachment-focused exposure therapy components.

Middle Childhood Secure Base Interactions

When shaping and restoring parent–child attachment relationships in middle childhood, it is important to take into account that the interactions that promote secure attachment development change hand in hand with children’s increasing maturation (Bosmans & Kerns, 2015 ). Research has shown that middle childhood secure base scripts are still under development and change or get updated driven by experiences linked to daily hassles (Waters, Facompre, et al., 2019 ; Waters, Facompré, et al., 2019 ). For care-related interactions to be experienced as helpful during middle childhood, the care scenario looks slightly different compared to previous developmental stages. On the one hand, middle childhood comes with novel or challenging developmental tasks that activate the attachment system and the need for care (Vandevivere et al., 2015 ). First, acquiring new academic skills becomes a challenge. For example, acquiring math or reading skills can be distressing and may elicit a need for parental support (Bosmans & De Smedt, 2015 ). Second, social interactions become a more explicit source of distress. Children struggle, for example, with peer conflicts and challenging playground interactions (Vandevivere et al., 2015 ).

On the other hand, there is a shift in the kind of parenting behaviors that children experience as supportive. Specifically, the supervisor role that parents already take on in certain occasions during early childhood further evolves into a a supervisor partnership . Parents now also help the child to explore and understand their daily hassles and their associated feelings and needs. Children no longer desire their parent to take over, instead they want their parents to help them gain insight in the issues they are faced with. Further, they find it helpful if parents propose possible solutions, allowing them to autonomously apply or improve the suggested solutions (Koehn & Kerns, 2016 ). However, because many of these problems and daily hassles are difficult to solve by themselves, children’s solution oriented attempts are not always successful and this activates feelings of failure in the child. At those times, it is important for children to experience supported failure . This refers to parents’ ability to comfort the child and show that they understand that the child did what it could do and that they do not think about the child as a failing person (Bosmans, 2016 ).

MCAT: Description of the Program

MCAT was designed accounting for the level of maturation that characterizes middle childhood. This is clearly different from ABFT, due to which it was impossible to merely apply ABFT to the middle childhood population. The fact that this is a challenging age for children to participate in family therapy is illustrated by many family therapists’ hesitation to involve children in family treatment sessions (Klop, 2017 ; Rober, 2008 ). To account for these challenges, MCAT acknowledges that younger children have not yet developed the verbal skills to fully participate in complex conversations that are part of ABFT. Instead, therapy in middle childhood requires more play and action (Klop, 2017 ; Rober, 2008 ). Therefore, MCAT is built around activities that serve as a leverage to facilitate exchange about attachment needs, emotions and unfolding interactions. For example, Lego Duplo® dolls are used to let parents and children visualize their family relationships (Diekmann-Schoemaker & van der Veer, 2003 ) and the emotion figures from Disney’s® movie Inside Out are used to visualize and deepen the emotional layers that drive the child’s and the parents’ behavior during insecure cycles (see Fig. 5 for an example). MCAT makes use of mental imagery exercises and various types of games, and creative techniques.

visualized family relationships and emotions

Second, MCAT builds on the observation that most children at this age have not yet acquired abstract thinking skills (Demetriou et al., 2014 ). These skills are necessary for ABFT, but in middle childhood, children have not yet integrated the negative experiences with their parents into abstract (insecure) attachment narratives which they can share with parents so parents can help rebuild trust. They more concretely experience and describe interactions with their parents as positive (e.g., ‘fun’, ‘nice’, or ‘good’) or negative (e.g., ‘not fun’, ‘not nice’, or ‘not helpful’). However, when currently experiencing a specific situation and when probed in a developmentally appropriate way, most children this age are able to talk more extensively and detailed about their in-the-moment thoughts, feelings and behavior, and even make links with previous situations that felt alike . Therefore, in MCAT, the therapist selects activities that elicit care-related interactions, which activates the child’s care script and then allows for a discussion of the child’s in-the-moment appraisals, expectations and fears regarding this type of interactions with their parents.”

Third, at this age, children’s loyalty to and dependency of their parents make it hard for them to share more vulnerable feelings and appraisals about themselves and about their parents with strangers (like the therapist in this type of brief interventions). Adolescents need child-alone sessions to feel the freedom to share their frustrations about their parents like is organized in ABFT. Instead, MCAT builds on the assumption that understanding the child side of the insecure cycle will occur more easily in the company of parents, but only after parents are prepared to listen openly to the child’s experiences. Therefore, MCAT limits the number of child-alone sessions.

In 16 one to one and a half hour sessions, organized across four phases (see Table 4 ) MCAT aims to (1) understand the key elements of the family’s insecure cycles (Phases 1–3); (2) motivate the family members to participate to the exposure sessions (Phases 2–4); (3) organize exposure sessions and consolidate novel learning experiences in children’s secure base script development (Phases 3–4).

MCAT and Exposure Therapy

Three elements of exposure therapy are embedded in MCAT: function analysis, exposure excercises, generalization sessions. For function analysis, MCAT identifies parents’ and children’s insecure attachment-related expectations and their defensive strategies(avoidance behaviors: the child’s distorted attachment signals and the parents’ unsupportive responses) that are set in motion or perpetuate insecure cycles. To visualize this information for participating families, MCAT adjusted the infinity sign drawing developed in Emotionally Focused Therapy (Johnson, 2020 ; see Fig. 6 ). Figure 6 a shows the basis of the figure. It shows the infinity sign, symbol of the ongoing interaction between parent and child. The upper side of the infinity sign (above the blue line), reflects the observable behavior and secondary emotions (e.g., anger and frustration) of both the parents and the child. In conversations with the parents on this topic, the metaphor of an iceberg is used: the upper side of the infinity sign is the part of the interaction that occurs above the waterline and that is visible. The lower side of the infinity sign (the blue line) reflects the invisible primary and vulnerable attachment-related emotions: the attachment needs and fears of both the parents and the child. The child’s primary emotions activate avoidance behavior (above the blue line), which activates the parents’ primary emotions to which they in turn respond with their own avoidance behavior. This again activates children’s primary emotions (and so on). The information gathered during Phases 1–3 serves to fill in the drawing for the family (see Fig. 6 b). This drawing is used throughout the therapy to provide insight to the parents about the therapy targets. The drawing gets constantly updated if new information emerges during Phase 4 sessions.

Function analysis of the Insecure Cycle

This drawing is mainly used as a metaphor to help families understand their ongoing interactions and to look together with the therapist for alternative behavior that helps interrupt the insecure cycle. However, at the learning theoretical level, the drawing reflects past classical and operant learning processes. Specifically, the child and the child’s expression of secondary emotions are a CS for the parents (CS parent ), which activates their insecure schemas of rejection by the child, that they will fail as a parent or that they will be considered inadequate (UCS parent ), and the fear associated with those schemas (CR/UCR parent ). This situation functions as a discriminative stimulus (Sd parent ) and elicits parental avoidance behavior (e.g., aimed at convincing the child that it must not or should not feel distressed or aimed at stopping the child’s unwanted behavior; R parent ), that gets reinforced by preventing those feared outcomes and associated negative emotions (e.g., the child stops sending signals that elicit the feeling of rejection, −Sr− parent , in the hope that the child will never express those signals again, °Sr− parent ). However, as discussed in the coercive cycle section, when parents let children cross their boundaries like this, they will also feel anger and frustration about their child which more likely translates in criticism, and explicit or implicit rejection. This Sd child comes with fear that they risk losing the parents’ love, which again elicits children’s missignals (R child ) that get reinforced because they shift the focus away from feelings of loneliness and abandonment (−Sr− child ), because they prevent those feelings to be activated (°Sr− child ), or because they elicit parental attention (+Sr+ child ). Thus, this behavior can increase the child’s hope that parents might respond more sensitively after this new attempt (+Sr+ child ). However, this in turn becomes a Sd for the parents due to which the insecure cycle continues.

To understand the parents’ Sd (including the CR or feared emotions elicited by their child’s behavior) that activate their avoidance behavior (R parent ), the MCAT therapist discusses with the parents the current stressors (including their worsening relationship with the child) in their lives and how they get in the way of being the parent they desire to be for the child. This way, the therapist acknowledges the parents’ good intentions and their love for the child, which helps to forge a constructive therapist-parent alliance due to which the parent can experience the therapist as a sensitive ad hoc figure and a model of a sensitive caregiver. Subsequently, the therapist explores transgenerational attachment themes, because these themes feed into the parents’ primary emotions elicited by the child’s unwanted behavior. This additionally helps the therapist to identify parents’ motivation to give their child a better childhood than what they themselves experienced as a child (if their past attachment experiences reflect substantial insecurity) or to give their child the quality of care they themselves experienced during their own childhood (if they experienced substantial security as a child).

To understand children’s Sd (including the CR or feared emotions elicited by their parents’ behavior), the MCAT therapist asks the family members to engage in activities and play that elicit attachment-relevant interaction and discourse. For example, in a blindfold game, children are asked to guide blindfolded parents through the therapist room (and vice versa). These activities typically elicit the child’s care-related script and the child behavior (R child ) that activates the insecure cycle. Afterwards, experiences during these games that reflect confidence and uncertainty are discussed giving children ample space to discuss their attachment-related appraisals and defensive responses related to anxiety and avoidance. Hereby, the therapist works constantly on deepening emotions by activating all vulnerable emotions such that the insecure cycle is experienced by all family members during the function analysis sessions. These emotions are subsequently used and maximally activated during the exposure exercises. The exposure excercises need to expose parents to the relevant Sd parent that activate past painful experiences during which they felt that children (CS) rejected them or that they failed as a parent (US parent ) and that activate the fear that this experience will be repeated (CR parent ). At the same time, these exercises need to expose children to the relevant Sd child that have been linked in the past to the painful experience that the parents (CS) did not support or rejected them (US hild ) and that activate the fear that this experience will be repeated (CR hild ).

One exposure strategy is to let parents and children discuss topics that are of emotional relevance for children, such as (current) stressors (e.g., academic concerns or social problems) or family related stressors (e.g., past conflicts, frictions, or dissappointments children experienced during interactions with parents). The therapist guides the conversation between parents and children to the content that seems emotionally most relevant to the child. Such discussions will activate the child’s fear that parents will not acknowledge or understand their needs and will not provide emotional support (CR child ). Discussing such topics will also be threatening for parents as the child might react with distorted signaling of needs, might say that have felt alone, frustrated, unheard, or misunderstood by the parents, or might tell things that trigger intense parental concerns about the child’s future development. All these responses will activate the parents’ fear to feel an unloved, incompetent, or bad parent (CR parent ). If, during such exposure exercises, parents manage to let go of the defensive strategies (R parent ) they typically use to protect themselves against those fears, their anxiety will increase, but it will also create the possibility for new learning experiences. Specifically, if parents manage to respond in a supportive way (distress decreases, −Sr− child , secure states increase, +Sr+ child ), this contradicts the child’s expectations which can result in a corrective learning experience for the child. It increases the likelihood that children let go of their self-defensive strategies (R child ), thanks to which parents can experience that these interactions do not result in the feared rejection (−Sr− parent ), that they get back into touch with the child (+Sr+ parent ) and that they are still loved by the child. Thus, these exposure excercises allow to disrupt the CS–UCS association due to which new experiences and expectations can be learned which facilitates relying on the desired behavior (for both the parents and the child).

Thus, the biggest challenge of attachment-focused exposure therapy in middle childhood is to help parents abstain from their typical avoidance behaviors. To achieve this goal, the MCAT therapist forges a strong collaborative therapist alliance with the parent by acknowledging their efforts, their love for their child, and (often) their desire to compensate for the care they missed as a child. Moreover, the therapist helps parents to use emotion coaching skills to replace their typical avoidant reactions. Some parents tend to reassure their children when they express distress. They try to ignore children’s distress, or they try to convince them that there is no need to feel distressed, that they should be grateful for what they have, or that they should focus on the positive. Other parents tend to emphasize how their child should try better or try to solve the problem for the child. These are only some examples of parental responses that suppress children’s attempts to share their distress. In MCAT, the therapist does not discuss with parents which of their responses are helpful or not. Instead, the therapist explains how parents can employ emotion coaching skills that facilitate a secure base discourse with their child. This means that parents do not immediately give their opinion or do not immediately try to solve the distress in response to what the child is sharing. Instead, MCAT helps parents to deepen the narrative of the child by asking questions like “can you tell me more about that” and by trying to help the child label negative emotions. This approach is taken from ABFT. Using video feedback, the therapist shows parents fragments of past sessions during which they already employ these emotion coaching skills intuitively and during which their child responds positively to open, emotion-focused discourses about the child’s distress. This strengthens parents’ sense of competence and self-efficacy and enhances the likelihood that parents respond more sensitively to the child during the exposure sessions (e.g., Mouton & Roskam, 2015 ).

Being asked to employ these emotion coaching skills while conversating with the child during the exposure session activates parents’ fears and negative primary emotions. Once these fears and negative emotions are maximally activated, the therapist subsequently helps the parents to use emotion coaching to prompt for children’s underlying need for care. This need contradicts parents’ fear that the child does not love them or does not appreciate them as caregivers. This is often a very emotional moment for parents on which MCAT builds to strengthen the attachment relationship. Children who feel that their parents respond in such a more emotion coaching way, more easily share their pain and fears with their parents. They seem to be in a developmental stage where their needs for care continue to drive them towards proximity seeking (see also Dujardin et al., 2019 ). So, if they feel that their parents are listening in an open and curious manner, without judgement, they oftentimes start sharing more suppressed negative primary emotions and cognitions. This in turn helps the parents understand their child’s distress better and often immediately softens their felt urge to employ their typical avoidance behavior. As a result the probability increases that the child feels acknowledged and supported which interrupts insecure cycles and which is a corrective attachment-related learning experience.

MCAT accounts for the major challenges these exposure sessions come along with, both for the parents and the child, by building up these sessions in increasing difficulty. Thus, the most threatening topics are touched upon once some trust has been rebuilt. Each exposure session ends when the parents are able to sustain emotion coaching until the child feels understood and supported. To consolidate the learning experience, the therapist uses “in-the-moment” verbalization (Caron et al., 2018 ) each time the interchange between the parents and the child reflects elements of the secure base script. To further maximize generalization of the learning experiences, the therapist ensures that parents and children practice these new communication skills about different topics. To ensure generalization, exposure occurs with the family at different locations (e.g., at the family’s home or at the child’s school during meetings with the teacher). This way, the therapist helps parents to become more atuned when children express their distress, which prevents future mistuned communication and reduces the risk that novel insecure cycles are set off. At the same time, the in-the-moment verbalisations and the generalization sessions aim to stimulate the consolidation of the learning experiences and children’s secure base script development.

In this contribution, we explored the clinical applicability and utility of the LTA. We proposed that stimulating or restoring secure attachment development can occur using both operant and classical learning mechanisms. We made the point that good therapeutic strategies exist to target these learning mechanisms and discussed antecedent and consequent control training and exposure therapy as examples. We discussed how these therapeutic strategies might be adapted to fit with attachment-focused treatment targets and described two interventions that are convergent with these ideas.

We suggest that the LTA is not just promising as a theory that could inform new research on attachment development (e.g., Bosmans, Sanchez-Lopez, et al., 2019 ; Bosmans, Waters, et al., 2019 ; Verhees et al., 2021 ), but that the theory could also be informative for clinical practice. Obviously, much work still needs to be done into clinically relevant translations. At the level of the interventions, support for the effectivity of VIPP-SD is robust, but MCAT has only recently been developed. Moreover, for both interventions more fine-grained work on the mechanisms of change is needed. The LTA may be functional to delineate testable questions about these mechanisms.

In addition, many other clinical questions remain. For example, we now only looked at antecedent and consequent control training and exposure therapy, but these are not the only interventions that target operant and classical learning. It might be worthwhile to explore whether other interventions like, for example, cognitive restructuring can be adapted to a more attachment-focused format. However, our analysis also suggests that repairing attachment should not be seen as a mere cognitive process, but that the vulnerable emotions that drive attachment-related behaviors related to avoiding rejection and interpersonal pain should be acknowledged and taken into account.

In sum, in families with younger children, intervention programs like VIPP-SD achieve the goal of supporting parents to acknowledge the attachment needs hidden behind the child’s avoidant or resistant behaviors, and to respond in a sensitive manner. The evidence base for VIPP-SD is substantial with 25 randomized control trials in families struggling with a wide range of clinical issues showing that antecedent and consequent control training using video-feedback can raise parenting in the service of attachment security (see Van IJzendoorn et al., 2021 ). In older children, programs like MCAT suggest that attachment relationships can be strengthened or repaired by attachment-focused exposure therapy. MCAT is a novel program, so only limited pilot data are available, but MCAT seems to significantly increase children’s secure base script knowledge and decreases children’s presenting problems using exposure therapy.

These illustrations suggest the clinical value of the endeavor to formulate a more concrete and testable attachment theory as well as the value of clinical applications to inspire new theoretical developments. More of such cross-fertilization is needed to move this field further, to detect effective components of the programs, to integrate intergenerational attachment dynamics in a learning-based approach, to refine treatment strategies, to search for the moderators identifying the most susceptible families. We expect this interplay between LTA and clinical interventions to succeed in improving treatment outcomes, which is in the interest of the children and families that need professional support. Footnote 1

More information on training in the interventions mentioned in the current review, can be found here. For VIPP-SD: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/vipp/professionals ,

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This work was supported by Grants G075718, G0D6721, G049419, and G0B6721 from Research Foundation Flanders (FWO).

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Bosmans, G., Van Vlierberghe, L., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M.J. et al. A Learning Theory Approach to Attachment Theory: Exploring Clinical Applications. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 25 , 591–612 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-021-00377-x

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Contributions of Attachment Theory and Research: A Framework for Future Research, Translation, and Policy

Jude cassidy.

University of Maryland

Jason D. Jones

Phillip r. shaver.

University of California, Davis

Attachment theory has been generating creative and impactful research for almost half a century. In this article we focus on the documented antecedents and consequences of individual differences in infant attachment patterns, suggesting topics for further theoretical clarification, research, clinical interventions, and policy applications. We pay particular attention to the concept of cognitive “working models” and to neural and physiological mechanisms through which early attachment experiences contribute to later functioning. We consider adult caregiving behavior that predicts infant attachment patterns, and the still-mysterious “transmission gap” between parental AAI classifications and infant Strange Situation classifications. We also review connections between attachment and (a) child psychopathology, (b) neurobiology, (c) health and immune function, (d) empathy, compassion, and altruism, (e) school readiness, and (f) culture. We conclude with clinical-translational and public policy applications of attachment research that could reduce the occurrence and maintenance of insecure attachment during infancy and beyond. Our goal is to inspire researchers to continue advancing the field by finding new ways to tackle long-standing questions and by generating and testing novel hypotheses.

One gets a glimpse of the germ of attachment theory in John Bowlby's 1944 article, “Forty-Four Juvenile Thieves: Their Character and Home-Life,” published in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis . Using a combination of case studies and statistical methods (novel at the time for psychoanalysts) to examine the precursors of delinquency, Bowlby arrived at his initial empirical insight: The precursors of emotional disorders and delinquency could be found in early attachment-related experiences, specifically separations from, or inconsistent or harsh treatment by, mothers (and often fathers or other men who were involved with the mothers). Over the subsequent decades, as readers of this journal know, he built a complex and highly generative theory of attachment.

Unlike other psychoanalytic writers of his generation, Bowlby formed a working relationship with a very talented empirically oriented researcher, Mary Ainsworth. Her careful observations, first in Uganda ( Ainsworth, 1967 ) and later in Baltimore, led to a detailed specification of aspects of maternal behavior that preceded individual differences in infant attachment. Her creation of the Strange Situation ( Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978 ) provided a gold standard for identifying and classifying individual differences in infant attachment security (and insecurity) and ushered in decades of research examining the precursors and outcomes of individual differences in infant attachment. (A PsycInfo literature search using the keyword “attachment” yields more than 15,000 titles).

By the beginning of the 21 st century, the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development based its policy and practice conclusions and recommendations on four themes, one of which was that “early environments matter and nurturing relationships are essential ( Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000 , p. 4) … Children grow and thrive in the context of close and dependable relationships that provide love and nurturance, security, responsive interaction, and encouragement for exploration. Without at least one such relationship, development is disrupted, and the consequences can be severe and long-lasting” (p. 7). This clear and strong statement could be made in large part because of the research inspired by Bowlby's theory and Ainsworth's creative research methods.

Years after Ainsworth's Strange Situation was proposed, Mary Main and colleagues (e.g., George, Kaplan, & Main, 1984 ; Main, Kaplan, & Cassidy, 1985 ) provided a way to study the intergenerational transmission of attachment patterns. They and other researchers found that a parent's “state of mind with respect to attachment” predicted his or her infant's pattern of attachment. Moreover, since the 1980's there has been an explosion of research examining attachment processes beyond the parent-child dyad (e.g., in adult romantic relationships), which has supported Bowlby's (1979) belief that attachment is a process that characterizes humans “from the cradle to the grave” (p. 129). In the present article, space limitations lead us to focus principally on attachment processes early in life and consider the adult attachment literature largely in relation to parental predictors of infant attachment.

A Simple Model of Infant-Mother Attachment

During the 70 years since Bowlby's initial consideration of the developmental precursors of adolescent delinquency and psychopathology, researchers have provided a complex picture of the parental and experiential precursors of infant attachment, the links between early attachment-related experiences and later child functioning, the mechanisms involved in explaining these links, and moderators of these linking mechanisms. Much has been learned at each of several analytic levels, including behavior, cognition, emotion, physiology, and genetics. Figure 1 summarizes this literature in a simple model. We have selected several of the components in Figure 1 for further discussion. For each component, following a brief background and review of the current state of knowledge, we offer suggestions for future research, based largely on identification of gaps in theory or methodological innovations that make new lines of discovery possible. We begin by considering one of the central concepts of attachment theory, the internal working model, followed by a consideration of physiological mechanisms that also help to explain the influence of early attachments. Next, we consider the caregiving behavior that predicts infant attachment and the perplexing issue of the transmission gap between parental Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) classifications and infant Strange Situation classifications. We then examine connections between attachment and (a) child psychopathology, (b) neurobiology, (c) health and immune function, (d) empathy, compassion, and altruism, (e) school readiness, and (f) culture. Finally, we discuss the translational application of attachment research to reducing the risk of developing or maintaining insecure attachments and the policy implications of attachment research.

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Note . A complete depiction of attachment processes would require several pages. For instance, here we note the parent's own attachment representations as a contributor to parental attachment-related behavior. There are many other important contributors to parental behavior, including culture, SES, parental age, parental personality, child temperament, and presence or absence of a partner, to name a few. Each of the constructs and arrows in Figure 1 could be surrounded by numerous others.

Internal Working Models

One of the key concepts in attachment theory is the “attachment behavioral system,” which refers to an organized system of behaviors that has a predictable outcome (i.e., proximity) and serves an identifiable biological function (i.e., protection). According to Bowlby (1969/1982 ), such a system is organized by experience-based “internal working models” (IWMs) of self and environment, including especially the caregiving environment.

It is by postulating the existence of these cognitive components and their utilization by the attachment system that the theory is enabled to provide explanations of how a child's experiences with attachment figures come to influence in particular ways the pattern of attachment he develops. (pp. 373-374)

Much of the research on these models is based on the notion that, beginning in the first year of life, mentally healthy individuals develop a “secure base script” that provides a causal-temporal prototype of the ways in which attachment-related events typically unfold (e.g., “When I am hurt, I go to my mother and receive comfort”). According to Bretherton (1991 ; Bretherton & Munholland, 2008 ), secure base scripts are the “building blocks” of IWMs. Theoretically, secure children's and adults' scripts should allow them to create attachment-related “stories” in which one person successfully uses another as a secure base from which to explore and as a safe haven in times of need or distress. Insecure individuals should exhibit gaps in, or distortion or even absence of, such a script. H. Waters and colleagues ( H. Waters & Rodrigues-Doolabh, 2001 ; H. Waters & Waters, 2006 ) tested this hypothesis by having children complete story stems that began with a character's attachment behavioral system presumably being activated (e.g., a child rock-climbing with parents hurts his knee). Secure attachment at 2 years of age was positively correlated with the creation of stories involving knowledge of and access to the secure base script at ages 3 and 4. (A similar methodology has been used in studies of young adults; see Mikulincer, Shaver, Sapir-Lavid, & Avihou-Kanza, 2009 .)

New Directions in the Examination of IWM Formation during Infancy

Despite Bowlby's hypothesis that infants develop IWMs during the first year of life (see also Main et al., 1985 ), almost no empirical work has focused on attachment representations during infancy (instead, most research on IWMs has involved children, adolescents, and adults). We believe, as do others ( Johnson et al., 2010 ; Sherman & Cassidy, 2013 ; Thompson, 2008 ), that IWMs can be studied in infancy. Such work is made possible by recent efforts to bridge social-emotional and cognitive developmental research (e.g., Calkins & Bell, 2010 ; Olson & Dweck, 2008 ), along with methodological advances and accumulating research on an array of previously unexplored infant mental capacities.

Attachment researchers have assumed that infants recall the emotional nature of their attachment-related social experiences with specific individuals (e.g., experiences of comfort with vs. rejection by mother), and that they use these memories to create IWMs that guide their attachment behavior in subsequent interactions with these individuals. This claim has been supported with correlational research findings; for example observations indicating that infants' daily interactions with attachment figures are linked to their IWMs reflected in behavior in the Strange Situation ( Ainsworth et al., 1978 ). These findings can now be supplemented with results from experimental studies.

There is a compelling body of experimental work showing that infants extract complex social-emotional information from the social interactions they observe. For example, they notice helpful and hindering behaviors of one “person” (usually represented by a puppet or a geometric figure) toward another, they personally prefer individuals who have helped others, they form expectations about how two characters should behave toward each other in subsequent interactions, and they behave positively or negatively toward individuals based on what they have observed (e.g., Hamlin & Wynn, 2011 ; Hamlin, Wynn, Bloom, & Mahajan, 2011 ). This work could and should be extended to include attachment relationships, revealing in detail how infants form “models” of particular adults and then modify their emotional reactions and social behaviors toward those adults accordingly ( Johnson et al., 2010 ). At present, there is no experimental research showing that infants form expectations about the later social behavior of another person toward them based on the infants' own past interactions with that person – a capacity that is assumed to underlie infants' development of working models of their caregivers.

As explained in detail in another paper ( Sherman & Cassidy, 2013 ), we urge infancy researchers to consider the specific cognitive and emotional capacities required to form IWMs and then to examine these capacities experimentally. Methods used by researchers who study infant cognition, but rarely used by attachment researchers (e.g., eye-tracking, habituation paradigms), will prove useful. For example, habituation paradigms could allow attachment researchers to study infant IWMs of likely mother and infant responses to infant distress (see Johnson et al., 2010 ). Another research area relevant to attachment researchers' conception of IWMs concerns infants' understanding of statistical probabilities. When considering individual differences in how mothering contributes to attachment quality, Bowlby (1969/1982) adopted Winnicott's (1953) conception of “good enough” mothering; that is, mothering which assures a child that probabilistically, and often enough, the mother will prove responsive to the child's signals. Implicit in such a perspective is the assumption that an infant can make probabilistic inferences. Only recently has there been a surge in interest in the methods available to evaluate this assumption of attachment theory (e.g., Krogh, Vlach, & Johnson, 2013 ; Pelucchi, Hay, & Saffran, 2009 ; Romberg & Saffran, 2013 ; Xu & Kushnir, 2013 ).

One useful conceptual perspective, called rational constructivism, is based on the idea that infants use probabilistic reasoning when integrating existing knowledge with new data to test hypotheses about the world. Xu and Kushnir (2013) reviewed evidence that by 18 months of age, infants use probabilistic reasoning to evaluate alternative hypotheses ( Gerken, 2006 ; Gweon, Tenenbaum, & Schulz, 2010 ), revise hypotheses in light of new data ( Gerken, 2010 ), make predictions ( Denison & Xu, 2010 ), and guide their actions ( Denison & Xu, 2010 ). Moreover, infants are capable of integrating prior knowledge and multiple contextual factors into their statistical computations ( Denison & Xu, 2010 ; Teglas, Girotto, Gonzales, & Bonatti, 2007 ; Xu & Denison, 2009 ). Xu and Kushnir (2013) have further proposed that these capacities appear to be domain-general, being evident in a variety of areas: language, physical reasoning, psychological reasoning, object understanding, and understanding of individual preferences. Notably absent from this list is the domain of social relationships, including attachment relationships.

Several questions about probabilistic inferences can be raised: Do infants make such inferences about the likely behavior of particular attachment figures, and could this ability account for qualitatively different attachments to different individuals (e.g., mother as distinct from father)? Do infants use probabilistic reasoning when drawing inferences related to the outcomes of their own attachment behaviors? (This is related to if-then contingencies: “If I cry, what is the probability that χ will occur?”) How complex can this infant reasoning become, and across what developmental trajectory? “If I do χ, the likelihood of outcome y is 80%, but if I do w , the likelihood of y is only 30%.” Do infants consider context? “If I do χ, the likelihood of y is 90% in context q , but only 20% in context r .” How do infants calculate variability in these probabilities across attachment figures?

In sum, it seems likely that infants use statistical inference to understand their social worlds. This ability would seem to be evolutionarily adaptive in relation to attachment figures, because infants could incorporate probabilistic inferences into their IWMs and use them to guide their attachment behavior. Important advances in our understanding of attachment behavior might occur with respect to how and when this incorporation happens, and also with respect to the role of statistical inference in infants' openness to change in response to changing environmental input (e.g., in response to interventions designed to change parental behavior).

Child-Parent Attachment, Response to Threat, and Physiological Mechanisms of Influence

Bowlby's emphasis on cognitive IWMs as the mechanism through which early experiences influence later functioning is understandable given the emerging cognitive emphasis in psychology when he was writing. But scientists are becoming increasingly aware that the effects of attachment-related experiences are carried in the body and brain in ways not easily reducible to cognition. As a way to touch briefly on the physiological processes involved in attachment, we focus here on a central issue in attachment theory: infants' responses to threat as these are shaped by attachment relationships. One of the core propositions of attachment theory is that proximity to an attachment figure reduces fear in the presence of a possible or actual threat. As explained in the previous section, Bowlby thought the mechanism that explained this link is children's experience-based cognitive representation of the availability of an attachment figure. Specifically, it is because securely attached infants are more likely than insecurely attached infants to have mental representations of caregiver availability and responsiveness that they are able to interpret a threat as manageable and respond to it with less fear and anxiety. Yet in species that do not possess human representational capacities, the link between attachment and response to threat clearly exists, suggesting that in humans there is likely to be more to attachment orientations than cognitive IWMs. (For the initial and more extensive discussion of ideas presented in this section, see Cassidy, Ehrlich, and Sherman [2013] .)

Another Level of “Representation” or Internal Structure: Physiology

Since the time of Bowlby's original writings, one important advance that has extended our understanding of the link between attachment and response to threat has roots in Myron Hofer's laboratory in the 1970s. Hofer, a developmental psychobiologist, noticed defensive vocal protest responses to maternal separation in infant rat pups and asked what non-representational process could account for them. He and his colleagues conducted a series of tightly controlled experiments to identify what physiological subsystems, which he called hidden regulators, are disrupted when mothers are removed from their pups (for reviews, see Hofer, 2006 ; Polan & Hofer, 2008 ). The pups exhibit changes in multiple physiological and behavioral systems, such as those controlling heart rate, body temperature, food intake, and exploration. Hofer concluded that mother-infant interactions have embedded within them a number of vital physiological regulatory functions that are disrupted by separation from mother and do not require cognitive mediators. These regulators can be disentangled by experimentally manipulating parts of a “mother”: the food she provides, her warmth, her licking and grooming, etc. Later, Meaney and colleagues (e.g., Liu et al., 1997 ; reviewed in Meaney, 2001 ) found that rat pups that received high levels of maternal licking and grooming and arched-back nursing positions had milder responses to threat and increased exploratory behavior – effects that lasted into adulthood (and in fact, into subsequent generations as a function of maternal affection in each successive generation). This research group further found that individual differences in maternal behavior were mediated by differences in offsprings' gene expression ( Weaver et al., 2004 ), a finding that has opened up a new research domain for researchers studying both animals and humans ( Sharp, Pickles, Meaney, Marshall, Tibu, & Hill, 2012 ; Suomi, 2011 ).

Early Attachment-Related Experiences and Human Infant Biological Response to Stress

In humans, a fully developed stress response system, the HPA axis, is present at birth ( Adam, Klimes-Dougan, & Gunnar, 2007 ). A growing body of research indicates that differences in the quality of early care contribute to variations in the initial calibration and continued regulation of this system. This regulation in turn plays an important role in shaping behavioral responses to threat ( Jessop & Turner-Cobb, 2008 ).

Researchers have examined connections between caregiving experiences and infant stress physiology by comparing infants' cortisol levels before and after a stressful task (e.g., the Strange Situation). For example, Nachmias, Gunnar, Mangelsdorf, Parritz, and Buss (1996) found that inhibited toddlers who were insecurely attached to their caregivers exhibited elevated cortisol levels following exposure to novel stimuli. There is also experimental evidence that mothers' touch buffers infants' cortisol stress response (in this case, during the still-face laboratory procedure in which mothers are asked to cease interacting emotionally with their infants; Feldman, Singer, & Zagoory, 2010 ). Children living in violent families endure particularly stressful caregiving environments, which are extremely dysregulating for them ( Taylor, Repetti, & Seeman, 1997 ). A number of studies have documented the disrupted stress response of maltreated children (e.g., De Bellis et al., 1999 ; Hart, Gunnar, & Cicchetti, 1995 ). Even living in a family in which the violence does not involve them directly has negative consequences for children, and studies suggest that the quality of caregiving in these harsh environments plays an important role in modifying the stress response (e.g., Hibel, Granger, Blair, Cox, & The FLP Investigators, 2011 ).

Attachment as a Regulator of Infant Stress Reactivity: Further Questions

Just as infants are thought to have evolved a capacity to use experience-based information about the availability of a protective caregiver to calibrate their attachment behavioral system ( Main, 1990 ), and given the close intertwining of the attachment and fear systems, it is likely that infants also evolved a capacity to use information about the availability of an attachment figure to calibrate their threat response system at both the behavioral and physiological levels ( Cassidy, 2009 ). And this capacity is probably not solely “cognitive,” which raises important questions for research: How are representational and physiological processes linked and how do they influence each other and affect child functioning? Does the nature of their interaction vary across particular aspects of child functioning and across developmental periods? How can we understand these interactions in relation to both normative development and individual differences?

In humans, representations and physiological (e.g., stress) reactions are thought to affect each other in ways unlikely to occur in other species. Sapolsky (2004) noted that, in humans, representational processes – the anticipation of threat when none currently exists – can launch a stress response. Relatedly, Bowlby (1973) , focusing on the link between attachment and fear, specified representational “forecasts of availability or unavailability” of an attachment figure as “a major variable that determines whether a person is or is not alarmed by any potentially alarming situation” (p. 204). Thus, the representations that others will be unavailable or rejecting when needed – that is, representations that characterize insecure attachment – could contribute to chronic activation of physiological stress response systems, as could the associated representations of others as having hostile intentions ( Dykas & Cassidy, 2011 ). Conversely, in times of both anticipated and actual threat, the capacity to represent a responsive attachment figure can diminish physiological responses associated with threatening or painful experiences (see Eisenberger et al., 2011 ; Coan, Schaefer, & Davidson, 2006 ). Moreover, consideration of linkages between representational and non-representational processes must include the possibility that causality flows in both directions: Physiological stress responses can presumably prompt a person to engage in higher-level cognitive processes to understand, justify, or eliminate the stressor.

When and how do young children use attachment-related representations as regulators of stress? Neither normative trajectories nor individual differences in the use of representations to influence stress reactivity have been examined extensively. Evidence that stress dysregulation can lead to the conscious engagement of representational processes comes from children as young as 4 who are able to describe strategies for alleviating distress (e.g., changing thoughts, reappraising the situation, mental distraction; Sayfan & Lagattuta, 2009 ). Less studied but of great interest are possible “automatic emotion regulation” processes ( Mauss, Bunge, & Gross, 2007 ) that do not involve conscious or deliberate self-regulation. Recent studies of adults show that there are such processes, that there are individual differences in them that might relate to attachment orientations, that they are associated with particular brain regions that are not the same as those associated with conscious, deliberate emotion regulation, and that they can be influenced experimentally with priming procedures.

Many researchable questions remain: Given the extent to which many forms of psychopathology reflect problems of self-regulation in the face of stress (e.g., Kring & Sloan, 2010 ), can “hidden regulators” stemming from infant-mother interactions tell us about the precursors of psychopathology? What about hidden regulators embedded within a relationship with a therapist (who, according to Bowlby [1988] , serves as an attachment figure in the context of long-term psychotherapy)? When change occurs following long-term therapy, does this change emerge through cognitive representations, changes at the physiological level, or both? See Cassidy et al., (2013) for additional suggestions for future research.

Maternal Caregiving and Infant Attachment: Intergenerational Transmission of Attachment and the “Transmission Gap”

In 1985, Main and colleagues published the first evidence of the intergenerational transmission of attachment: a link between a mother's attachment representations (coded from responses to the AAI; George et al., 1984 ) and her infant's attachment to her ( Figure 1 , Path c). Based on findings from Ainsworth's initial study of the precursors of individual differences in infant attachment ( Ainsworth et al., 1978 ), researchers expected this link to be explained by maternal sensitivity: That is, they believed that a mother's state of mind with respect to attachment guides her sensitive behavior toward her infant ( Figure 1 , Path a), which in turn influences infant attachment quality ( Figure 1 , Path b). However, at the end of a decade of research, van IJzendoorn (1995) published a meta-analysis indicating that the strong and well-replicated link between maternal and infant attachment was not fully mediated by maternal sensitivity (see also Madigan et al., 2006 ). van IJzendoorn labeled what he had found as the “ transmission gap .” Moreover, meta-analytic findings revealed that the link between maternal sensitivity and infant attachment, although nearly universally present across scores of studies, was typically considerably weaker than that reported in Ainsworth's original study ( De Wolff & van IJzendoorn, 1997 ).

The transmission gap has been one of the most perplexing issues facing attachment researchers during the past 15-20 years. Immediate attempts to understand it focused largely on measurement of maternal behavior. Many studies have been aimed at understanding why the strength of the association between maternal sensitivity and infant attachment, while not negligible, is lower than the particularly strong effect found in Ainsworth's original study, and lower than attachment researchers expected. These studies have provided important insights, but no consensus has emerged about how to understand maternal behavior as a predictor of infant attachment. Continued efforts in this area are essential, and they will inform both researchers' understanding of the workings of the attachment behavioral system and clinicians' attempts to reduce the risk of infant insecure attachments.

Further consideration of Bowlby's concept of the secure base may help researchers better understand maternal contributors to infant attachment. First, we should note that any consideration of caregiving influences necessitates consideration of differential child susceptibility to rearing influence. According to the differential susceptibility hypothesis ( Belsky, 2005 ; see also Boyce & Ellis, 2005 , on the theory of biological sensitivity to context, and Ellis, Boyce, Belsky, Bakermans-Kranenberg, & van IJzendoorn, 2011 , for an integration of the differential susceptibility hypothesis and the theory of biological sensitivity to context), children vary genetically in the extent to which they are influenced by environmental factors, and for some children the influence of caregiving behavior on attachment may be minimal. Moreover, we underscore that the thinking presented in the present paper relates to the initial development of infant attachment during the first year of life; contributors to security are likely to differ at different developmental periods.

A focus on secure base provision

For Bowlby (1988) , the secure base concept was the heart of attachment theory: “No concept within the attachment framework is more central to developmental psychiatry than that of the secure base” (pp. 163–164). When parents provide a secure base, their children's confidence in the parents' availability and sensitive responsiveness when needed allows the children to explore the environment freely. The secure base phenomenon contains two intertwined components: a secure base from which a child can explore and a haven of safety to which the child can return in times of distress. In fact, as noted earlier, the central cognitive components of secure attachment are thought to reside in a secure base script (i.e., a script according to which, following a distressing event, the child seeks and receives care from an available attachment figure, experiences comfort, and returns to exploration).

If the goal of research is to understand what components of a parent's behavior allow a child to use the parent as a secure base, researchers should focus as precisely as possible on the parent's secure base provision rather than on his or her parental behavior more broadly. Through experience-based understanding of parental intentions and behavior, an infant gathers information to answer a central secure base question: What is my attachment figure likely to do when activation of my attachment system leads me to seek contact? If experiences lead the infant to believe that the parent will be responsive (most of the time) to behaviors related to activation of his/her attachment system, then the infant will use the parent as a secure base, and behavioral manifestations of the secure base script will appear (i.e., the secure base script will be evident in the Strange Situation attachment assessment, and the infant will be classified as secure). In 2000, E. Waters and Cummings, when proposing an agenda for the field in the millennium of the 2000s, urged that the secure-base concept be kept “at center stage in attachment theory and research” (p. 164). We share this opinion, and believe that additional consideration of the secure base notion will provide a useful framework within which to consider parental behavior as a predictor of infant attachment.

Bowlby (1988) emphasized that an infant's sense of having a secure base resides in the infant's confidence that parental sensitive responsiveness will be provided when needed (e.g., specifying “especially should he [the infant] become tired or frightened” [p. 132]). As such, it may be useful for attachment researchers to frame their question as: Which contexts provide the infant with information about the parent's likely behavior when needed – not in all contexts, but specifically in response to activation of the infant's attachment system ? Bowlby (1969/1982) described the relevant contexts as “fall[ing] into two classes: those which indicate the presence of potential danger or stress (internal or external), and those concerning the whereabouts and accessibility of the attachment figure” (p. 373).

Especially during the early years of life, both of these circumstances are likely to be associated with infant distress. This association has led some writers to wonder whether maternal response to infant distress is particularly predictive of infant attachment quality (e.g., Thompson, 1997 ), and there is compelling evidence that this is the case (e.g., Del Carmen, Pedersen, Huffman, & Bryan, 1993 ; Leerkes, 2011 ; Leerkes, Parade, & Gudmundson, 2011 ; McElwain & Booth-LaForce, 2006 ). When infants experience comfort from parental sensitive responses to their distress, they develop mental representations that contribute to security (“When I am distressed, I seek care, and I am comforted”). These representations are then thought to guide secure attachment behavior, and the physiological regulation that comes from regaining calmness in contact with the parent is thought to calibrate the child's stress reactivity systems and feed back into further secure mental representations (e.g., Cassidy et al., 2013 ; Suomi, 2008 ). The greater predictive power of the maternal response to distress, compared to maternal response to non-distress, may emerge from the considerable intertwining of infant distress and the infant's attachment system during the first year of life.

Future studies attempting to predict infant attachment might benefit from a framework that considers two components of parental behavior: (a) parental behavior related specifically to the secure base function of the infant's attachment system as Bowlby described it (see above), and (b) parental response to infant distress. Table 1 presents a 2 (attachment-related or not) × 2 (infant distressed or not) matrix that gives rise to a number of research questions. One key question is the following: Is parental behavior in response to an infant's attachment behavioral system most predictive of infant attachment, regardless of whether or not the infant is distressed (i.e., parental behavior in both cells 1 and 2)? Another set of questions relates to distress: Is parental response to any form of infant distress the most central predictor of infant attachment (i.e., parental behavior in both cells 1 and 3)? Does the termination of the physiological and emotional dysregulation of distress – no matter what the cause – that occurs through parental care solidify a tendency to use the parent as a secure base? Or do the cognitive models that derive from experiences of distress in different contexts (e.g., distress during play versus distress when seeking comfort) contribute differentially to secure base use? Most previous research has not drawn distinctions concerning the context of infant distress; future work that considers this distinction is needed.

	Attachment system-related?
	Yes	No
Distressed?
Yes	1	3
No	2	4

Note . The following examples describe 5- to 12-month old infants participating in studies with their mothers in Cassidy's lab. Cell 1 . The context is attachment-related, and the infant is distressed: After having been left alone in an unfamiliar laboratory playroom, a crying 12-month-old crossed the room to her returning mother and reached to be picked up. Cell 2 . The context is attachment-related, and the infant is not distressed: An 8-month-old infant had been playing contentedly for 20 minutes near her mother at home. The mother had been sitting on the floor holding a toddler whose hair she was braiding. When the mother finished and the toddler moved away, the infant crawled to the mother, clambered up on her lap, and snuggled in for a hug; after exchanging tender pats with her mother, the infant returned to play on the floor. The lack of accessibility to the mother may have led to the infant's seeking contact in a manner that did not involve other activities (e.g., play or feeding). Cell 3 . The context is not attachment-related, and the infant is distressed: A 12-month-old infant became distressed when a toy was removed. Cell 4 . The context is not attachment-related, and the infant is not distressed: An infant, with her mother nearby, played happily with toys.

Additional questions raised by Table 1 include: Is it the combination of maternal behavior when the infant's attachment system is central, along with any behavioral response to infant distress, that best predicts infant attachment (i.e., maternal behavior in cells 1, 2, and 3)? Finally, is it the case (as some have suggested; e.g., Pedersen & Moran, 1999) that maternal behavior in all four cells is predictive of infant attachment? Attempts to increase understanding of the precursors of infant attachment will require the development of detailed coding systems.

Finally, it will be crucial for future research conducted within a secure base framework to identify the specific maternal behaviors in response to activation of the infant's attachment system that predict infant security (for one approach, see Cassidy et al., 2005 , and Woodhouse & Cassidy, 2009 , who note that providing physical contact until the infant is fully calmed may be a more powerful predictor of later security than the general sensitivity of the parent's response). Basic research examining the extent to which infant distress occurs in relation to the attachment behavioral system will provide an important foundation for further work.

Additional mediational pathways: Genetics, cognitions, and emotions

Following the discovery of the transmission gap, several studies examined the possibility of a genetic mediating mechanism. However, neither behavior-genetic nor molecular-genetic research so far indicates a genetic component to individual differences in secure vs. insecure attachment, although mixed findings have emerged concerning a genetic vulnerability for infant disorganized attachment ( Bakermans-Kranenburg & van IJzendoorn, 2004 , 2007 ; Bokhorst et al. 2003 ; Fearon et al., 2006 ; Roisman & Fraley, 2008 ). (For evidence that variability in infants' serotonin-transporter-linked polymorphic region 5-HTTLPR predicts not whether infants are secure or insecure, but their subtype of security or subtype of insecurity, see Raby et al., 2012 ). Future research should examine other genes and gene X environment interactions (see Suomi, 2011 , for examples from primate research).

Despite a conceptual model of intergenerational transmission in which maternal behavior is central, examination of additional linking mechanisms purported to underlie maternal behavior, such as maternal cognitions and emotions, will continue to be important. Perhaps such factors may be more reliably measured than maternal behavior, and if they are, mediating relations may emerge to shed light on mechanisms of transmission (e.g., Bernier & Dozier, 2003 ). Moreover, from a clinical standpoint, factors thought to underlie maternal behavior may be more amenable targets of intervention than her behavior itself. For example, continued examination of maternal cognition through the study of constructs such as reflective functioning and maternal insightfulness may shed light on the link between mother and child attachment ( Oppenheim & Koren-Karie, 2009 ; Slade, Sadler, & Mayes, 2005 ). These constructs refer to the extent to which a mother can see the world from her infant's point of view while also considering her own mental state. There is evidence that these and other components of maternal cognition (e.g., perceptions of the baby, attributions about infant behavior and emotions, maternal mindmindedness) are linked to maternal and/or child attachment, and additional research is needed to clarify the extent to which these components mediate the link between the two (e.g., Leerkes & Siepak, 2006 ; Zeanah, Benoit, Hirshberg, Barton, & Regan, 1994 ).

Another aspect of maternal functioning that should prove fruitful for researchers examining the transmission gap is maternal emotion regulation. As Cassidy (2006) has proposed, much maternal insensitivity can be recast as a failure of maternal emotion regulation. That is, when mothers themselves become dysregulated in the face of child behavior or child emotions that they find distressing (particularly child distress), their maternal behavior is more likely to be driven by their own dysregulation rather than the needs of the child (see also Slade, in press ). Evidence that maternal emotion-regulation capacities contribute to problematic parenting and insecure attachment has been reported ( Leerkes et al., 2011 ; Lorber & O'Leary, 2005 ), as have data indicating that maternal state of mind with respect to attachment (i.e., maternal secure base script knowledge) is uniquely related to maternal physiological regulation in response to infant cries (but not in response to infant laughter; Groh & Roisman, 2009 ). Unfortunately, although there is a sound conceptual and empirical basis for maternal emotion regulation as a mediator of the link between maternal and child attachment, there has been no empirical examination of this possibility.

In sum, the direction of future work depends on researchers' goals. If the goal is to understand the maternal behavior that mediates the link between maternal state of mind and child attachment, then the focus, obviously, must be on maternal behavior. If, however, the goal is to understand what factors may guide maternal behavior, and as such may themselves be successful targets of intervention, then examination of factors such as maternal cognitions and emotions should prove useful as well.

Caregiving as a Function of Adult Attachment Style

Although most researchers using self-report measures of adult attachment have not focused on links with parenting, there is a substantial and growing body of literature (more than 50 published studies) that addresses this link (see Jones, Cassidy, & Shaver, 2013 , for a review). Whereas researchers using the AAI have focused mainly on links between adults' AAI classifications and their observed parenting behaviors , attachment style researchers have focused mainly on links between adult attachment style and self-reported parenting cognitions and emotions (reviewed by Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007 ). But the few studies in which self-report attachment measures were used to predict parenting behavior have found support for predicted associations (e.g., Edelstein et al., 2004 ; Mills-Koonce et al., 2011 ; Rholes, Simpson, & Blakely, 1995 , Study 1; Selcuk et al., 2010 ). This is especially the case for maternal self-reported attachment-related avoidance (note that each of these studies was conducted with mothers only [Edelstein et al. included 4 fathers], so caution is warranted in generalizing these findings to fathers).

It would be useful to have more studies of adult attachment styles and observed parenting behavior. It would also be important to conduct longitudinal and intergenerational research using self-report measures. Prospective research is needed examining the extent to which adult attachment styles predict both parenting behaviors and infant attachment (see Mayseless, Sharabany, & Sagi, 1997 , and Volling, Notaro, & Larsen, 1998 , for mixed evidence concerning parents' adult attachment style as a predictor of infant attachment). Of related interest to researchers examining attachment styles and parenting will be longitudinal research examining the developmental precursors of adult attachment as measured with self-report measures (see Fraley, Roisman, Booth-LaForce, Tresch Owen, & Holland, 2013 , and Zayas, Mischel, Shoda, & Aber, 2011 , for evidence that self-reported attachment style in adolescence and early adulthood is predictable from participants' mothers' behavior during the participants' infancy and early childhood).

In general, we need more merging of social and developmental research traditions. It would be useful to include both the AAI and self-report attachment style measures in studies of parenting behaviors and cognitions. It would also be useful to know how the two kinds of measures relate similarly and differently to parenting variables. Scharf and Mayseless (2011) included both kinds of measures and found that both of them prospectively predicted parenting cognitions (e.g., perceived ability to take care of children), and in some cases, the self-report measure yielded significant predictions when the AAI did not (e.g., desire to have children). From the viewpoint of making predictions for practical or applied purposes, it is beneficial that both interview and self-report measures predict important outcomes but sometimes do so in non-redundant ways, thus increasing the amount of explained variance.

Mothers and Fathers

It is unclear whether it is best to think of a single kind of parental caregiving system in humans or of separate maternal and paternal caregiving systems. Harlow proposed separate maternal and paternal systems in primates (e.g., Harlow, Harlow, & Hansen, 1963 ). Within a modern evolutionary perspective, the existence of separate maternal and paternal caregiving systems is readily understood. Because mothers and fathers may differ substantially in the extent to which the survival of any one child enhances their overall fitness, their parenting behavior may differ. In addition, the inclusion of fathers in future attachment research is crucial. We contend that the field's continued focus on mothers is more likely to reflect the difficulty of recruiting fathers as research participants than a lack of interest in fathers. Bowlby, after all, was careful to use the term “attachment figure” rather than “mother,” because of his belief that although biological mothers typically serve as principal attachment figures, other figures such as fathers, adoptive mothers, grandparents, and child-care providers can also serve as attachment figures. Presumably, it is the nature of the interaction rather than the category of the individual that is important to the child. Also, addition of fathers will permit examination of attachment within a family systems perspective ( Byng-Hall, 1999 ; Johnson, 2008 ). Future research should examine (a) whether the precursors of infant-father attachment are similar to or different from the precursors of infant-mother attachment; (b) whether the Strange Situation best captures the quality of infant-father attachments (some have suggested that it does not; Grossmann Grossman, Kindler, & Zimmermann, 2008 ); (c) the influence of infants' relationships with fathers and father figures on their subsequent security and mental health; (d) possible differences in the working models children have of mothers and fathers; and (e) possible influences of parents' relationship with each other on the child's sense of having, or not having, a secure base ( Bretherton, 2010 ; Davies & Cummings, 1994 ).

Attachment and Psychopathology

As mentioned at the outset of this article, Bowlby was a clinician interested in the influence of early experiences with caregivers on children's later mental health and delinquency ( Bowlby, 1944 , 1951 ). Yet following a line of thinking that later came to characterize the developmental psychopathology approach (e.g., Cicchetti, 1984 ), Bowlby developed attachment theory as a framework for investigating and understanding both normal and abnormal development ( Sroufe, Carlson, Levy, & Egeland, 1999 ). Given space limitations and the focus of this journal, we will concentrate on relations between attachment and child psychopathology ( Figure 1 , Path d; see Cassidy & Shaver, 2008 , and Sroufe, Egeland, Carlson, & Collins, 2005a , for reviews of attachment and psychosocial functioning more broadly). The vast majority of existing studies have, however, not focused on clinically diagnosed psychopathology, but have been concerned with relations between attachment and continuous measures of internalizing and externalizing symptoms (e.g., assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist [CBCL]; Achenbach, 1991 ).

Bowlby's Theory of Attachment and Psychopathology

Bowlby used Waddington's (1957) developmental pathways model to explain how early attachment relates to later developmental outcomes, including psychopathology. According to this model, developmental outcomes are a product of the interaction of early childhood experiences and current context (at any later age). Early attachment is not expected to be perfectly predictive of later outcomes. Moreover, attachment insecurity per se is not psychopathology nor does it guarantee pathological outcomes. Instead, insecurity in infancy and early childhood is thought to be a risk factor for later psychopathology if subsequent development occurs in the context of other risk factors (e.g., poverty, parental psychopathology, abuse). Security is a protective factor that may buffer against emotional problems when later risks are present (see Sroufe et al., 1999 , for a review).

Attachment and Internalizing/Externalizing Behavior Problems: State of the Field

Over the past few decades, there have been many studies of early attachment and child mental health. The findings are complicated and difficult to summarize, as explained by Fearon, Bakermans-Kranenburg, van IJzendoorn, Lapsley, and Roisman (2010 , p. 437): “With the sheer volume, range, and diversity of studies…it has become virtually impossible to provide a clear narrative account of the status of the evidence concerning this critical issue in developmental science” (italics added). Studies contributing to this body of work have used diverse samples and different methods and measures, and have yielded inconsistent and, at times, contradictory results. Fortunately, two recent meta-analyses ( Fearon et al., 2010 ; Groh, Roisman, van IJzendoorn, Bakermans-Kranenburg, & Fearon, 2012 ) provide quantitative estimates of the degree of association between child attachment and internalizing/externalizing symptoms.

The meta-analyses revealed that insecurity (avoidant, ambivalent, and disorganized combined) was related to higher rates of internalizing and externalizing symptoms (though the link appears to be stronger for externalizing symptoms). When the subtypes of insecurity were examined individually, avoidance and disorganization were each significantly related to higher rates of externalizing problems, but only avoidance was significantly related to internalizing problems. Ambivalence was not significantly related to internalizing or externalizing. Contrary to expectations, neither meta-analysis yielded much support for an interaction of child attachment and contextual risk in predicting behavior problems. For example, neither meta-analysis found support for the predicted child attachment by SES interaction. However, given that high versus low SES is a rather imprecise measure of the numerous psychosocial risk factors that could contribute (individually and additively) to behavior problems, along with evidence from large sample studies supporting an attachment by risk interaction (e.g., Fearon & Belsky, 2011 ), these results should be interpreted cautiously. In sum, the answer to the question “Is early attachment status related to later mental health difficulties?” is a resounding yes, but the precise nature of the connections remains unclear.

Attachment and Psychopathology: Gaps in the Research and Future Directions

More research is needed on mechanisms, or mediators, that help to explain how insecurity, or a particular form of insecure attachment, leads in some cases to psychopathology. These mechanisms should be considered at different levels of analysis: neurological, hormonal, cognitive, behavioral, and social-interactional. Mediators may include difficulties in emotion regulation and deficits in social skills, for example. Given the documented links between early attachment and emotion regulation and physiological stress responses ( Cassidy, 1994 ; Spangler & Grossmann, 1993 ), as well as the role of emotion dysregulation and HPA axis irregularities in psychopathology ( Gunnar & Vazquez, 2006 ; Kring & Sloan, 2010 ), emotion regulation seems to be a promising target for mechanism research. More research is also needed on potential moderators and risk factors, such as age, gender, personality, traumas and losses, SES, exposure to family and neighborhood violence. Researchers should consider the cumulative effects of multiple risk factors as well as interactions among risk factors ( Belsky & Fearon, 2002 ; Fearon & Belsky, 2011 ; Kazdin & Kagan, 1994 ).

Given that most research on the mental health sequelae of early attachment has focused on internalizing and externalizing symptoms in non-clinical samples, future research should focus more on clinically significant problems and consider specific clinical disorders. The CBCL is not a measure of psychopathology, although it does indicate risk for eventual psychopathology ( Koot & Verhulst, 1992 ; Verhulst, Koot, & Van der Ende, 1994 ). Future research should address why the link between attachment and problematic behaviors is stronger for externalizing than for internalizing problems, and whether this difference holds for diagnosable pathology (e.g., conduct disorder or major depression). This may be partially a measurement issue. The CBCL is often completed, with reference to a child, by a parent, a teacher, or both. It may be easier to see and remember externalizing behaviors than it is to notice whether a child is experiencing anxiety, sadness, or internal conflicts. Another important diagnostic issue is comorbidity. It is very common for clinicians to assign a person to multiple diagnostic categories. Perhaps attachment theory and related measures could help to identify common processes underlying comorbid conditions and suggest where their roots lie ( Mineka, Watson, & Clark, 1998 ). One likely possibility is emotion regulation and dysregulation influenced by early experiences with parents.

Moreover, additional research is needed on the precise nature of the early childhood predictive factors and issues of causation. Is the issue really attachment status at age 1, for example, or is it continual insecure attachment across years of development? Also, we need to know whether attachment status per se is the issue or whether, for example, poor parenting predicts both attachment classification and psychopathology. Answering these questions will require studies using repeated assessments of attachment, parenting, context, and psychopathology. Further, there is increasing recognition of the importance of genetics and gene-by-environment interactions in understanding the development of psychopathology (e.g., Moffitt, 2005 ). Given preliminary evidence for genetic influences on disorganized attachment ( Lakatos et al., 2000 ) as well as evidence for a gene-by-early-maternal-sensitivity interaction in predicting mental health outcomes ( Bakermans-Kranenburg & van IJzendoorn, 2006 ), this area of inquiry is a very promising avenue for further research. There is also growing evidence concerning environmental effects on gene expression (i.e., epigenetics; Meaney, 2010 ). Especially interesting is the possibility that secure attachment may protect a child from the expression of risky genotypes (see Kochanska, Philibert, & Barry, 2009 , for preliminary evidence).

The Neuroscience of Attachment

Recent methodological advances (e.g., fMRI) have enabled researchers to investigate the neural correlates of attachment in humans. Initial theoretical formulations and empirical findings from the nascent subfield of “attachment neuroscience” ( Coan, 2008 ) have begun to provide answers to important questions about the neurobiology of attachment. Recent advances in this area include: (a) identifying key brain structures, neural circuits, neurotransmitter systems, and neuropeptides involved in attachment system functioning (see Coan, 2008 , 2010 , and Vrtička & Vuilleumier, 2012 , for reviews); (b) providing preliminary evidence that individual differences in attachment can be seen at the neural level in the form of differential brain responses to social and emotional stimuli ( Vrtička & Vuilleumier, 2012 ); (c) demonstrating the ability of attachment figures to regulate their spouses' neural threat response (i.e., hidden regulators; Coan et al., 2006 ); and (d) advancing our understanding of the neurobiology of parenting (see Parsons, Young, Murray, Stein, & Kringelbach, 2010 , for a review).

These early findings suggest important directions for attachment research. First, the vast majority of research on the neurobiology of attachment has been conducted with adults (yet see Dawson et al., 2001 ; White et al., 2012 ). However, researchers have the tools to examine the neural bases of attachment in younger participants. It is feasible to have children as young as 4 or 5 years old perform tasks in a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner ( Byars et al., 2002 ; Yerys et al., 2009 ), and less invasive measures such as EEG are commonly used with infants and even newborns. Additional investigations with younger participants could move the field of attachment neuroscience forward in important ways. For example, researchers could find ethically acceptable ways to extend the work of Coan and colleagues (2006) to parents and children: Just as holding the hand of a spouse attenuates the neural threat response in members of adult couples, holding the hand of a caregiver may have a similar effect on children. Researchers should also extend the sparse literature on how individual differences in attachment in children relate to differential neural responses to social and emotional stimuli.

Second, there is a need for longitudinal investigations that address several important unanswered questions: (a) What does child-parent attachment formation look like at the neural level in terms of the circuits involved and changes in neurobiology over time? (b) What is the role of developmental timing (i.e., sensitive and critical periods in brain development) in the formation of neural circuits associated with attachment? (c) Is the neural circuitry associated with attachment the same for children, adolescents, and adults? Some researchers have suggested that the neural circuitry associated with attachment may be different at different ages ( Coan, 2008 ).

Third, future research should examine the ability of experience to change neural activity in brain regions related to attachment, and should explore potential clinical implications of these findings. For example, Johnson et al. (2013) compared the ability of spousal hand-holding to buffer neural responses to threat before and after couples underwent Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT). They found that EFT increased the ability of hand-holding to attenuate threat responses; similar examination of both parent and child neural activity in response to attachment-related interventions would be informative.

Fourth, it is important for future research to identify which, if any, brain regions are specific to attachment and which are shared with other related social constructs such as caregiving or affiliation more broadly. There is initial evidence that caregiving and attachment involve both unique and overlapping brain regions ( Bartels & Zeki, 2004 ).

Finally, given the inherent interpersonal nature of attachment, future research should attempt to study attachment-related neural processes in situations that approximate as closely as possible “real” social interactions ( Vrtička & Vuilleumier, 2012 ). To date, all studies of the neuroscience of attachment have focused on the neural activity of only one partner in a relationship. By capitalizing on further methodological advances in neuroimaging (e.g., hyperscanning; Montague et al., 2002 ) researchers may be able to examine simultaneously the neural activity of a parent and child while they are interacting.

Attachment, Inflammation, and Health

Evidence is accumulating that attachment insecurity in adulthood is concurrently associated with negative health behaviors (e.g., poor diet, tobacco use; Ahrens, Ciechanowski, & Katon, 2012 ; Huntsinger & Luecken, 2004 ; Scharfe & Eldredge, 2001 ) and problematic health conditions (e.g., chronic pain, hypertension, stroke, heart attack; McWilliams & Bailey, 2010 ). Despite these intriguing cross-sectional findings in adult samples, much less is known about how early attachment relates to long-term health outcomes. One longitudinal study ( Puig, Englund, Collins, & Simpson, 2012 ) reported that individuals classified as insecurely attached to mother at 18 months were more likely to report physical illnesses 30 years later. Two other studies found that early insecure attachment was associated with higher rates of obesity at age 4.5 ( Anderson & Whitaker, 2011 ) and 15 ( Anderson, Gooze, Lemeshow, & Whitaker, 2012 ). Additional longitudinal investigations of the links between early attachment and health outcomes are needed to replicate these findings in different samples using a wider variety of health measures (e.g., medical records, biomarkers, onset and course of specific health problems).

Another goal for future research is to advance our understanding of the processes or mechanisms by which early attachment is related to later health outcomes. Recent proposals that early psychosocial experiences become “biologically embedded” at the molecular level and influence later immune system functioning (e.g., inflammation) provide a promising model with which to pursue this kind of research (see Miller, Chen, & Parker, 2011 , for a review of the conceptual model and its empirical support). In brief, the model proposes that early adverse experiences result in immune system cells with a “proinflammatory phenotype” and neuroendocrine dysregulation leading to chronic inflammation. Inflammation, in turn, is involved in a variety of aging-related illnesses including cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases, and certain types of cancer ( Chung et al., 2009 ).

As mentioned earlier, there is mounting evidence that early experiences with caregivers (including their influence on attachment) contribute to the calibration and ongoing regulation of the HPA axis (e.g., cortisol reactivity, diurnal cortisol rhythms), a system that is central to the body's stress response ( Adam et al., 2007 ; Gunnar & Quevedo, 2007 ; Luijk et al., 2010 ; Spangler & Grossmann, 1993 ). The HPA axis also plays an integral role in inflammatory responses and immune system functioning. In addition, there is evidence that early maternal warmth (retrospectively reported) can buffer the deleterious effects of early adversity on pro-inflammatory signaling in adulthood ( Chen, Miller, Kobor, & Cole, 2011 ; see also Pietromonaco, DeBuse, & Powers, 2013 , for a review of the links between adult attachment and HPA axis functioning). Finally, studies show that attachment in adulthood is concurrently related to biomarkers of immunity: attachment-related avoidance is related to heightened levels of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) in response to an interpersonal stressor ( Gouin et al., 2009 ) and to lower levels of natural killer cell (NK) cytotoxicity (NK cells are involved in immune defense; Picardi et al., 2007 ); attachment-related anxiety is related to elevated cortisol production and lower numbers of T cells ( Jaremka et al., 2013 ).

These initial findings provide an empirical basis for researchers to pursue further the connections between attachment and health. Future research should prospectively examine the relation between early attachment security and biomarkers of inflammation in adulthood. Further, researchers should attempt to elucidate the relations among attachment, HPA axis functioning, inflammation, and the immune system to better understand the biological processes underlying the link between early experience and later health outcomes.

Attachment and Empathy, Compassion, and Altruism

Shortly after the development of the Strange Situation, which allowed researchers to validly assess infants' attachment orientations, there was strong interest in the potential links between attachment security and prosocial motives and behaviors (e.g., empathy, compassion). From a theoretical standpoint, there are reasons to expect that secure children – whose own needs have been responded to in a sensitive and responsive way – will develop the capacity to respond to the needs of others empathically. Several early investigations confirmed the association between child attachment security and empathic responding ( Kestenbaum, Farber, & Sroufe, 1989 ; Sroufe, 1983 ; Teti & Ablard, 1989 ). Over the past 24 years, however, the link between child attachment status and prosocial processes (e.g., empathy, helping, altruism) has received surprisingly little research attention (though see Panfile & Laible, 2012 ; Radke-Yarrow, Zahn-Waxler, Richardson, Susman, & Martinez, 1994 ; van der Mark, van IJzendoorn, & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2002 ). In contrast, social/personality psychologists have generated substantial and compelling empirical support for a connection between adult attachment and prosocial motives and behaviors.

Mikulincer, Shaver, and colleagues ( Mikulincer & Shaver, 2001 ; Mikulincer, Shaver, Gillath, & Nitzberg, 2005 ; Mikulincer, Shaver, Sahdra, & Bar-On, in press ) have demonstrated that both dispositional and experimentally augmented attachment security (accomplished through various forms of “security priming”) are associated with several prosocial constructs, including reduced outgroup prejudice, increased compassion for a suffering stranger and willingness to suffer in her place, and the ability and willingness of one partner in a couple to listen sensitively and respond helpfully to the other partner's description of a personal problem. In addition, surveys completed in three different countries (United States, Israel, the Netherlands) revealed that more secure adults (measured by self-reports) were more likely to volunteer in their communities (e.g., by donating blood or helping the elderly). Avoidant respondents were much less likely to volunteer, and although anxious respondents volunteered, their reasons for doing so (e.g., to receive thanks, to feel included) were less generous than those of their more secure peers ( Gillath et al., 2005 ).

Further study of how early attachment relates to various forms of prosocial behavior is needed. Developmental attachment researchers would benefit from using the experimental techniques that Mikulincer, Shaver, and colleagues used. Are young children who were classified as secure in the Strange Situation (especially in comparison to children classified as avoidant) more willing to help a suffering individual or more willing to interact with a child from a different ethnic group? Can experimental security “boosts” increase tolerance, empathy, compassion, and altruism in children? There is already robust experimental evidence that infants as young as 14 to 18 months readily engage in altruistic behavior (e.g., retrieving an out-of-reach object for a stranger; see Warneken & Tomasello, 2009 , for a review). To the best of our knowledge, however, no study has examined whether variations in infant attachment predict individual differences in this kind of instrumental helping behavior (although the potential for attachment-related differences has been proposed by Dweck; see Tomasello, Dweck, Silk, Skyrms, & Spelke, 2009 ). Warneken and Tomasello (2009) have proposed that these early helping behaviors reflect a biological predisposition for altruism in infants that begins to be influenced by social and cultural experiences only “a year or two after [the infants] have started behaving altruistically” (p. 400). However, given the innumerable social experiences that infants encounter in the first year of life and the pioneering work by Johnson and colleagues ( Johnson, Dweck, & Chen, 2007 ; Johnson et al., 2010 ) showing that 12- to 16-month-old infants with different attachment patterns have different expectations about others' helpfulness, it may be possible to observe attachment-related individual differences in early helping behaviors earlier than Warneken and Tomasello suggest.

Attachment and School Readiness

In recent years researchers, educators, and policy makers have been increasingly interested in understanding factors that predict children's school readiness and in developing and testing programs that may better prepare children (particularly at-risk children) for school entry. In his 2013 State of the Union Address at the beginning of his second term, President Obama proposed implementing universal, high-quality preschool for all American children with the idea that these early preparatory experiences will enhance school readiness and future academic performance. The focus of much of the initial research on school readiness has been on children's basic cognitive skills such as early literacy and numeracy abilities (e.g., Duncan et al., 2007 ). More recently, researchers have recognized the importance of other competencies such as emotion regulation and social skills (e.g., High and the Committee on Early Childhood, Adoption, and Dependent Care and Council on School Health, 2008 ). Further, High et al. listed “strong nurturing relationships” as one of the universal needs of children that must be met to promote school readiness and positive educational outcomes (p. e1009).

The conclusions reached by High et al. suggest that child attachment security is an important factor to consider when studying school readiness and developing programs designed to improve school readiness (for initial empirical evidence, see Belsky & Fearon, 2002 , and Stacks & Oshio, 2009 ). Decades of research have provided substantial evidence that early attachment security is associated with better emotion regulation capacities and greater social competence (e.g., Cassidy, 1994 ; Sroufe et al., 2005a ; Thompson, 2008 ). In addition, research has demonstrated that secure attachment is associated with better academic performance ( Granot & Mayseless, 2001 ) as well as enhanced cognitive skills and executive functions ( Bernier, Carlson, Deschênes, & Matte-Gagné, 2012 ; Jacobsen, Edelstein, & Hofmann, 1994 ). Thus, as research on school readiness continues to advance, greater consideration of the direct and indirect influences of early attachment security on school readiness is warranted. For example, researchers should test mediational models in which attachment security predicts greater emotion regulation or social competence, which in turn predicts greater school readiness. In addition, both parenting and school readiness interventions could consider whether increasing parental secure base provision fosters a child's school readiness. Moreover, consideration of the extent to which preschool teachers perform secure base and safe haven functions for their young students, and whether these components of the student-teacher relationship relate to young children's classroom functioning will be important (see Commodari, 2013 ).

Attachment and Culture

Bowlby (1969/1982 ) viewed the attachment behavioral system as a product of human evolutionary history, making it cross-culturally universal. Ainsworth's (1967 ; Ainsworth et al., 1978 ) early studies in Uganda and the US provided empirical support for similar attachment processes in very different cultures. Although some researchers have disputed the cross-cultural validity of core tenets of attachment theory (e.g., Rothbaum, Weisz, Pott, Miyake, & Morelli, 2000 ), decades of research strongly suggest that the basic phenomenon and the major kinds of individual differences are universal (see van IJzendoorn & Sagi-Schwartz, 2008 , for a review). Three hypotheses rooted in attachment theory have been examined and supported in cross-cultural research: that secure attachment is the most prevalent pattern in all cultures and is viewed as the most desirable pattern; that maternal sensitivity influences infant attachment patterns; and that secure infant attachment predicts later social and cognitive competence.

Yet much more research is needed. As psychological knowledge, research, and applications become increasingly global, it will become more feasible to map the detailed effects of cross-cultural and contextual differences in parenting, co-parenting, community care, environmental harshness and instability, and conflicts and war on attachment patterns and attachment-related mental health problems. It will be increasingly important to define “culture” and “context” more specifically. Within any large and diverse society, and in every large urban area (in a world increasingly urbanized), there are many cultures and subcultures. Moreover, within any modern society there are large differences in ethnicity, religion, diet, education, income, economic security, and threats to health and the availability of medical care. It is therefore important not to think of differences only between nation states but also within different groups and contexts within each nation.

Translating Attachment Research to Clinical Practice Interventions with Infants and Young Children at Risk for Insecure Attachment

Just as the study of individual differences in attachment began with the study of infants, so the systematic study of how to create attachment-related change focused initially on attempts to alter the developmental trajectory of infants who are at risk of developing or maintaining insecure attachments. Given the substantial and converging longitudinal research underscoring the risks associated with insecure attachment (e.g., poorer mental and physical health and lower social competence), the need to intervene to reduce the risk of insecure attachment is clear. In the past 20 years, researchers and clinicians have developed numerous therapeutic programs to prevent or reduce insecure attachment ( Bakermans-Kranenburg, van IJzendoorn, & Juffer, 2003 ; Egeland, Weinfield, Bosquet, & Cheng, 2000 ; see Berlin, Zeanah, & Lieberman, 2008 , for a review). Despite the fact that a handful of attachment interventions have shown initial success (e.g., Bernard et al., 2012 ; Cassidy et al., 2011 ; Cicchetti, Rogosch, & Toth, 2006 ; Hoffman, Marvin, Cooper, & Powell, 2006 ; Klein Velderman, Bakermans-Kranenburg, Juffer, & van IJzendoorn, 2006 ; Lieberman, Weston, & Pawl, 1991 ; Lyons-Ruth & Easterbrooks, 2006 ; Sadler et al., 2013 ; Toth, Rogosch, Manly, & Cicchetti, 2006 ; van den Boom, 1994 , 1995 ), we have as yet a collection of individual initiatives with little replication. More research is needed to identify the critical targets of attachment interventions and to understand the process of change.

Targets of early intervention

What should an intervention target? Until recently, this question was framed largely as: Should interventions target parental behavior, parental representations, or both? Greater specificity is required. When an intervention targets parental behavior, what specific components of behavior should be targeted? We discussed potential aspects of parental behavior earlier. When an intervention targets parental representations, what specific components should be targeted? Should interventions target representations of the parent her- or himself, of the infant, of the relationship; of the baby as an entity with a mind (e.g., mentalizing approaches; Slade et al., 2005 ); or maternal attributions about the infant's behavior ( Bugental et al., 2002 )?

Several studies (described earlier) suggest additional intervention targets. For example, the evidence that maternal emotion regulation capacities influence parenting ( Dix, 1991 ; Leerkes, Crockenberg, & Burrous, 2004 ; Lorber & Slep, 2005 ; Smith & O'Leary, 1995 ) suggests that targeting maternal emotion regulation capacities might be useful in bringing about change (e.g., the Circle of Security intervention; Hoffman et al., 2006 ). Another target of intervention is suggested by research with non-human primates and other mammals that demonstrates the soothing and regulatory functions that physical contact with an attachment figure can provide ( Hofer, 1994 , 2006 ; Meaney, 2001 ; Suomi, 2008 ; see Feldman, Singer, & Zagoory, 2010 , for such evidence in humans; see also Field, 2011 ). Interventions focused on infant-mother contact may prove useful (see Anisfeld, Casper, Nozyce, & Cunningham, 1990 , for a randomized trial in which mothers assigned to carry their infants in soft baby carriers were more likely to have infants who were securely attached at age 1). Of course, consideration of intervention targets necessarily requires considering moderators of intervention effectiveness. Targeting certain components may be more effective for some mothers than others.

The desire to intervene to reduce the risk of insecure attachment rests on the assumption that doing so in turn reduces the risk of poor child functioning, including a reduction in behavior problems and psychopathology. Remarkably, although there are a number of studies, described above, that show a link between insecure attachment and behavior problems and psychopathology, much less research has focused on whether intervening to reduce the risk of insecure attachment actually leads to a reduction in later problems (yet see Dozier et al., 2006 ; Moss et al., 2011 ; Klein Velderman et al., 2006 ; van den Boom, 1995 ; Van Zeijl et al., 2006 ). Future intervention research should test the change model according to which improving parenting reduces the risk of insecure attachment, which in turn reduces child behavior problems and psychopathology. Given that behavior problems associated with early insecure attachment may not emerge until later in development, and the evidence that the link between insecure attachment and behavior problems grows stronger over time ( Fearon & Belsky, 2011 ), longitudinal studies with long-term outcome assessments will be an important component of future intervention research.

Intervention development and issues of implementation

No attachment intervention has yet achieved widespread implementation. When following the typical efficacy-to-effectiveness clinical model, researchers initially design an intervention with a highly specified protocol, and only once it has proven to be efficacious in a tightly controlled setting do they begin to consider the adaptations needed for effectiveness in real-world settings. With attachment-based infant interventions, the problem has been that initial interventions are typically very expensive, and real-world social agencies attempting to meet the needs of at-risk infants cannot afford them. This is an unfortunate situation, especially because, over the past decade, there has been a call for researchers to attend to issues of implementation during the early stages of intervention planning. For instance, an argument that “the focus on feasibility in the prevention research cycle should not be restricted to the effectiveness stage” has been put forward by Ialongo and colleagues (2006) .

Several components of early attachment-based interventions make implementation at a broad public health level impractical. Many such interventions involve videotaping individual parent-infant interactions and providing individualized parental feedback (e.g., Dozier et al., 2006 ; Klein Velderman et al., 2006 ). This requires considerable resources: extensive training and supervision of staff; expertise and time to create individual diagnostic and treatment plans; and time, space, equipment, skills, and parental assent for individual videotaping. From an attachment perspective, the problem is how to provide an individualized approach that does not require expensive highly skilled staff. This problem has not been easy to solve (e.g., Berlin, Ziv, Amaya-Jackson, & Greenberg, 2005 ). Continued attempts to develop interventions that are widely and affordably implementable are important.

We urgently need evaluations of comprehensive theory- and research-based intervention protocols that can be widely implemented among families whose infants and children are at elevated risk for developing or maintaining insecure attachments . Addressing this need is in keeping with the NIMH (2008) strategic plan's objective of moving interventions to “common practice” more quickly and of examining interventions in “the care setting in which they are delivered” (p. 35). Continued testing of attachment-based interventions should occur further down the efficacy-to-effectiveness stream – with affordable protocols that can be provided through existing service delivery mechanisms. Expensive interventions are not implementable on a broad scale within the current American health care and educational structures.

Intervention development and testing are enormously expensive, yet replication of existing interventions is crucial. We propose that the dedication of resources to development of new interventions occur only when theory, clinical perspectives, or research indicate that existing interventions lack an important component that could reasonably contribute to change.

Interventions during Adolescence

Adolescence is a period of increased risk-taking behavior and mental health disorders ( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012 ; Roberts, Attkisson, & Rosenblatt, 1998 ), and attempts to reduce these problematic symptoms and behaviors are important. The dramatic biological and cognitive changes that occur during adolescence have led some researchers to consider this period as a second sensitive period (e.g., Andersen & Teicher, 2008 ; Guttmannova et al., 2011 ), and as such, adolescents may be particularly open to environmental interventions that can lead to improved functioning.

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 ). Yet given evidence that the link between attachment security and healthy functioning continues to exist in adolescence ( Dykas, Ziv, & Cassidy, 2008 ; Kobak & Sceery, 1988 ; see Allen, 2008 , for a review), 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. Moreover, the associations among intervention, attachment, and psychopathology may be more complex in adolescence than they are in infancy and early childhood. Another important way to examine the connections among these factors is to design studies to determine whether reducing adolescent psychopathology contributes to secure adolescent attachment.

In an intervention designed to enhance adolescent-parent attachment security – with the idea being that increased security will reduce the prevalence of adolescent problems – questions about intervention approaches arise. For instance, should an intervention include the parent, the adolescent, or both? Bretherton (1992) described Bowlby as the first family therapist because of his proposition that change in a child's attachment to a parent is possible only when there is change within the interaction between the child and the parent (see also Byng-Hall, 1999 ). There has been almost no examination of this proposition in adolescence. One randomized controlled trial ( Diamond et al., 2010 ) showed that Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT) was more efficacious than Enhanced Usual Care in reducing adolescents' depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation.

Policy Implications

Throughout this article we have suggested topics for future research. At least as important are the needs for application of the findings already obtained and increased collaborations among researchers, policy makers, educators, and child service workers. Here we list a few important areas for such efforts.

Attachment research has clearly established the importance of early experiences with parents for child development. Yet far too many parents enter parenthood with insufficient knowledge about child development and the importance of the early parent-child relationship, and without the knowledge and skills needed to parent in a sensitive, responsive manner. Unfortunately, there is almost no future-parent education at any grade level in public schools. In American schools, there seems to be a greater focus on education about sex than about successful parenting. (And most sex education classes do not deal with other aspects of couple relationships, even though there is a considerable body of attachment-related research relevant to establishing and maintaining healthy couple relationships – a foundation for healthy parent-child relationships.) Even at the college level, there are few courses aimed at preparing young adults for healthy marriages and parenting. Researchers and educators should work together to develop future-parent curricula that could be implemented as part of high school and university education. There are several empirically supported parent training programs based on attachment research (described earlier; see Berlin et al., 2008 , for a review), but these have yet to be made a part of general education.

In the context of dramatic social and economic changes, many parents are struggling to strike a balance between work and family responsibilities and to find quality care for their children while the parents are at work or school. There is a need for more flexible work arrangements that recognize child care as a prime societal concern. This includes re-examination of parental leave policies that require parents to return to work too soon after childbirth, either because of company policy or because of financial necessity. In addition, greater attention to the training and screening of childcare workers and prospective foster parents is warranted. In a review of attachment theory and its implications for society, Sweeney (2007) suggested, among several policy implications, “legislative initiatives reflecting higher standards for credentialing and licensing childcare workers, requiring education in child development and attachment theory, and at least a two-year associate's degree course as well as salary increases and increased stature for childcare positions” (p. 342). The massive NICHD childcare study showed that high quality daycare is compatible with secure attachment of young children to their parents, and also that when home conditions make secure attachment unlikely, high quality daycare can increase children's chances of achieving attachment-related security ( NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1997 ).

Policies directed at helping families in which one or both parents serve in the military could also be informed by attachment theory and research. Military service often entails frequent moves within the United States and separation of at least one parent from the family during periods of service overseas. In thousands of cases, the separation ends with a soldier's death, and his or her family is left to cope with the tragedy. Attention to helping spouses and children cope effectively with attachment-related stresses that have the potential to damage their lives for years to come has increased in recent years (e.g., Maholmes, 2012 ; see also Riggs & Riggs, 2011 , for consideration of military families within an attachment theory framework), but there continues to be a need for research-informed interventions that consider the particular challenges faced by military families (for discussion, see Miller, Miller, & Bjorklund, 2010 ; Paris et al., 2010 ).

We end with a brief mention of policy implications related to parental incarceration. Elsewhere ( Cassidy, Poehlmann, & Shaver, 2010 ) we have provided reviews and studies related to this issue. Often, incarcerated parents are unable to see their children, and pressures are placed on the rest of extended families, and in many cases on the foster care system. For each adult placed in prison, there are likely to be, on average, more than one or two people outside of prison who suffer from the incarceration. Policy makers could consider the separations and losses that accompany parental incarceration within an attachment framework. Research is needed to assess the value of greater contact between incarcerated individuals and their children, and of parenting interventions that can take place as part of rehabilitation.

Brief Conclusions

Our goal in this article has been to provide a current “state of the art” description of what is known in many important areas of attachment research, discuss gaps in current knowledge, and suggest important avenues for future research and for creating and evaluating practical interventions. Although we have, by design, focused on issues within attachment research specifically, an important enterprise for the future is to consider how attachment is differentiated from, and integrated with, other features of development. As our colleague Alan Sroufe responded when asked his views on the future of attachment research (personal communication, 2012; see also Sroufe, Egeland, Carlson, & Collins, 2005b ), “There is a lot more to personal development than attachment, and there is a lot more even to parenting than attachment. The task is to describe how all of this fits and works together.” That task arises with respect to every phase of development – infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. And the range of issues and factors to be considered is somewhat different at every stage or phase of development.

Certain large goals of any worthy society – the mental and physical health of its members, the optimal development of each individual's interests and capacities, and a safe environment free of violence and hatred – are likely to be achieved only to the extent that infants and children receive the benefits of what Bowlby and Ainsworth called a safe haven and a secure base, which as far as we can see imaginatively into the future are likely to depend on responsive attachment figures. Partly through the efforts of Bowlby, Ainsworth, and their intellectual offspring, it has been possible to improve hospital procedures, reduce child abuse, contribute to better parenting, increase understanding of the development of psychopathology, and to provide a much better understanding of our social nature as mammals, primates, and human beings. With the goal of a mentally and physically healthy human race in mind, we can simultaneously be proud of the accomplishments of attachment researchers and look forward to participating in addressing the many intellectual, clinical, and educational challenges remaining.

Acknowledgments

Author Note: The writing of this article was supported by awards to Jude Cassidy from NIDA (R21 DA025550), to Jason Jones from NIDA (F31 DA033848), and to Phillip Shaver from the Fetzer Institute. The authors are grateful to Susan S. Woodhouse for engaging in extensive conversations about maternal response to distress, and to Kenneth N. Levy for helpful suggestions about links between attachment and psychopathology.

Invited contribution to the 25 th anniversary edition of Development and Psychopathology .

Contributor Information

Jude Cassidy, University of Maryland.

Jason D. Jones, University of Maryland.

Phillip R. Shaver, University of California, Davis.

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Harlow’s Monkey Experiments: 3 Findings About Attachment

When that need is met, the infant develops a secure attachment style; however, when that need is not met, the infant can develop an attachment disorder.

In this post, we’ll briefly explore attachment theory by looking at Harlow’s monkey experiments and how those findings relate to human behavior and attachment styles. We’ll also look at some of the broader research that resulted from Harlow’s experiments.

Before we begin, I have to warn you that Harlow’s experiments are distressing and can be upsetting. Nowadays, his experiments are considered unethical and would most likely not satisfy the requirements of an ethical board. However, knowing this, the findings of his research do provide insight into the important mammalian bond that exists between infant and parent.

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This Article Contains:

Harlow’s experiments: a brief summary, three fascinating findings & their implications, its connection to love and attachment theory, follow-up and related experiments, criticisms of harlow’s experiments, ethical considerations of harlow’s experiments, relevant positivepsychology.com resources, a take-home message.

Harry Harlow was trained as a psychologist, and in 1930 he was employed at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His areas of expertise were in infant–caregiver relationships, infant dependency and infant needs, and social deprivation and isolation. He is also well known for his research using rhesus monkeys.

Maternal surrogates: Food versus comfort

For his experiments, Harlow (1958) separated infant rhesus monkeys from their mothers. He then constructed two surrogate ‘mothers’ for the infants: one surrogate made out of metal but that provided milk through an artificial nipple, the other surrogate covered in soft, fluffy material but that didn’t offer food.

The first surrogate delivered food but provided no comfort; the second did not deliver food, but the rhesus infants were able to cuddle with it.

When both surrogates were placed in the infants’ cages, Harlow found the surrogates satisfied different needs of the rhesus infants. The wire surrogate satisfied the infants’ primary need for food. However, when Harlow made a loud noise to frighten the rhesus infants, they ran to the second, fluffy surrogate for comfort.

Maternal surrogates: A secure base from which to explore

In subsequent experiments, Harlow (1958) showed that the fluffy surrogate acted as a secure base from which rhesus infants could explore an unfamiliar environment or objects. In these experiments, the infants, along with their fluffy surrogates, were placed in an unfamiliar environment like a new cage.

These infants would explore the environment and return to the surrogate for comfort if startled. In contrast, when the infants were placed in the new environment without a surrogate, they would not explore but rather lie on the floor, paralyzed, rocking back and forth, sucking their thumbs.

The absence of a maternal surrogate

Harlow also studied the development of rhesus monkeys that were not exposed to a fluffy surrogate or had no surrogate at all. The outcome for these infants was extremely negative. Rhesus infants raised with a milk-supplying metal surrogate had softer feces than infants raised with a milk-supplying fluffy surrogate.

Harlow posited that the infants with the metal surrogates suffered from psychological disturbances, which manifested in digestive problems.

Rhesus infants raised with no surrogates showed the same fearful behavior when placed in an unfamiliar environment as described above, except that their behavior persisted even when a surrogate was placed in the environment with them. They also demonstrated less exploratory behavior and less curiosity than infants raised with surrogates from a younger age.

When these infants were approximately a year old, they were introduced to a surrogate. In response, they behaved fearfully and violently. They would rock continuously, scream, and attempt to escape their cages. Fortunately, these behaviors dissipated after a few days. The infants approached, explored, and clung to the surrogate, but never to the same extent as infants raised with a fluffy surrogate from a younger age.

Primary drives are ones that ensure a creature’s survival, such as the need for food or water. Harlow suggests that there is another drive, ‘contact comfort,’ which the fluffy surrogate satisfied.

The ‘contact comfort’ drive does more than just satisfy a need for love and comfort. From Harlow’s experiments, it seems that these fluffy surrogates offered a secure, comforting base from which infants felt confident enough to explore unfamiliar environments and objects, and to cope with scary sounds.

Conclusions from Harlow’s work were limited to the role of maternal surrogates because the surrogates also provided milk – a function that only female mammals can perform. Consequently, it was posited that human infants have a strong need to form an attachment to a maternal caregiver (Bowlby, 1951). However, subsequent research has shown that human infants do not only form an attachment with:

a female caregiver,
a caregiver that produces milk, or
one caregiver (Schaffer & Emerson, 1964).

The bond between human infant and caregiver is not limited to only mothers, but can extend to anyone who spends time with the infant. Schaffer and Emerson (1964) studied the emotional responses of 60 infants to better understand their attachments and behaviors.

They found that at the start of the study, most of the infants had formed an attachment with a single person, normally the mother (71%), and that just over a third of the infants had formed attachments to multiple people, sometimes over five.

However, when the infants were 18 months, only 13% had an attachment to a single person, and most of the infants had two or more attachments. The other people with whom infants formed an attachment included:

Grandparents
Siblings and family members
People who were not part of their family, including neighbors or other children

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Harlow’s experiment on rhesus monkeys shed light on the importance of the relationship between caregiver and infant. This relationship satisfies other needs besides food and thirst, and the behavior of rhesus infants differs depending on whether they were raised (1) with or without a surrogate and (2) whether that surrogate was a fluffy (i.e., comforting) or metal (i.e., non-comforting) one.

Widespread thinking at the time was that children only needed their physical needs to be satisfied in order to grow up into healthy, well-adjusted adults (Bowlby, 1951, 1958). Harlow’s work, however, suggests that the caregiver satisfies another need of the infant: the need for love.

It is difficult to know whether the infant monkeys truly loved the surrogate mothers because Harlow could not ask them directly or measure the feeling of love using equipment.

But there is no doubt that the presence (or absence) of a surrogate mother deeply affected the behavior of the infant monkeys, and monkeys with surrogate mothers displayed more normal behavior than those without.

Additionally, Harlow’s work also showed that infant monkeys looked for comfort in the fluffy surrogate mother, even if that surrogate mother never provided food.

From this research, we can conclude that infants feel an attachment toward their caregiver. That attachment is experienced as what we know to be ‘love.’ This attachment seems to be important for a variety of reasons, such as:

Feeling safe when afraid or in an unfamiliar environment
Responding in a loving, comforting way to the needs and feelings of infants

The infant’s need to form an attachment was not considered a primary need until 1952, when Bowlby argued that this basic need was one that infants feel instinctually (Bowlby & World Health Organization, 1952).

Bowlby’s work formed the basis of attachment theory – the theory that the relationship between infant and caregiver affects the infant’s psychological development.

The contributions from these researchers include:

The emotional needs of infants are critical to healthy development and survival
Parents play an important role besides merely satisfying the physical needs of an infant to ensure survival

Maternal deprivation

John Bowlby (1958) argued that maternal deprivation has extremely negative effects on the psychological and emotional development of children.

He was especially interested in extreme forms of parental deprivation, such as children who were homeless, abandoned, or institutionalized and therefore had no contact with their parents.

From his research, Bowlby argued that satisfying the physiological needs of the child did not ensure healthy development and that the effects of maternal deprivation were grave and difficult to reverse.

Specifically, he argued that how the caregiver behaves in response to the behavior and feelings of an infant plays an important role in infants’ psychological and emotional development (Bowlby, 1958).

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Attachment styles in infants

How the caregiver responds to the infant is known as sensitive responsiveness (Ainsworth et al., 1978). The fluffy surrogate mothers in Harlow’s experiment were not responsive, obviously; however, their presence, the material used to cover them, and their shape allowed the rhesus infants to cling to them, providing comfort, albeit a basic, unresponsive one.

The findings from research by Harlow and Bowlby led to pioneering work by Mary Ainsworth on infant–mother attachments and attachment theory in infants. Specifically, she developed an alternative method to study child–parent attachments, using the ‘strange situation procedure’:

The parent and child are placed together in an unfamiliar room.
At some point, a (female) stranger enters the room, chats to the parent and plays with/chats to the infant.
The parent leaves the room, and the child and stranger are alone together.
The parent returns to the room, and the stranger leaves. The parent chats and plays with the child.
The parent leaves the room, and the child is alone.
The stranger returns and tries to chat and play with the child.

Depending on how the child behaved at the separation and introduction of the parent and the stranger, respectively, the attachment style between the infant and mother was classified as either secure, anxious-avoidant, or anxious-resistant.

For more reading on Mary Ainsworth, Harlow, and Bowlby, you can find out more about their work in our What is Attachment Theory? article.

Harlow’s studies on dependency in monkeys – Michael Baker

Subsequent research has questioned some of Harlow’s original findings and theories (Rutter, 1979). Some of these criticisms include:

Harlow’s emphasis on the importance of a single, maternal figure in the child–parent relationship. As mentioned earlier, children can develop important relationships with different caregivers who do not need to be female/maternal figures (Schaffer & Emerson, 1964).
The difference between a bond and an attachment. Children can form attachments without forming bonds. For example, a child might follow a teacher (i.e., an example of attachment behavior) and yet not have any deep bonds or relationships with other children. This suggests that these two types of relationships might be slightly different or governed by different processes.
Other factors can also influence the relationship between child and parent, and their attachment. One such factor is the temperament of the parent or the child (Sroufe, 1985). For example, an anxious parent or child might show behavior that suggests an insecure attachment style. Another factor is that behaviors that suggest attachment do not necessarily mean that the parent is better responding to the child’s needs. For example, children are more likely to follow a parent when in an unfamiliar environment. This behavior does not automatically imply that the child’s behavior is a result of the way the parent has responded in the past; instead, this is just how children behave.

One of Harlow’s most controversial claims was that peers were an adequate substitute for maternal figures. Specifically, he argued that monkeys that were raised with other similarly aged monkeys behaved the same as monkeys that were raised with their parents. In other words, the relationship with a parent is not unique, and peers can meet these ‘parental’ needs.

However, subsequent research showed that rhesus monkeys raised with peers were shyer, explored less, and occupied lower roles in monkey hierarchies (Suomi, 2008; Bastian, Sponberg, Suomi, & Higley, 2002).

Importantly, Harlow’s experiments are not evidence that there should be no separation between parent and infant. Such a scenario would be almost impossible in a normal environment today. Frequent separations between parent and infant are normal; however, it is critical that the infant can re-establish contact with the parent.

If contact is successfully re-established, then the bond between parent and child is reinforced.

Impact on psychological theories about human behavior

Harlow’s research on rhesus monkeys demonstrated the important role that parents have in our development and that humans have other salient needs that must be met to achieve happiness.

Harlow’s work added weight to the arguments put forward by Sigmund Freud (2003) that our relationship with our parents can affect our psychological development and behavior later in our lives.

Harlow’s work also influenced research on human needs. For example, Maslow (1943) argued that humans have a hierarchy of needs that must be met in order to experience life satisfaction and happiness.

The first tier comprises physiological needs, such as hunger and thirst, followed by the second tier of needs such as having a secure place to live. The third tier describes feelings of love and belonging, such as having emotional bonds with other people. Maslow argued that self-actualization could only be reached when all of our needs were met.

Harlow continued to perform experiments on rhesus monkeys, including studying the effects of partial to complete social deprivation. It is highly unlikely that Harlow’s experiments would pass the rigorous requirements of any ethics committee today. The separation of an infant from their parent, especially intending to study the effect of this separation, would be considered cruel.

Kobak (2012) outlines the experiments performed by Harlow, and it is immediately obvious that many of these animals experienced severe emotional distress because of their living conditions.

In the partial isolation experiments, Harlow isolated a group of 56 monkeys from other monkeys; although they could hear and see the other monkeys, they were prevented from interacting with or touching them. These monkeys developed aggressive and severely disturbed behavior, such as staring into space, repetitive behaviors, and self-harm through chewing and tearing at their flesh.

Furthermore, the monkeys that were raised in isolation did not display normal mating behavior and failed in mating.

The complete social deprivation experiments were especially cruel. In these experiments, they raised the monkeys in a box, alone, with no sensory contact with other monkeys. They never saw, heard, or came into contact with any other monkeys.

The only contact that they had was with a human experimenter, but this was through a one-way screen and remote control; there was no visual input of another living creature.

Harlow described this experience as the ‘pit of despair.’ Monkeys raised in this condition for two years showed severely disturbed behavior, unable to interact with other monkeys, and efforts to reverse the effect of two years in isolation were unsuccessful.

Harlow considered this experiment as an analogy of what happens to children completely deprived of any social contact for the first few years of their lives.

The effects of Harlow’s experiments were not limited to only one generation of monkeys. In one of his studies, a set of rhesus monkeys raised with surrogates, rather than their own mothers, gave birth to their own infants.

Harlow observed that these parent-monkeys, which he termed ‘motherless monkeys,’ were dysfunctional parents. They either ignored their offspring or were extremely aggressive toward them. They raised two generations of monkeys to test the effect of parental deprivation.

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Together, partners commit to participating in the behaviors that form each ritual. By actively engaging and reflecting on these behaviors, the bond is strengthened.

A second useful tool, appropriate for any relationship, is Blueprint For Love .

Your client can begin to understand what a loving relationship looks like to their partner, potentially making it easier for them to recognize what upsets or frustrates them. The aim of the exercise is to identify things that they could do more, or less of, in their relationship to strengthen it.

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others build healthy relationships, this collection contains 17 validated positive relationships tools for practitioners. Use them to help others form healthier, more nurturing, and life-enriching relationships.

Harlow’s monkey experiments were cruel, but it would have been impossible to conduct the same experiments using human infants.

Furthermore, Harlow’s experiments helped shift attention to the important role that caregivers provide for children.

When Harlow was publishing his research, the medical fraternity believed that meeting the physical needs of children was enough to ensure a healthy child. In other words, if the child is fed, has water, and is kept warm and clean, then the child will develop into a healthy adult.

Harlow’s experiments showed that this advice was not true and that the emotional needs of infants are critical to healthy development.

With love, affection, and comfort, infants can develop into healthy adults.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Relationships Exercises for free .

Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation . Erlbaum.
Bastian, M. L., Sponberg, A. C., Suomi, S. J., & Higley, J. D. (2002). Long-term effects of infant rearing condition on the acquisition of dominance rank in juvenile and adult rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Developmental Psychobiology , 42 , 44–51.
Bowlby, J. (1951). Maternal care and mental health . Columbia University Press.
Bowlby, J. (1958). The nature of the child’s tie to his mother. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis , 39 , 350–373.
Bowlby, J., & World Health Organization. (1952). Maternal care and mental health: A report prepared on behalf of the World Health Organization as a contribution to the United Nations programme for the welfare of homeless children . World Health Organization.
Colman, M. A. (2001). Oxford dictionary of psychology . Oxford University Press.
Freud, S. (2003). An outline of psychoanalysis . Penguin UK.
Harlow, H. F. (1958). The nature of love. American Psychologist , 13 (12), 673.
Kobak, R. (2012). Attachment and early social deprivation: Revisiting Harlow’s monkey studies. Developmental psychology: Revisiting the classic studies , S , 10–23.
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review , 50 (4), 370–96.
Rutter, M. (1979). Maternal deprivation, 1972–1978: New findings, new concepts, new approaches. Child Development , 50 (2), 283–305.
Schaffer, H. R., & Emerson, P. E. (1964). The development of social attachments in infancy. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development , 29 (3), 1–77.
Sroufe, L. A. (1985). Attachment classification from the perspective of infant-caregiver relationships and infant temperament. Child Development , 56 (1), 1–14.
Suomi, S. J. (2008). Attachment in rhesus monkeys. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research and clinical applications (pp. 173–191). Guilford Press.

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Parental attunement and attention also shape the architecture of the brain and the function of the nervous system. When a child does not encounter sufficient parental attunement, compassion, kindness, and empathy, they are deprived of experiences that foster the integration of the brain. This results in a dysregulated nervous system, which cannot produce regulated emotions, thoughts, behaviors, relationships, or bodily systems. The impeded integration causes internal distress, the symptoms of which include chronic illness, recurrent pain, poor relationships, and “mental health” conditions (which are health conditions).

The child (and subsequently insufficiently supported adult) tries to find relief through whatever means are available: numbing, acting out, withdrawing, overeating, substance abuse, dissociation, splitting, self-harm, etc. These are not “disorders” but *survival adaptations* demanded by the unsafe environment. The child/adult uses whatever survival adaptations are available; when they have better options, they use them.

When the dysregulated person receives sufficient psychosocial support, such as through truly therapeutic or other integrative relationships, the brain can integrate and the nervous system can regulate. People, like animals and plants, flourish in supportive environments. Fix the environment and the symptoms fade.

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3 Positive Relationships Exercises Pack

Explanations of Attachment: Learning Theory

This proposes that attachments are formed when an infant receives food - they learn to ‘love’ the person who feeds them- this is the ‘cupboard love’ idea.

Classical conditioning: Involves learning through associating a stimulus with a response. In this case, as food naturally gives pleasure, food is an unconditioned stimulus, leading to the unconditioned pleasure response. The caregiver (neutral stimulus) gives the infant food, and the infant learns to associate the caregiver with the food- so the caregiver becomes a conditioned stimulus. The conditioned response is the pleasure of being fed, with is now ‘paired’ with the caregiver.

Operant conditioning: Involves learning through rewards/punishments. By crying, infants produce a response from the caregiver of caring and comforting them, so learns that by crying, the caregiver will care for them. From the caregiver’s perspective, comforting the infant leads to the crying stopping, so this behaviour will be repeated by the caregiver (this is negative reinforcement- continuing a behaviour to avoid a negative outcome).

Secondary drive: Biological compulsions such as the need to satisfy hunger are described as ‘primary drives’. Because the caregiver reduces hunger, the attachment to them becomes the ‘secondary drive’ for the infant.

Evaluation:

Lorenz and Harlow’s research weakens learning theory. Lorenz’s goslings imprinted on him before he fed them, and Harlow’s monkeys preferred a cloth mother (which didn’t have a milk bottle) over a wire mother (which did). This suggests food is not the primary reason for attachment.
Schaffer and Emerson’s research showed that babies did not necessarily become attached to whoever fed them the most, rather, who spent time sensitively responding to them. This weakens the assumption of learning theory.
Learning theory only considers food as the driving force behind attachment formation and quality, not considering other factors such as sensitive responding and developing reciprocity. This makes the explanation over-simplistic.

Bowlby’s Theory

Bowlby suggested that attachment is an innate (unlearned, instinctual) process, which is evolutionarily beneficial - those infants that did become attached would be more likely to be cared for by an adult, therefore more likely to survive and pass on this behaviour genetically.

Monotropy: Bowlby suggested that it is important for infants to have one primary attachment figure whom they have a close bond with. Usually this is the mother, although this is not essential. This is because it allows for continuous, consistent care (law of continuity), and that it keeps separations from the primary caregiver to a minimum (law of accumulated separation).

Social releasers: These are innate infant behaviours and characteristics which encourage an innate nurturing response from an adult (linking to the idea of attachment as reciprocal). Social releasers include ‘cute’ facial features, such as big eyes and a small nose, or crying, which is unpleasant and triggers a drive to stop it in the adult.

Critical period: Bowlby proposed that an infant must form an attachment within the first two years of life- once this passes, an attachment can never be formed (or at least, it will be very difficult). During this time, infants are particularly sensitive to forming attachments.

Internal working model: This is the concept that a child’s attachment to a caregiver provides them with a ‘model’ of what relationships are like and how they work. Therefore, if they form a loving, sensitive attachment then they will bring these qualities to other relationships they have in later life, with friends and romantic partners. The opposite is also true- if the quality of attachment is poor, then they are likely to have poor relationships with others in the future. This also applies to their own skills as a future parent.

The idea of monotropy is ‘socially sensitive’ (there are social consequences of the theory). It places a great deal of pressure on the primary attachment figure (usually the mother) to form sensitive, loving, nurturing attachments with their children, otherwise the rest of the child’s life may be negatively affected. Some theorists have criticised this, especially from a feminist perspective.
Brazleton et al (1975) found that in an experimental situation, when parents were instructed to ignore social releasers from their babies, the baby responded in a very negative way (lying motionless). This supports that the role of social releasers is very important in the attachment relationship.
Bailey et al (2007) found that mothers who reported poor attachments to their own mothers (measured by questionnaire), also had poor quality attachments to their children (measured by observation). This supports the internal working model idea.

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Aim: To observe and classify different attachment types.

Procedure: A controlled observation was used, whereby different ‘scenarios’ were introduced and the effect on behaviour recorded. Behaviours recorded included proximity-seeking (infant staying close to the caregiver); exploration/secure base behaviour (infant feeling comfortable enough with the caregiver to explore their surroundings); stranger anxiety (becoming upset in the presence of a stranger); separation anxiety (becoming upset when the caregiver leaves); reunion behaviour (reaction when the caregiver re-enters the room).

The following ‘situations’ were used in the study. Each lasted three minutes:

Infant encouraged to explore (testing secure base)
Stranger enters, tries to interact with infant (testing stranger anxiety)
Caregiver leaves the infant and stranger together (testing separation and stranger anxiety)
Caregiver returns and the stranger leaves (testing reunion behaviour)
Caregiver leaves the room (testing separation anxiety)
Stranger returns (testing stranger anxiety)
Caregiver returns to the room (testing reunion behaviour)

Findings: There were three distinct ‘patterns’ of behaviour shown by the infants, which Ainsworth classified as follows:

Secure attachment (‘Type B’): the majority of infants- 60-75%- in the (British) sample showed these behaviours. They were happy to explore and use the caregiver as a secure base, although they often went back to them during exploration. There was moderate stranger anxiety and separation anxiety. They sought and accepted comfort from the caregiver when reunited with them.
Insecure-avoidant attachment (‘Type A’): around 20-25% of infants demonstrated this behaviour. They happily explored, but did not return to the caregiver whilst doing so. Separation and stranger anxiety was low, and they did not seek comfort from the caregiver upon reunion.
Insecure-resistant attachment (‘Type C’): around 3% of infants showed this behaviour. They explored less, and showed high stranger and separation anxiety. Upon reunion, they sought comfort but then rejected it (e.g. trying to push the caregiver away).

Conclusion: Attachment can be classified as one of three distinct types, as described above. The vast majority of children can be classified as having one of these three attachment types.

Evaluation:

Babies classified as ‘secure’ are more likely to have successful relationships later in life, supporting the validity of the explanation.
Inter-rater reliability (where two or more observers record the same things and compare the degree of agreement) was high, suggesting that the controlled nature of the study and the behavioural categories were appropriate and reliable.
The procedure of the study was culture-biased, as it was affected by Western methods of child-rearing. Infants from other cultures may be raised differently (e.g. being more or less separated from the caregiver, having more or less interaction with strangers) so they may act differently in these situations. This weakens the generalisability of the results.

Cultural Variations in Attachment

Culture refers to the specific norms, values, standards of behaviour, and (potentially) shared history that exist in groups of people.

Van IJzendoorn & Kroonenberg(1988)Study

Aim: To investigate the proportion of different attachment types in different countries.

Procedure: The results of 32 studies across 8 countries were analysed, containing the results for 1,990 children (this research counts as a meta-analysis- looking at the results of many other studies to detect trends and patterns)

Findings: In all countries, secure attachment was most common. Insecure-resistant was the least common type overall, apart from in Japan and Israel, where insecure-avoidant was the least common. Variations between cultures were actually less than variations within cultures.

Other Studies

Simonella et al (2014): Found 50% of 12 month-olds in Italy were securely attached, 36% insecure-avoidant, so lower rates of secure attachment than shown in older studies.

Jin_ et al_ (2012): 87 Korean infants were studied, and very similar results were found to the Japanese infants in the van IJzendoorn study, perhaps reflecting the cultural similarities between the countries.

Conclusion: Secure attachment is the primary attachment type for infants from all cultures, although there were differences in the levels of it, and the other attachment types, suggesting that culture does affect attachment. Differences within cultures are more significant than between cultures.

These studies often use large sample sizes, increasing the internal validity of the results (as the impact of ‘outliers’ or anomalous results is lessened).
The Strange Situation may not be appropriate to measure attachment in different cultures- this is a problem of the ‘imposed etic’ (designing research in one culture and inappropriately using it with another), therefore the results may lack validity.
The samples used in the studies often came from one background, meaning that the culture as a whole was not properly represented- this reduces the validity of the results.

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CP.P1 Introduction

Published: August 2020
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CP.P2 Attachment theory is among the most popular theories of human socioemotional development, with a global research community and widespread interest from clinicians, child welfare professionals, educationalists, and parents. It has been considered ‘one of the most generative contemporary ideas’ about family life in modern society. 1 It is one of the last of the grand theories of human development that still retains an active research tradition. Indeed, Simpson and Howland have observed that ‘perhaps no single theory in the psychological sciences has generated more empirical research during the past 30 years than attachment theory’. 2 Attachment theory and research speak to fundamental questions about human emotions, relationships, and development. They do so in terms that feel experience-near, with a remarkable combination of intuitive ideas and counter-intuitive assessments and conclusions. Over time, attachment theory seems to have become more, rather than less, appealing and popular, in part perhaps due to alignment with current concern with the lifetime implications of early brain development. 3 Emerging reports on the economic costs of insecure attachment may make a further contribution to this appeal over the coming years. 4 In a 2018 survey conducted by the British government of organizations working with children in need of help and protection, attachment theory was, by a large margin, cited as the most frequently used underpinning perspective. 5 Attachment ideas have been used to support recognition of the importance of stable, trusting relationships for children’s socioemotional development, with the credibility of links to an established empirical research paradigm. 6 Attachment also provides a framework for interpreting the underlying logic or meaning of the behaviour of children and young people following relational adversities. 7 These qualities have contributed to the popularity of attachment among social workers, 8 clinicians, 9 and health visitors, 10 in training and support provided to foster carers and adoptive parents, 11 in parenting education courses and materials given to parents by health and care professionals, 12 in forensic contexts, 13 and in professional development courses for teachers. 14

CP.P3 Yet the most well-known account of attachment is in many regards based on certain early claims by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, the originators of attachment theory, at the expense of their own and others’ later conclusions and qualifications. Ainsworth herself complained of a tendency to describe psychological theories in terms of early findings and ideas; these enter into circulation, ricochet and rebound among domains of practice, and get repeated and repeated. Later developments, even important ones, become difficult to access and incorporate, with textbooks and summaries sustaining an outdated caricature. 15 Already in 1968, Ainsworth wrote to Bowlby with concern: ‘attachment has become a bandwagon’. 16

CP.P4 In the helping professions, the idea of attachment theory is well known, and even forms part of the mandatory curriculum for some professions. At the same time, knowledge of developments in attachment theory and research may not be strong. Qualitative research by Furnivall and colleagues found that ‘there was a sense that professionals knew the word but not the underlying theory … although there was strong support for the importance of the fundamental concept’. 17 Likewise Morison and colleagues found that staff working in residential childcare generally stated in interview that their practice was informed by attachment theory, but struggled to say exactly how. 18 Bennett and Blome have observed that welfare agencies give lip-service to attachment in providing a support for the credibility of their work, but may provide a protocol-focused organizational culture that ultimately discourages practitioners from gaining expertise regarding attachment research and its implications. 19

CP.P5 Elizabeth Meins, one of the UK’s leading attachment researchers through the 1990s and 2000s, has recently turned her back on the paradigm. She has argued that regardless of the scientific advances made by attachment research, the benefits arising from these have been outstripped by the problems caused by public misunderstandings. Meins’ position is unusual. However, it sets out clearly the stakes in the gap between attachment research today and how it is widely understood:

CP.P6 Somewhere along the line, the idea that early attachment is the best predictor of all aspects of later development has gained credence. We need to get out of our ivory towers and unite in calling out this caricature of our research. I stand by my claim that laying so much emphasis on attachment isn’t helpful. Being made to worry about whether you have a secure attachment with your baby won’t make you a better parent; healthcare professionals who are provided with oversimplified hype about the predictive power of attachment won’t give families good advice; and letting non-experts who think they know the attachment literature loose in the political arena won’t result in good policies for children and families. 20

CP.P7 Meins’ remarks suggest the value in taking stock of qualifications, innovations, and amendments made by later researchers in relation to Bowlby’s early claims. One important early attempt at such taking stock was Becoming Attached by Robert Karen, published in 1994. 21 Karen described the emergence of the attachment paradigm in the work of Bowlby and Ainsworth, and its subsequent elaboration by younger researchers such as Sroufe, Main, and Shaver. Karen interviewed all these researchers, as well as conducting extensive study of their published works until 1992. He documented how attachment theory was introduced by John Bowlby in the 1950s and 1960s. He traced how Bowlby sought to revise psychoanalytic theory in order to create a scientific model that nonetheless retained the strengths of psychoanalysis in relevance to clinical work. The theory was not well received at the time by the psychoanalytic community. However, Karen showed, through the work of Mary Ainsworth, how attachment theory entered into American developmental psychology, where it took firm root, first among Ainsworth’s immediate collaborators and then across the subdiscipline. Central to the establishment of attachment theory within developmental psychology, in Karen’s account, was Ainsworth’s introduction of the Strange Situation procedure, an observational assessment of infant–caregiver attachment relationships using separations and reunions to examine infants’ expectations about their caregiver. Ainsworth found that infants’ behaviour in the Strange Situation was associated with observations of the care they received at home. Infants who could confidently explore in the Strange Situation and retreat to their caregiver for comfort when distressed were those whose caregiver had been attentive and responsive to their signals over the first year of life. Ainsworth therefore termed this pattern of behaviour ‘secure attachment’.

CP.P8 Karen also documented how longitudinal studies by Ainsworth’s collaborators and students had shown the value of attachment theory as an approach within developmental psychology, and validated the Strange Situation as a predictive measure. Ainsworth’s student Mary Main demonstrated that patterns of behaviour towards each parent in the Strange Situation are largely independent, confirming Ainsworth’s interpretation that the behaviours were less individual traits than reflections of infant expectations about particular relationships. Qualities from autobiographical interviews with parents were also found to have predictable associations with their children’s behaviour in the Strange Situation. This formed the basis of the introduction of the Adult Attachment Interview. Karen also explored the findings of the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation, led by Alan Sroufe and Byron Egeland. These researchers followed up a large high-risk sample since the 1970s. This longitudinal study has been of particular importance in both supporting and qualifying claims by Bowlby, Ainsworth, and Main about the developmental implications of attachment. Karen also reported another key development: the growth of research on attachment within social psychology, initiated by Phillip Shaver and colleagues, and drawing on self-report assessments of adult attachment.

CP.P9 Karen’s book came out at an important moment for attachment research. Bowlby and Ainsworth were no longer available to act as leaders. Main’s methodological innovations had been introduced but were still in the process of being validated in other laboratories. Karen could discuss the Minnesota group’s follow-up of their sample from infancy to preschool, but the data from later childhood were still being analysed. And Shaver and colleagues had introduced their early ‘love quiz’ self-report measure of adult attachment, but the properties of this assessment were subject to significant criticism. The relationship between the developmental psychologists and the social psychologists was relatively hostile, and it was wholly unclear how the ideas and measures of the two traditions would relate to one another. Yet alongside sorrow at the loss of Bowlby and Ainsworth, and tensions over the future direction of attachment research and theory, it was a time of great excitement for the field. The standing of attachment research as a scientific paradigm had been established by the 1980s, and support from research funders had led to a rapid growth in the size of the field by the mid-1990s. 22

CP.P10 Since Karen’s book, there has been substantial academic scholarship exploring the early years of attachment research from a historical perspective. Inge Bretherton, a student and colleague of Ainsworth, and Jeremy Holmes, a clinician and colleague of Bowlby, also published influential celebratory reviews in the early 1990s. 23 Work to document the emergence of Bowlby and Ainsworth’s research by academic historians began in the late 1990s, and remains thriving today. 24 There has also been a rich tradition of critical discussion of the relationship between Bowlby’s ideas and post-war gender and parenting cultures. 25 However, the important developments in the field of the past 30 years have not been examined by historians, a startling gap in light of the revolutions in theory and method that have taken place in these decades. Peter Fonagy and Chloe Campbell, significant figures in the British attachment research community, have criticised historians of attachment research for focusing too exclusively on Bowlby and Ainsworth, neglecting attention to the ways in which the paradigm has changed over time. 26 These changes are also of great interest for the history of science, illustrating dynamics in the relationship between theory and method in psychological science, debates about the function of categorization, problems in the conceptualization of emotional development, changing appeals to evolutionary theory and ontologies of human nature, and shifts in the relationship between developmental science and its publics. The images of attachment research offered by commentators outside the field are generally outdated, hackneyed, and too often inaccurate. 27 This loses critical psychology access to an influential and superbly rich case—one relevant to major current concerns such as the history of emotion in the human sciences, debates about psychological categorisation, and ways of imagining human relationships. In turn, attachment research loses effective critical interlocutors.

CP.S1 This book

CP.P11 Cornerstones re-examines the background and current approaches of key laboratories that have contributed to attachment research as it exists today. In this way the book traces the development in a single scientific paradigm through parallel albeit separate lines of inquiry. The laboratories in focus, those examined by Karen, exemplify particular advances and dilemmas the field has faced. Cornerstones seeks to use a focus on five research groups as a lens on wider themes and challenges faced by the contemporary field as it has emerged. In doing so, the book uses certain landmarks that suggest some of the fundamental logic, infrastructure, and points of orientation in attachment research as a terrain.

CP.P12 The book in no way aims to be a comprehensive account of attachment research. 28 This scholarship is diverse. It does not form a single totality, but rather a region with points of density and intensity. Both the density and intensity of work within attachment research are structured by research groups, which are shaped by and shape the field. Chapters aim to remain with researchers long enough to offer a sense of their characteristic ways of thinking and tone, to feel them as figures keeping us company—if sometimes quarrelling, sometimes pulling in unison—within the broader history of developments in the field. Readers will note that the book does not contain chapters focusing on the research groups of influential direct students of Ainsworth such as Jude Cassidy, Patricia Crittenden, Roger Kobak, and Bob Marvin, and other research leaders such as Kim Bartholomew, Jay Belsky, Martha Cox, Peter Fonagy, Karlen Lyons-Ruth, Avi Sagi-Schwartz, Sue Spieker, and Marinus van IJzendoorn. A younger cohort of research leaders would also need to be considered in a characterization of contemporary research groups, including—but by no means limited to—Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, Gurit Birnbaum, Mary Dozier, Robin Edelstein, Pasco Fearon, Chris Fraley, Patrick Luyten, Sheri Madigan, Carlo Schuengel, Jeff Simpson, Gottfried Spangler, and Glenn Roisman. All these figures will feature in the present book, however. And a further book is already underway to examine key research groups that gained prominence only after Karen’s Becoming Attached . This will include attention to major preoccupations of the 1990s and 2000s, such as studies of attachment and the developing brain.

CP.P13 The concept of a ‘generation’ can be used pragmatically to characterise members of a cohort who, facilitated by structural factors that suggest commonalities, regard themselves as facing a bundle of common challenges, including delimitation and appraisal of the legacy of an earlier generation. 29 In an important sense, just as Karen was writing at a point of transition from the first to the second generation of attachment researchers, this book has been written during a transition from the second to the third generation of attachment researchers. The leaders of the research groups considered in this book have, with the exception of Mikulincer, now retired. 30 Consideration of their work is intended to offer an opportunity to examine the strengths and the limitations, and clarify some of the debates, that have characterized the second generation of attachment researchers and which have formed the context in which a new generation of leaders are inheriting the field of attachment research. In a letter to Mary Main, Bowlby wrote that ‘there is no need for the old to learn from the young in order for the population to benefit from youthful innovation. The supersession of an older generation by a younger is sufficient.’ 31 Now it is Main’s own generation who are putting down their tools, and a new set of research leaders who must take stock of what they have learned, and of what hold this learning has on them.

CP.P14 There are several excellent books that have taken a thematic approach in offering the reader a guide and introduction to contemporary attachment research, most notably the Handbook of Attachment edited by Cassidy and Shaver, Understanding Attachment and Attachment Disorders by Prior and Glaser, and Adult Attachment by Gillath, Karantzas, and Fraley. 32 Thompson, Simpson, and Berlin’s Attachment: The Fundamental Questions also will offer a systematic stock-taking of the present state of attachment research when it is published next year. 33 However, a thematic approach to synthesis can risk making an area of research appear seamless and without edges. In particular, it can lose track of the social dynamics, debates, and diverging use of the same terminology that organize a field of inquiry and the relationships between research groups. Thompson has argued that this heterogeneity must be captured by any attempt to understand attachment research today, even if it makes for a more intricate story. 34 The chapters of Cornerstones draw on a complete analysis of published scholarly and popular works by each research group, as well as unpublished doctoral theses published in English where these were available through inter-library loan.

CP.P15 This signals an important limitation. Much of the imagination, passion, and artistry of research, much of its process and messy creation out of different elements, much of its influence by and influence on social interactions, is hidden in textual records, especially those that go into print. 35 Many of the most vital social dynamics of the field of attachment research do not feature in the textual record. For instance, the available texts offer little vantage on interactions between attachment researchers and clinical and social welfare professionals. Some commentators have described attachment theory and research as little more than an ideology for the coercive evaluation, classification, and discipline of families by professionals. 36 In response to such accusations, apologists have countered that attachment theory and research are no different than any other form of knowledge of children and families, and that contemporary attachment research, adequately understood, offers no support for oppression of families. 37 Both claims are likely too flat, masking the diversity within attachment discourses and their changes over time and between contexts. Neither the accusations nor the apologetics are based on empirical research, or on textual evidence. In fact, very little is readily available in the public domain about the circulation of ideas between research and practice. 38 Colleagues and I currently have research on these questions underway, drawing on interviews, focus groups, ethnography, and analysis of a large archive of clinical case records. 39

CP.P16 Yet even if subject to systematic and important limitations, the written record available for a study of important research groups in the history of attachment is extensive. And I have been grateful to have access to some texts in this area beyond the published record. Chapters draw extensively on materials from the John Bowlby Archive at the Wellcome Collection, the Mary Ainsworth Archive at the Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, and the Mary Main and Erik Hesse personal archive (currently being catalogued for the Wellcome Collection). 40 These archives provide access to a treasure trove of unpublished lectures and seminars, correspondence, notes, and speculations, and drafts of published works and coding manuals. For Bowlby, I have been able to access the surviving part of his library at Human Development Scotland (the location of the rest of the Bowlby library is unknown, even to his family!). This has permitted study of relevant marginalia—for instance the annotations on his personal copy of the works of Freud. Mary Main and Erik Hesse have also made available the manuscripts of two major unpublished books from 1986 and 1995, describing the methods and ideas of their Berkeley group. Use of unpublished materials, such as correspondence, has helped this book attend to the lines of continuity and discontinuity over time and between research groups.

CP.P17 For readers less familiar with attachment research, it is hoped that Cornerstones can provide a thorough introduction to theories and methods that form the basis for contemporary attachment research. Attention to a number of research groups offers an ‘arsenal of exemplars’ for how key questions have been approached, as well as clarifying the stakes in debates between researchers and clarifying the meaning of terminology. 41 At the same time, for readers more familiar with attachment research, the book seeks to surprise and defamiliarize. Historical inquiry offers a point of access for considering how an area of scientific practice decides its objects, priorities, and tools, and in doing so can provide a way of refreshing a reader’s perspective on the present and its concerns. 42 The interested reader is also advised to review the book’s detailed footnotes, many of which explore some of the peculiar catacombs and other structures underneath the more well-known landscapes of attachment research.

CP.S2 Attachment and historical time

CP.P18 Cornerstones is oriented by the perception that, despite their very substantial differences, historical research and attachment research have points of overlap in how they regard time. 43 Several attachment researchers have, in fact, offered substantial—if scattered—commentary on the idea of history, informed by reading in the history and philosophy of science. From early in his career, Bowlby was wholly convinced of the importance of patients’ history for making sense of their trajectory through life, including the capacity of the past to shape or influence behaviours without the awareness of the individual themselves. As a clinician, history taking was second nature to him. 44 Beyond this, however, Bowlby was an avid, lifelong reader of social and political history in his spare time. He had a strong belief in the value of slow, in-depth historical research, which reached its culmination in his decision to dedicate his final years to a grand study of the life of Charles Darwin. 45 In Bowlby’s time, historians of science tended to shy away from evaluating the ideas of an earlier scientist in light of later developments. This practice was motivated by an effort to truly understand scientific practices in their own context. 46 Bowlby was impatient with this view. Reflecting on his reading of philosophers of science such as Kuhn, Lakatos, and Popper, he had a different image of historical analysis. 47 His book on Darwin treats it as obvious that later scientific developments can help historians understanding what an earlier scientist was attempting to feel out and explore, the constraints they faced, and limitations or tensions within their understanding and terminology.

CP.P19 In the Darwin biography, unpublished materials are treated as different but not necessarily inferior sources of information. Both are asked to play their part in filling out the development of ideas and scientific practices over time. Bowlby felt that history can, and at times should, help ‘exhume’ the ‘archaeological remnant’ of ideas that have been lost or thrust into the background over time. 48 He warned that ‘so long as our history is hidden from us, so long as we hide our history from ourselves, we are very likely to see the present and future in the terms of the past’. 49 In his view, the history of a research paradigm holds open the possibility of greater critical awareness of its ideas and methods, including a sense of what avenues have been or might be more or less fruitful. This can contribute to greater flexibility and freedom of action in facing contemporary dilemmas. Another potential benefit of historical inquiry, Bowlby held, is that such research can directly contribute to ‘the formulation of specific hypotheses and theories’, even if this is not its primary purpose. 50

CP.P20 Bowlby emphasized the ‘appalling complexity’ of history, whether this is the history of societies, persons, or ideas, since it has to capture ‘highly specific interacting events’. 51 Scientific research is partly shaped by the phenomena under investigation. However, Bowlby stated that historians of science, and their emphasis on the social relationships and cultural contexts that underpin research, have had a ‘profound influence on my whole conception of what science is and how scientists operate’. 52 In finding a path through this complexity, Bowlby urged that the historian’s priority must be on attempting to discern what problems a scientist or a group of scientists were trying to solve. 53 If close attention is paid to the problems that were faced in a particular period, comparison between earlier and later developments need not result in anachronism. Cautions are required when pursuing such a project. We should take care not to collapse the problems faced by different periods and how those problems were understood; we must not assume that words always meant the same thing over time; and we must not assume that later developments were inevitable or necessarily the best path that could have been taken. Nonetheless, Bowlby’s book on Darwin strongly evidences a perspective which has gained ground in recent years within the history of science: that earlier and later scientific developments shed light on one another when examined together. 54

CP.P21 Yet, more than this, Bowlby wondered ‘whether something living which has developed historically can ever be restructured without reference to its historical origins as a social institution’. 55 As such, in Bowlby’s view, historical awareness may not just be helpful but actually may be a necessary ingredient for the continued vitality of an area of research. This argument would also be put forward some years later by both historians and developmental psychologists who would describe the use of historical methodology in the critical examination of psychological paradigms as a ‘necessary supplement’ to the hypothesis-testing tradition of academic psychological research. 56

CP.P22 Alan Sroufe and the Minnesota group also offered reflections on what it means to know the past, as part of a deep and abiding concern with the nature of continuities and discontinuities in development over time. 57 Like Bowlby, Sroufe was respectful of history and felt that ‘it is important to bring forward the lessons of the past and at the same time redraw them with an eye on current problems and current understanding’. 58 For Sroufe, the essential commonality between history and developmental psychology lies in the fact that both acknowledge that early events do not determine later ones. Early events shape what is taken forward from the past in ways that then frame subsequent interactions between individuals, groups, or societies and their wider environments. In this account, the past is not used up but continues to inflect the present, perhaps resourcing and supporting, perhaps depleting or obstructing what is now possible: ‘the emerging complexity is not specified by prior features, yet it is founded on them’. 59 Furthermore, in Sroufe’s interpretation of the concept of ‘development’, the present is not the sum of the past. There may well be ways in which earlier forms possessed strengths for particular purposes that have not been passed on to later forms. There remains the potential, in Sroufe’s words, for ‘lessons from the past’. 60

CP.P23 Historical entities like attachment research and the structure of a personality can be imagined as a maze of little streets and squares, with houses from various periods nonetheless situated by earlier structures. It is these structures, which continue to both constrain and enable what is built today, that come into view when science or a human personality is considered in historical terms. Both history and developmental science are oriented by an amazing and strange aspect of the human condition: our pasts are both discontinuous with our present and, disconcertingly, still with us. The two disciplines agree that we make our homes on top of and within the standing structures or ruins of our pasts: ‘though we may be done with the past, the past is by no means done with us’. 61 This perspective on the past suggests a changed attitude to bereavement, to the extent that aspects of the past remain with us. Bowlby held that we can even retain the dead as secure attachment figures at a symbolic/representational level, if we can accept the loss whilst taking courage and reassurance from memories and other aspects of the person’s legacy. 62

CP.P24 Both history and developmental science agree that the past shapes what we can build, where, and with what stability. Both disciplines recognize that important aspects of our lives are often best regarded as by-products of the past, rather than immediately functional and well judged in the present. Yet both perceive that this by-product can be used or adapted responsively, that contingency is material and runs deep. In making sense of such contingency, history and developmental science have significant respective commitments that emphasize the social basis of the self, and the effects of this for the knowing subject. As such, Sroufe and colleagues expressed concern that when the legacy of the past is ‘unnoticed, disallowed, unacknowledged or forgotten’, present-day social practices will likely not be responsive, well judged, or especially resilient to challenges. 63

CP.P25 In agreement with Bowlby’s image of history, Cornerstones takes a stance in proactively evaluating aspects of attachment as a research paradigm. Particular attention is paid to aspects of the history of attachment research that have structured or shaped the present, especially those that have become taken-for-granted over time. Ideas are considered for their cogency, terminology for its clarity, and empirical claims are appraised against the available evidence. Appeals by researchers to earlier or contemporary theory or research for authority or support are evaluated both for the accuracy of the commentary and for the function the citation appears designed to serve. This includes analysis of the ways in which interpretations of Bowlby and Ainsworth have served as sites for alignment or struggle between later researchers. Each chapter identifies the strengths and particular insights associated with the work of the research group under discussion, and changes that have occurred over time in methodology and theory, and a section at the close of each chapter considers some potential limitations.

CP.P26 Much of what goes on within a research group occurs behind the scenes. Where the textual record makes this possible, which is not in every case, the biographical contributories to the research priorities of principal investigators are identified in the introduction to each chapter. However, science is a collective work and has a collective legacy. So chapters attempt to consider the perspectives and efforts of the principal investigators within the context of their work with collaborators and as embedded within a wider context. Each chapter seeks to identify the opportunities, debates, and challenges faced by the field of attachment research, and how these were shaped by and shaped the priorities and concerns of particular research groups, leading to the making and remaking of methodology, knowledge, and authority over time. Chapters are intended to be readable as standalones; none necessarily requires knowledge of the others. However, the cumulative work of the book as a whole will permit comparison and evaluation of the positions of different research groups when confronted with related concerns. The book as a whole is also intended to facilitate translation, since differences in method or terminology have often obscured the relationship between the claims of different groups of researchers.

CP.P27 One of the primary forms of attachment-based intervention with families is video-feedback. Researchers found that showing caregivers exemplars of ‘ideal’ parenting on film was counterproductive. It did not serve as a useful model, and instead lowered the feelings of self-worth and self-efficacy of caregivers. However, for a friendly individual to show caregivers a film of their own behaviour with their child, and watch together, noticing interactions in the film and what stemmed from these moments, had a different effect. This technique has been repeatedly found to have a meaningful effect on adults’ caregiving behaviour (Chapter 6 ). 64 Cornerstones is written with the analogous hope that looking together at the recent past, with joint attention to how things occurred and what then ensued, may form a basis for clarifying how things stand and whether there might be other ways of acting in the present and future. This will likely not always be comfortable reading for attachment researchers. At the same time, Cornerstones is written with affection for the field and its genuine insights into the strange, drunk-dialling human heart. 65

CP.P28 Both attachment research and its reception have had enough polemics already. Yet achieving measured and sincere evaluation is a complex task. There are structural pressures on historians of science and social historians to take a flatly critical stance towards scientific claims about family life, treating this as an inappropriate incursion of science as ideology. As Latour and Bourdieu have observed, the conditions of academic production, which separate critics in a variety of ways from the practices they are describing, obscure internal differences in the object of study and may contribute to a wish to ‘debunk’ the scientific work. 66 There has indeed been a tendency in history and sociology to adopt a stance in which psychological knowledge is regarded as a vast smooth power, without artistry or contingency in its formation. 67 Nonetheless, this tendency for the external observer to be somewhat heedless of the demands practice makes on insiders may, in certain regards, be part of what history has to offer. For instance, Cornerstones closely examines matters—for instance the items of scales for measuring attachment—that researchers themselves have generally simply taken for granted as workable for practical purposes at a local level. Yet judgements about what is workable by individual researchers can have huge cumulative unintended consequences as the years go by. Part of the specific relevance of historical analysis for research psychology is in the identification and description of such consequences. 68

CP.P29 Ainsworth highlighted that empirical research always entails compromises. In her view, heterogeneity among research groups can be to the benefit of psychological science as a whole, since the compromises may well be in different places. 69 Similarly, reflecting on the nature of psychological theory, Sroufe has argued that ‘embracing a particular model of disturbance is analogous to putting on lenses which may bring some issues or questions into focus while distorting others in ways that may not be obvious to the observer’. 70 As suggested by Ainsworth and Sroufe’s reflections, though all contributing to the study of attachment in some sense, the research groups considered in Cornerstones have varied strengths and primary concerns. Treating them together, and with attention to their commentary on and elaborations of one another, helps reveal these differences and their wider stakes. 71 It also helps in understanding the priorities, methodological choices, and terminology of each group, which at all times were, in part, structured toward those communicated by or anticipated from other research groups as well as the wider discipline. Essentially, Cornerstones aims to acknowledge and understand the point of view of particular researchers and research groups, without assuming that this point of view is the only or best one available in the field, even on their own original ideas and results. 72

CP.S3 Ordinary and scientific language

CP.P30 One of the recurrent themes of this book is the way in which communication between research groups, and communication with wider publics, has been hindered by confusion about the meaning of concepts. Part of the appeal of attachment research lies in its central reference to experience-near metaphors and terms such as ‘attachment’, ‘mother’, ‘security’, ‘sensitivity’, ‘disorganization’, ‘coherence’, ‘anxiety’, ‘dissociation’, and ‘trauma’. Yet, equally, part of the difficulty with understanding attachment research is that not one of these terms is used by attachment researchers in line with ordinary language, and rarely with the same meaning between research groups.

CP.P31 It is not unusual for terms to take on a life of their own in shaping human perceptions and actions, both in scientific and ordinary language, a life in turn conditioned by the structures and conditions within which the language occurs. 73 The independent life of language has been an especially common issue for psychological discourse, as previous historians have observed. 74 The researchers discussed in this book from Bowlby onwards have themselves been aware of this issue. For instance, Shaver and Brennan have observed that in ordinary language ‘depression’ can encompass alienation, low self-esteem, helplessness, and dissatisfaction with life. However, psychological researchers may well want to distinguish these states, and investigate their respective contribution to clinical symptoms. 75 Ordinary use of the word ‘depression’ thus diverges from the clinical use of the term—and perhaps both in turn diverge from the term as used in research contexts. Shaver and colleagues have argued that the issue expresses the broader predicament of academic and clinical psychology, which attempt to characterize and support change within the sphere of human everyday life, and therefore begin with the terms and problems of everyday language. 76 And just like everyday life, ordinary language is unruly, multiply invested, and occasionally nutty or treacherous.

CP.P32 However, even if potential confusions with ordinary language is a broader problem for psychology, attachment research has been unusually vulnerable from the start. It is helpful to see that Bowlby was pulled in two directions. 77 On the one hand, he was keen to make use of the advantages of ordinary language. Ordinary language is excellent for doing less precise work, for making evocative claims, and for communicating with diverse audiences in ways that resonate with everyday concerns. 78 It is intrinsically historical and pitted with depth, a reserve of images and connotations. Bowlby wanted to communicate simply and evocatively, making ideas available to a wide public and clinical audiences. He held no tenured academic post, and especially in the 1950s and 1960s, was intent on speaking beyond the academic community to support changes in policy and the lives of children and families. Bowlby also appreciated the flexibility of ordinary language, and the advantages that this could bring to science. He felt that it can be beneficial in the context of working out ideas, to draw on ordinary language without strict definitions ‘for, once a definition is laid down, it tends to straitjacket thought and to control what the worker permits himself to observe’. 79

CP.P33 However, there is also a danger in reliance on ordinary language, which Bowlby came to recognize increasingly over the span of his long career. Use of everyday terms, rich in existing connotations, ‘makes it extremely difficult to tie any specialised meaning to any particular word’. 80 Above all, the connotations of a term from ordinary language can inadvertently accompany the word into scientific language. And no amount of scrubbing and qualifying will ever fully hold back these connotations from influencing discussions between scientists, let alone attempts by scientists to communicate with their publics. 81 In a chapter drafted for his final book, Bowlby expressed regret that Darwin’s intellectual legacy has been damaged by assuming the ordinary language connotations of terms that he in fact used in a technical sense: ‘it has been unfortunate that in his own expositions of his scientific procedures, Darwin uses words and phrases that have misled readers and have resulted in misconceived criticism.’ For instance, ‘where we would say we built an explanatory model, Darwin refers to himself as ‘speculating’, giving the false impression that he lacked rigour or reason as he put forward an explanation. 82

CP.P34 The most basic example of such problems can be seen with the term ‘attachment’ itself, which Benjafield situates as one of the most characteristic examples of linguistic polysemy in all the history of psychology. 83 There is a gulf between the ordinary connotations of the term and how it is used by attachment researchers. And there is a further gap between narrower and broader uses of the term by Bowlby, and then by subsequent attachment researchers. In ordinary language, the word means to bind something to something else, physically or emotionally. In Bowlby’s narrower usage, the word meant a specific set of behaviours and states that facilitate care-seeking. In Bowlby’s broader usage, the word meant all and any intimate relationships. Such multiple investments in the term have had a powerful legacy. They have contributed to the intuitive appeal of attachment theory, making it seem user-friendly to diverse publics. And it has contributed to ceaseless miscommunication by and among researchers. ‘Attachment’ is a fuzzy term, in both the sweet and worst senses. By the 1980s Bowlby admitted ruefully in correspondence that he kept using the word to describe children’s care-seeking behaviours ‘for purely historical reasons’. 84 This was despite the fact that it necessitated work, time and again, to clarify the distinction between the technical usage and the various connotations of the term, including adjudication between his own earlier multiple uses.

CP.P35 One of the leaders of the second generation of attachment research, Everett Waters, acknowledged that attachment theory is worse than most areas of psychology for muddling ordinary and technical scientific language. In Waters’ view, scientists do and likely should use ordinary language regularly, calling on common metaphors and ideas in order to communicate technical notions. This can be a generative process, contributing helpfully to new theoretical and methodological developments, as well as the circulation of forms of knowledge. 85 However, Waters has argued, when scientific and ordinary language are mistaken for one another, the results can be problematic ways that are difficult to notice and redress:

CP.P36 In psychology, and more so, attachment theory, the words we use to label ideas often get in the way. They misdirect us in what we think we should do next. Many implications that people draw from their knowledge of attachment theory are probably not rigorously derived from the logic of the underlying theory. Take this example: you ask a college class, what kinds of developmental problems might arise from being insecure in your attachment to your mother? They start thinking that insecure sounds like afraid, fearful, anxious, shy, uncomfortable, maybe incompetent, and the reasoning goes on to a conclusion that insecure is therefore a bad thing. This is not being deduced from some mechanism that is spelled out in attachment theory. It is merely associative. 86

CP.P37 Unless we can be sure that others know just what we mean by ‘attachment’, Waters argued, severe cautions are needed. In fact, ‘the less often we use the word “attachment” in this discussion, and the more often we refer specifically to what you are asking about, the better off we’ll all be’. 87 However, Waters’ warning has gone generally unheeded. Attachment research has had comparatively strong platforms for reporting and synthesizing empirical findings but weak platforms for the critical discussion of concepts and terminology—besides, to an extent, the journal Attachment & Human Development and the Handbook of Attachment . 88

CP.P38 Luyten has argued that ‘much of the language of … attachment theory may have had its time. There is an unmistakable tendency to reify.’ 89 Yet any attempt to replace or bypass unclear terminology related to attachment will be difficult, perhaps even counter-productive, unless the various meanings of concepts within the scientific community are understood. There can be a variety of ways of discerning such meanings, including interviews, focus groups, and Q-sort tasks. 90 However, historical analysis of written material has particular advantages for tracing lines of continuity and discontinuity in the uses of terms. The five research groups considered in this book are cornerstones in the development of the research paradigm as it exists today, and have in many regards set the terms of discussion. They are also, perhaps with the exception of the Minnesota group, the prime originators of the most serious confusions in the use of attachment language. As a result, historical study of the contributions of these research groups and the debates between them offers both an introduction to and a clarification of the central concepts and terminology of attachment research.

CP.S4 Summary of chapters

CP.P39 Chapter 1 focuses on the work of John Bowlby. It describes the lines of agreement and disagreement between Bowlby and the psychoanalytic theory of his day, and the extent of his debt to Robert Hinde and ethology. The chapter clarifies ways in which incompatibilities between psychoanalysis and ethology have contributed to tensions within Bowlby’s work and subsequent attachment theory. Access to Bowlby’s unpublished correspondence and notes provides the basis for a new interpretation of several of Bowlby’s key concepts, including monotropy and aggression. The chapter discusses Bowlby’s unpublished book written with Jimmy Robertson in the 1950s and 1960s on the effects of major separations experienced by young children. And the chapter presents previously unavailable ideas from Bowlby’s unpublished book on defence mechanisms from the 1960s, which sheds light on his later information processing model. The chapter also pieces together the full story of Bowlby’s work with a patient, Mrs Q., the account of which is scattered across a dozen of Bowlby’s writings. The chapter closes by discussing some ways in which limitations in Bowlby’s work have proven obstacles for later attachment researchers.

CP.P40 Though the terms ‘attachment theory’ and ‘attachment research’ are sometimes used interchangeably, attachment as an empirical research paradigm may be regarded as having fully commenced only with Ainsworth’s work. Chapter 2 begins by introducing the biographical context of Ainsworth’s work, including her early work at Toronto University. Ainsworth’s concept of ‘security’ and her attempt to develop self-report measures of security are reappraised, placing Ainsworth’s work in the context of her debt to her teacher Blatz. The chapter then draws on Ainsworth’s published and unpublished writings to consider the strengths and limitations of her Uganda ethnography and Baltimore longitudinal study. This helps clarify Ainsworth’s goals in her development of a scale to measure sensitivity and in developing the Strange Situation procedure. A central concern of the chapter is close examination of the theoretical commitments contained in Ainsworth’s choices in the design of her coding protocols, including the justifications she provided for characterizing individual differences in infant attachment as three categories, and how she handled discrepancies. The chapter also considers the work of Ainsworth’s collaborator and student Everett Waters. Waters played a critical role in the validation of Ainsworth’s measure, and stimulated an influential debate about the stability of attachment over time. However, he also acknowledged the limitations of the Strange Situation procedure, and developed other measures for assessing attachment in childhood and adulthood based on Ainsworth’s ideas. In addition, the chapter addresses other concerns that have been raised regarding Ainsworth’s work, including the extent of its cross-cultural validity.

CP.P41 Chapter 3 explores the contributions of Mary Main, Erik Hesse and the Berkeley longitudinal study. The Berkeley group generated the dominant approach to method and theory for the second generation of attachment research, and helped establish the priorities and values of the field over recent decades. Drawing on archival materials, the introduction offers a new interpretation of the development of Main’s work. This highlights the fundamental role she gave to attentional processes, and leads to a new account of how Main conceptualized minimizing and maximizing attachment strategies. Recognition of the centrality of attention to Main’s theory also helps makes sense of her introduction of the disorganized attachment classification and her development of the Adult Attachment Interview. The chapter draws on two unpublished books by Main to describe her methodological innovations, and how they were achieved, and also to clarify misunderstandings of her goals. This includes discussion of Main and colleagues’ use of the concepts of ‘disorganization’, ‘fear’, and ‘internal working model’, and how these related to earlier ideas by Bowlby and Hinde. A particular focus of the chapter is on the six-year systems for assessing attachment developed by Main and colleagues. Relatively little information about these coding systems is in print, and yet close consideration of these methods offers a powerful window into Main’s thinking about attachment and development, as well as into her more well-known assessments of infant and adult attachment. The chapter also draws on an examination of the development of the Adult Attachment Interview coding system from the 1980s to the 2000s to offer clarifications regarding Main and Hesse’s ideas regarding ‘lack of resolution’ of loss and trauma. The precise relationship between trauma and dissociation in their thinking—which has often been confused by subsequent attachment researchers—is described, drawing on a major theoretical work by Main and Hesse published only in Italian.

CP.P42 Chapter 4 considers the work of Alan Sroufe, Byron Egeland, and the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation. The Minnesota group has served as a fundamental source of stability and support for the developmental tradition of attachment research. The chapter begins by describing the origins of the Minnesota study in the context of growing policy and academic interest in the consequences of child maltreatment. The chapter presents the first sustained commentary on Sroufe’s ideas about emotion, attachment, and development. These ideas were vital to the selection of measures and interpretation of results in the longitudinal study. Headline concepts like ‘felt security’ were influential for subsequent attachment theory. However, other ideas such as affects as social currency, and intrusive intimacy, are interesting but less well known. The chapter examines the antecedents and sequalae of attachment in the Minnesota study. It then considers the contribution made by the study of attachment at Minnesota to the emergence of developmental psychopathology as a movement within developmental science. This includes consideration of Sroufe, Egeland, and colleagues’ distinctive approach to conceptualizing risk and resilience. Two case studies from the Minnesota study are used to illustrate how the multiple, rich assessments conducted over decades offered the research group an encompassing picture of human lives. And the legacy of Sroufe and Egeland is discussed for two former students who have subsequently returned to take leadership roles at Minnesota: Dante Cicchetti and Glenn Roisman. The chapter also discusses ways in which Sroufe and Egeland’s theoretical commitment to holism has contributed to both strengths and limitations in their work.

CP.P43 Chapter 5 discusses Phillip Shaver, Mario Mikulincer and the Experiences in Close Relationships scale, the most widely used self-report measure of adult attachment. The chapter begins by revisiting Ainsworth’s reasons for abandoning self-report measures of security, and Shaver and Hazan’s reason for reigniting this approach. Shaver and Hazen’s development of the ‘love quiz’ and early work on adult attachment is discussed, considering ways in which their ideas converged and diverged from earlier attachment theory. The chapter then explores the creation of the Experiences in Close Relationships scale, which has provided a methodological and theoretical basis for the social psychological tradition of attachment research over subsequent decades. The chapter clarifies Shaver and Mikulincer’s approach to conceptualizing and measuring attachment, and secure base use, and minimizing and maximizing strategies. It is anticipated that this will help translation between the social psychological and developmental traditions of attachment research. The chapter also considers original contributions made by Shaver and Mikulincer and colleagues through their inquiries into the relationship of adult attachment styles with sexuality and with religious practices. The chapter closes with examination of the items of the Experiences in Close Relationships scale, and the ways in which the mechanics of the measure have limitations for capturing the implications of both security and trauma for adult attachment.

CP.S5 Acknowledgements

CP.P44 Work on this book has taken five years, during which time I have accumulated an absurd number of debts. A more detailed account of the experience and nature of these accumulated debts can be found in Duschinsky, R. (2019) Attachment and the archive: barriers and facilitators to the use of historical sociology as complementary developmental science. Science in Context , 32(3), 309–26.

CP.P45 First off, my apologies are due to my father for failing, as yet, to turn Chapter 3 into a film. I agree that it should be. The reader is welcome to be in touch with advice for casting. More generally, I would be delighted to hear from readers and to learn from their thoughts about attachment research, past and present.

CP.P46 I am grateful to my mother for first encouraging me to read Bowlby as a teenager. Having ideas from attachment theory as a reference point through adolescence and adult development was a true resource. I have also taken courage from witnessing her indomitability in the face of health challenges, as well as her thirst for adventure. Conversations with my wife have likewise contributed directly to this book. Cornerstones benefited from her good judgement in appraising forks in the road, her insights as a clinician, her strength in the face of our losses, and from the countless ways in which our relationship makes me happy.

CP.P47 The basis of Cornerstones has been access to the John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth, and Mary Main/Erik Hesse Archives. My first thanks therefore must go to the Wellcome Collection for hosting the Bowlby Archive (reference: PP/Bow/), the Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for hosting the Ainsworth Archive, and to Mary Main, Erik Hesse, and Naomi Gribneau-Bahm at Berkeley for their efforts to make materials available for study (soon to arrive at the Wellcome Collections). These are inexhaustible, miraculous collections, and I feel deeply lucky to have had access to them. This archival research has been enriched by the kindness Mary Main and Erik Hesse have shown me, in the course of years of correspondence and multiple visits. This has been a transformative gift. I have especially appreciated our wider conversations about poetry and family, as well as their patience with my endless questions and criticisms. And—on a personal level—I have appreciated the chance to see, and hopefully learn something from, a marriage so pervaded in every part by affection and security.

CP.P48 Special thanks are due to the Wellcome Trust for making it possible for me to work on this book (Grant WT103343MA), and for encouraging the menagerie of spin-off projects. I have appreciated Dan O’Connor, Tom Bray, Lauren Couch, Jack Harrington, Jenny Haynes, and Ross MacFarlane, among others, for their faith in me. Chapter 3 was enhanced by Mary Sue Moore’s generosity in sharing the detailed notes she took during the 1987 Adult Attachment Institute in London.

CP.P49 Among colleagues, I am grateful to Sarah Foster, an ally and friend. Sarah’s creativity, meticulousness, and insight have fed this project from the very start, and helped it grow. Thanks are similarly due to Sophie Reijman, who has also been an ally and friend on this journey. It has been a joy and a privilege to work with her. Cornerstones is dedicated to Sophie, and to León, her new little one. Marinus van IJzendoorn and Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg have been unstinting in their generosity and care, not least in encouraging Sophie Reijman to come to join me at Cambridge in the first place. I have learnt so much from discussions with them across the themes of this book, and had great fun spending time together.

CP.P50 Affectionate thanks are likewise due to Judith Solomon for having me to stay during her Fulbright Visiting Professorship at Vienna University, a visit that has subsequently formed the basis for many varied and fun conversations. A reader who would like to see ‘proceedings’ from these conversations might take a look at Duschinsky, R., Greco, M., & Solomon, J. (2015) The politics of attachment: lines of flight with Bowlby, Deleuze and Guattari. Theory, Culture & Society , 32(7–8), 173–95; or Solomon, J., Duschinsky, R., Bakkum, L., & Schuengel, C. (2017) Toward an architecture of attachment disorganization: John Bowlby’s published and unpublished reflections. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry , 22(4), 539–60.

CP.P54 My grateful thanks to Martin Baum, Charlotte Holloway, Janine Fisher, Julie Musk and Lucía Pérez at Oxford University Press for their support for this book.

CP.P51 Chapters of this book have benefited greatly from feedback from Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, Sasha Ban, Kazuko Behrens, Richard Bowlby, Jean-François Bureau, Betty Carlson, Patricia Crittenden, Tsachi Ein-Dor, Jo Faulkner, Pasco Fearon, Chris Fraley, Lydia Fransham, Pehr Granqvist, Philip Heslop, Erik Hesse, Jeremy Holmes, Juliet Hopkins, Michael Lamb, Mary Main, Karin Maraney, Bob Marvin, Mario Mikulincer, Mary Sue Moore, Mikhael Reuven, Anne Rifkin-Graboi, Glenn Roisman, Avi Sagi-Schwartz, Jessica Saffer, Carlo Schuengel, Judith Solomon, Alan Sroufe, Paul Stenner, Alessandro Talia, Anne Tharner, Ross Thompson, Marinus van IJzendoorn, Marije Verhage, Mary Jo Ward, Everett Waters, and Judy Keiner. I am also grateful to other researchers who have offered encouragement for this work, including but by no means limited to Byron Egeland, Kelly Brennan-Jones, Steve Farnfield, Peter Fonagy, Deborah Jacobvitz, Kasia Kozlowska, Mirjam Oosterman, David Shemmings, Gottfried Spangler, Ruan Spies, Phil Shaver, Miriam and Howard Steele, Frank van der Horst, Sue White, David Wilkins, and Matt Woolgar.

CP.P52 I am grateful to Tommie Forslund and Kate White for all that I have learnt from them in the course of editing the Attachment Reader for Wiley and Trauma and Loss: Key Texts from the John Bowlby Archive for Routledge. The Bowlby family have been remarkable in their wholehearted support of these endeavours, and their helpful feedback.

CP.P53 At Cambridge, I am grateful to Jonathan Mant and the Primary Care Unit, who provide my academic home and secure base. The last stage of the book’s composition has been bewildering and painful on various fronts in terms of losses and family health. Jonathan’s kindness has helped make it possible to continue. I have similarly felt fortunate to be part of Sidney Sussex College, which has been a supportive community at every turn. Particular thanks are due to Max Beber, Richard Penty, Brett Gray, and Gary Gerstle for their availability through difficult times. I have benefited from the mentorship of Mary Dixon-Woods, Claire Hughes, and Susan Golombok, who have been role models and ever-thoughtful friends. Finally, I feel deeply fortunate for the intellectual companionship and camaraderie of my immediate research group: Lianne Bakkum, Helen Beckwith, Barry Coughlan, Sarah Foster, Julia Mannes, Sophie Reijman, Sam Reisz, Guy Skinner, and Melody Turner. I am grateful to them for conversations about the ideas contained in this book as they have pursued aligned inquiries with other methodologies. And I am thankful for their unwavering support through the challenges of the last year.

CP.N1 Pittman, J.F. (2012) Attachment orientations: a boon to family theory and research. Journal of Family Theory & Review , 4(4), 306–10 .

CP.N2 Simpson, J.A. & Howland, M. (2012) Bringing the partner into attachment theory and research. Journal of Family Theory & Review , 4(4), 282–9, p.282 .

CP.N3 Wastell, D. & White, S. (2017) Blinded by Science: The Social Implications of Epigenetics and Neuroscience . Cambridge: Policy Press . Discourses of ‘interpersonal neurobiology’, and the work of Allan Schore in particular, have been important for the take-up of appeals to attachment within popular and policy discourses emphasising the importance of child development for the brain. See, for example, Schore, A.N. (2001) Effects of a secure attachment relationship on right brain development, affect regulation, and infant mental health. Infant Mental Health Journal , 22(1–2), 7–66 ; and building from Schore’s work, Gerhardt, S. (2014) Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain , 2nd edn. London: Routledge . Schore’s work has been much less influential within the attachment research community. An exception is discussed in Chapter 3 .

CP.N4 Bachmann, C.J. , Beecham, J. , O’Connor, T.G. , Scott, A. , Briskman, J. , & Scott, S. (2019) The cost of love: financial consequences of insecure attachment in antisocial youth. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry , 60 (12), 1343-50 .

CP.N6 The particular utility of attachment ideas for clinicians and child welfare practitioners, increasing the credibility of practice through association with the evidence-base of attachment research, is praised directly in Bennett, C.S. & Nelson, J.K. (2008) Closing thoughts: special issue on attachment. Clinical Social Work Journal , 36, 109–11 . Concern about many ‘attachment-based’ therapies as pseudoscience has been raised by Mercer, J. (2019) Conventional and unconventional perspectives on attachment and attachment problems: comparisons and implications, 2006–2016. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal , 36(2), 81–95 .

CP.N7 E.g. Haight, W.L. , Kagle, J.D. , & Black, J.E. (2003) Understanding and supporting parent–child relationships during foster care visits: attachment theory and research. Social Work , 48(2), 195–207 ; Farnfield, S. & Holmes, P. (eds) (2014) The Routledge Handbook of Attachment: Assessment . London: Routledge .

CP.N8 An important contribution to the popularity of attachment theory among social workers, especially in the UK, was made by Howe, D. , Brandon, M. , Hinings, D. , & Schofield, G. (1999) Attachment Theory, Child Maltreatment and Family Support: A Practice and Assessment Model . London: Palgrave .

CP.N9 For a useful review see Slade, A. & Holmes, J. (2017) Attachment in Therapeutic Practice . London: SAGE .

CP.N11 Laybourne, G. , Andersen, J. , & Sands, J. (2008) Fostering attachments in looked after children: further insight into the group-based programme for foster carers. Adoption and Fostering , 32(4), 64–76 ; Benesh, A.S. & Cui, M. (2017) Foster parent training programmes for foster youth: a content review. Child & Family Social Work , 22(1), 548–59 .

CP.N12 Wall, G. (2018) ‘Love builds brains’: representations of attachment and children’s brain development in parenting education material. Sociology of Health & Illness , 40(3), 395–409 . Attachment is a module in the Ready Steady Baby book, given to all new parents in Scotland. https://www.nhsinform.scot/ready-steady-baby/pregnancy/relationships-and-wellbeing-in-pregnancy/attachment-and-bonding-during-pregnancy .

CP.N13 Ministry of Justice (2011) Working with Personality Disordered Offenders: A Practitioner’s Guide . London: HMSO ; Baim, C. & Morrison, T. (2011) Attachment-Based Practice with Adults: Understanding Strategies and Promoting Positive Change . Hove: Pavilion Publishing ; Brown, R. & Ward, H. (2012) Decision-Making within a Child’s Timeframe: An Overview of Current Research Evidence for Family Justice Professionals Concerning Child Development and the Impact of Maltreatment . London: Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre ; Crittenden, P.M. , Farnfield, S. , Landini, A. , & Grey, B. (2013) Assessing attachment for family court decision making. Journal of Forensic Practice , 15(4), 237–48 .

CP.N16 Ainsworth, M. (1968) Letter to John Bowlby , 27 April 1968. PP/Bow/K.4/12: ‘Attachment has become a bandwagon. There are so many people now interested in research in this area, and so many approaches, both theoretical and methodological. I am afraid that people will leap in in a half-baked way, that findings will be equivocal or conflicting, and that perhaps interest will move away from “attachment” dismissing it as one more area that did not “pan out”.’

CP.N18 Morison, A. , Taylor, E. , & Gervais, M. (2019) How a sample of residential childcare staff conceptualize and use attachment theory in practice. Child & Youth Services , DOI: 10.1080/0145935X.2019.1583100 .

CP.N19 Bennett, S. & Blome, W.W. (2013) Implementing attachment theory in the child welfare system: clinical implications and organizational considerations. In J.E. Bettmann & D.D. Friedman (eds) Attachment-Based Clinical Work with Children and Adolescents (pp.259–83). New York: Springer .

CP.N21 Karen, R. (1994) Becoming Attached . New York: Warner Books . Karen’s book developed an earlier article: Karen, R. (1990) Becoming attached. The Atlantic , February . Karen’s stock-taking not only was influential for the public reception of attachment theory, but also influenced subsequent attachment research, such as providing a prompt for the development of the ‘Circle of Security’ intervention: Powell, B. , Cooper, G. , Hoffman, K. , & Marvin, B. (2016) The Circle of Security Intervention . New York: Guilford, p.9 .

CP.N22 The boom in funding for attachment research in the 1990s is discussed in White, K. & Schwartz, J. (2007) Attachment here and now: an interview with Peter Fonagy. Attachment: New Directions in Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy , 1(1), 57–61 .

CP.N23 Bretherton, I. (1992) The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmental Psychology , 28(5), 759–75 ; Holmes, J. (1993) John Bowlby and Attachment Theory . London: Routledge .

CP.N24 E.g. Van Dijken, S. (1998) John Bowlby: His Early Life: A Biographical Journey into the Roots of Attachment Theory . London: Free Association Books ; Mayhew, B. (2006) Between love and aggression: the politics of John Bowlby. History of the Human Sciences , 19(4), 19–35 ; van der Horst, F. (2011) John Bowlby—From Psychoanalysis to Ethology: Unravelling the Roots of Attachment Theory . Oxford: Blackwell .

CP.N25 E.g. Birns, B. (1999) I. Attachment theory revisited: challenging conceptual and methodological sacred cows. Feminism & Psychology , 9(1), 10–21 ; Vicedo, M. (2013) The Nature and Nurture of Love: From Imprinting to Attachment in Cold War America . Chicago: University of Chicago Press . As Ruck observes, the popularity of the development of attachment theory for historians of science resides at least in part in the fact that ‘the theory offers a looking glass into the social foundations and effects of science; the function and logic of scientific controversies and disciplinary hierarchies; and the interrelation of descriptive and prescriptive scientific theories, scientific and popular discourse, and science and ideology all at once’ : Ruck, N. (2014) Review: Marga Vicedo. The nature and nurture of love. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences , 50(4), 410–11, p.410 .

CP.N26 Fonagy, P. & Campbell, C. (2016) Attachment theory and mentalization. In A. Elliott & J. Prager (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Psychoanalysis in the Social Sciences and Humanities (pp.115–31). London: Routledge, p.123 .

CP.N27 For an example of a work in critical psychology that does little more than repeat stock criticisms with little relevance to contemporary attachment research, see Walsh, R.T.G. , Teo, T. , & Baydala, A. (2014) A Critical History and Philosophy of Psychology . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

CP.N28 One expression of the sheer scale of the historical background to contemporary attachment research is the six-volume edited work of Slade, A. & Holmes, J. (eds) (2014) Attachment Theory . London: Sage . The editors aimed to collect 60 essential papers; however, 119 papers ultimately were judged indispensable. On the diversity of factors involved in canon formation, and above all the importance of subsequent resonance, see Fishelov, D. (2010) Dialogues with/and Great Books: The Dynamics of Canon Formation . Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press .

CP.N29 The idea of generations in attachment research is heuristic rather than intended as a simple statement of fact. Certainly, there are figures who do not fall easily within one generation or the other in terms of age and attitudes; Jude Cassidy, Jay Belsky, Marinus van IJzendoorn, and Gottfried Spangler are all clear examples. And the present book is centrally concerned with changes over time regarding theory, method, and research priorities that do not divide by generation. On the concept of ‘generations’ see Aboim, S. & Vasconcelos, P. (2014) From political to social generations: a critical reappraisal of Mannheim’s classical approach. European Journal of Social Theory , 17, 165–83 .

CP.N30 Ainsworth’s first doctoral students at Johns Hopkins graduated in 1972, among them Mary Main; her final doctoral students were Jude Cassidy in 1986 and Carolyn Eichberg in 1987. This means that most of Ainsworth’s doctoral students have moved into retirement over the past decade.

CP.N31 Bowlby, J. (1970) Letter to Mary Main , 18 November 1970. PP/Bow/J.4/1.

CP.N32 Cassidy, J. & Shaver, P. (eds) (2016) Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications , 3rd edn. New York: Guildford ; Prior, V. & Glaser, D. (2006) Understanding Attachment and Attachment Disorders: Theory, Evidence and Practice . London: Jessica Kingsley Press ; Gillath, O. , Karantzas, G.C. , & Fraley, R.C. (2016) Adult Attachment: A Concise Introduction to Theory and Research . London: Academic Press . See also Holmes, P. & Farnfield, S. (2014) The Routledge Handbook of Attachment . London: Routledge .

CP.N33 Thompson, R.A. , Simpson, J.A. , & Berlin, L. (eds) (2020) Attachment: The Fundamental Questions . New York: Guildford .

CP.N34 Thompson, R.A. (2017) Twenty-first century attachment theory. In H. Keller & K. Bard (eds) The Cultural Nature of Attachment: Contextualizing Relationships and Development (pp.301–19). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, p.303 .

CP.N35 Schickore, J. (2008) Doing science, writing science. Philosophy of Science , 75(3), 323–43 .

CP.N36 For example, Smeeton puts this polemically, alleging that ‘we watch as the next generation of social workers suffer the consequences of intellectual inbreeding, fumbling through practice with webbed theories and six-fingered methodologies that give up on families unable to reach the optimal state of a “secure pattern” attachment with their child’. Smeeton, J. (2017) From Aristotle to Arendt: a phenomenological exploration of forms of knowledge and practice in the context of child protection social work in the UK. Qualitative Social Work , 16(1), 14–28, p.16 . See also Garrett, M.P. (2017) Wired: early intervention and the ‘neuromolecular gaze’. British Journal of Social Work , 48(3), 656–74 . Such criticisms are not based on empirical work on how attachment research is conducted, transmitted, or applied.

CP.N38 One of the few studies found that the more training professionals had in attachment theory, the less likely they were to make judgemental comments about parents’ caregiving behaviours. McMahon, C. , Huber, A. , Kohlhoff, J. , & Camberis, A.L. (2017) Does training in the Circle of Security framework increase relational understanding in infant/child and family workers? Infant Mental Health Journal , 38(5), 658–68 .

CP.N39 Some early findings are presented in Reijman, S. , Foster, S. , & Duschinsky, R. (2018) The infant disorganised attachment classification: ‘Patterning within the disturbance of coherence’. Social Science & Medicine , 200, 52–58 .

CP.N40 Occasional further manuscripts have been made available by other attachment researchers including Chris Fraley, Klaus and Karin Grossmann, and Alan Sroufe.

CP.N41 Bowlby, J. (1974) Marginalia on Kuhn, second thoughts on paradigms . PP/Bow/H.98: Heavily underlined: ‘Acquiring an arsenal of exemplars, just as much as learning symbolic generalisations, is integral to the process by which a student gains access to the cognitive achievements of his disciplinary group’ (p.471).

CP.N42 This function of the history of psychology is discussed well in Capshew, J. (2014) History of psychology since 1945: a North American review. In R. Backhouse & P. Fontaine (eds) A Historiography of the Modern Social Sciences (pp.144–82). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

CP.N43 The links between historical research and attachment research in this regard relate especially to researchers in the developmental tradition. The social psychological tradition of attachment research has offered fewer relevant reflections on the idea of history, reflecting a predominant tendency in the broader discipline of social psychology. However, see Billig, M. (2018) Those who only know of social psychology know not social psychology: a tribute to Gustav Jahoda’s historical approach. Culture & Psychology , 24(3), 282–93 .

CP.N44 Bowlby, J. ( c .1932–33) History taking; methods of examining . PP/BOW/D.2/13 .

CP.N45 Bowlby, J. (1990) Charles Darwin: A Life . New York: Norton .

CP.N46 Wilson, A. & Ashplant, T.G. (1988) Whig history and present-centred history. The Historical Journal , 31(1), 1–16 .

CP.N47 See Bowlby, J. (1982) A case of mistaken identity. Higher Education Quarterly 36(4): 328–32 ; Bowlby, J. (1962) Notes on Feyerabend . PP/BOW/H.99 ; Bowlby, J. (1974) Marginalia on Kuhn, Second Thoughts on Paradigms . PP/Bow/H.98 .

CP.N48 Bowlby, J. (1976) In Dr Martin Bax. Are Mothers Necessary? Radio 3, October 1976. PP/Bow/F.5/7 .

CP.N49 Bowlby, J. (1989) Attachment and Loss: Continuing Education Seminars. Film produced by David Scott May and Marion Solomon . Distributed by Insight Media .

CP.N50 Bowlby, J. & Dahrendorf, R. (1958) Summary of discussions and topics for final session. Seminar delivered to members of the Stanford Conflict Seminar, February 1958. PP/Bow/H.67 . See also Chang, H. (2017) Who cares about the history of science? Notes and Records , 71(1), 91–107 .

CP.N51 Bowlby, J. (1982) A case of mistaken identity. Higher Education Quarterly , 36(4), 328–32 .

CP.N52 Bowlby, J. (1979) The ten books which have most influenced my thought, 24 October 1979. PP/Bow/A.1/8 .

CP.N53 Bowlby, J. (1981) Jean Piaget: some reminiscences. The Tavistock Gazette , 5, 3–4, p.4 .

CP.N54 Tosh, N. (2003) Anachronism and retrospective explanation: in defense of a present-centred history of science. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science , 34, 647–59 ; Oreskes, N. (2013) Why I Am a Presentist. Science in Context , 26(4), 595–609 ; Loison, L. (2016) Forms of presentism in the history of science: rethinking the project of historical epistemology. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A , 60, 29–37 .

CP.N55 Bowlby, J. ( c .1950) Marginalia on Bronfenbrenner’s ‘Toward an integrated theory of personality’. PP/Bow/J.9/37 .

.N1 Van IJzendoorn, M. & van der Veer, R. (1984) Main Currents of Critical Psychology , p.233, trans. M. Schoen . New York: Irvington Publishers . See also Klempe, S.H. & Smith, R. (eds) (2017) Centrality of History for Theory Construction in Psychology . New York: Springer .

CP.N57 The concept of ‘development’ of course has its own long history. See, for example, Wertheimer, M. (1985) The evolution of the concept of development in the history of psychology. In G. Eckardt , W.G. Bringmann , & L. Sprung (eds) Contributions to a History of Developmental Psychology (pp.13–25). Berlin: Mouton ; Valsiner, J. (1994) Irreversibility of time and the construction of historical developmental psychology. Mind, Culture, and Activity , 1(1–2), 25–42 .

CP.N58 Sroufe, L.A. (1996) Emotional Development , p.xii. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

CP.N59 Sroufe, L.A. (2007) The place of development in developmental psychopathology. In A. Masten (ed.) Multilevel Dynamics in Developmental Psychopathology: Pathways to the Future: The Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology , Vol. 34 (pp.285–99). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, p.290 .

CP.N60 Sroufe, L.A. (1996) Emotional Development , p.xii. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

CP.N61 Roisman, G.I. , Madsen, S.D. , Hennighausen, K.H. , Sroufe, L.A. , & Collins, A. (2001) The coherence of dyadic behavior across parent–child and romantic relationships as mediated by the internalized representation of experience. Attachment & Human Development , 3(2), 156–72, p.169 . An example of attachment researchers ‘building in the ruins’ is the way that the term ‘internal working model’ has been used by later attachment researchers to show that Bowlby was attentive to change, since these models were ‘working’, i.e. open to development. However, this was never Bowlby’s intention with the term: ‘working’ just meant that they were applied (Chapter 1 ). Nonetheless, the word ‘working’ has made available this subsequent interpretation.

CP.N62 Bowlby, J. (1980) Loss . London: Pimlico : ‘for many widows and widowers it is precisely because they are willing for their feelings of attachment to the dead spouse to persist that their sense of identity is preserved and they become able to reorganize their lives along lines they find meaningful’ (p.98).

CP.N63 Carlson, E.A. , Egeland, B. , & Sroufe, L.A. (2009) A prospective investigation of the development of borderline personality symptoms. Development & Psychopathology , 21(4), 1311–34, p.1315 .

CP.N64 Juffer, F. , Bakermans-Kranenburg, M.J. , & van IJzendoorn, M.H. (eds) Promoting Positive Parenting: An Attachment-Based Intervention . New York: Psychology Press .

CP.N65 Cf. Mykhalovskiy, E. , Frohlich, K.L. , Poland, B. , Di Ruggiero, E. , Rock, M.J. , & Comer, L. (2018) Critical social science with public health: agonism, critique and engagement. Critical Public Health , 29(5) .

CP.N66 Bourdieu, P. (2000) Pascalian Meditations . Stanford: Stanford University Press ; Latour, B. (2013) An Inquiry into Modes of Existence . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press . Illustrative of the ‘debunking’ narrative is Gaskins, S. (2013) The puzzle of attachment. In N. Quinn & J.M. Mageo (eds) Attachment Reconsidered: Cultural Perspectives on a Western Theory (pp.33–66). London: Palgrave .

CP.N67 Sedgwick, E.K. (2003) Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity . Durham, NC: Duke University Press .

CP.N68 Duschinsky, R. (2019) Attachment and the archive: barriers and facilitators to the use of historical sociology as complementary developmental science. Science in Context , 32(3), 309–26 .

CP.N69 Ainsworth, M. (1972) Attachment and dependency: a comparison. In J. Gewirtz (ed.) Attachment and Dependency (pp.97–137). Washington, DC: Winston : ‘In terms of his problem, theoretical orientation, resources, opportunities, and personal style, each investigator chooses his own set of compromises. The interests of science seem likely to be best served in this context by a multiplicity of studies, each with its own compromises, which yet may in aggregate answer the questions’ (p.126).

CP.N70 Sroufe, L.A. (1997) Psychopathology as an outcome of development. Development & Psychopathology , 9(2), 251–68, p.251 .

CP.N71 Danziger, K. (1994) Does the history of psychology have a future? Theory & Psychology , 4(4), 467–84 : It is ‘when the professional community is divided in some profound way that a critical disciplinary history has a significant contribution to make’ (p.478).

CP.N72 Hacking, I. (2002) Historical Ontology . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press ; Collins, H. & Evans, R. (2014) Actor and analyst: a response to Coopmans and Button. Social Studies of Science , 44(5), 786–92 .

CP.N73 Cavell, S. (1994) In Quest of the Ordinary: Lines of Skepticism and Romanticism . Chicago: University of Chicago Press .

CP.N74 E.g. Smith, R. (2013) Between Mind and Nature: A History of Psychology . New York: Reaktion Books .

CP.N75 Shaver, P.R. & Brennan, K.B. (1991) Measures of depression and loneliness. In J.P. Robinson , P.R. Shaver , & L.S. Wrightsman (eds) Measures of Social Psychological Attitudes , Vol. 1 (pp.195–289). San Diego: Academic Press : ‘In addition to being parts of ordinary language, “depression” and “loneliness” are technical terms within psychiatry and clinical psychology . … When ordinary concepts are used technically, definitional confusion may arise … these emotions are closely related to other states discussed in this book: alienation, low self-esteem, external locus of control (helplessness), and dissatisfaction with life. In ordinary language, this is as it should be; in professional social science it is problematic . … Another problem is that the terms “loneliness” and “depression” harbour implicit causal theories’ (p.195).

CP.N76 Shaver, P.R. , Morgan, H.J. , & Wu, S. (1996) Is love a ‘basic’ emotion? Personal Relationships , 3, 81–96, p.83 . See also Derksen, M. (1997) Are we not experimenting then? The rhetorical demarcation of psychology and common sense. Theory & Psychology , 7(4), 435–56 .

CP.N77 Bowlby’s predicament can be seen within the wider context of psychoanalysis discourse in the period, which both wanted and repudiated the advantages of ordinary language. This issue is considered well in Abram, J. (2007) The Language of Winnicott: A Dictionary of Winnicott’s Use of Words . London: Karnac .

CP.N78 Geertz describes common sense as having five experiential properties: it is felt in use as ‘natural’, ‘practical’, ‘thin’/’simple’, ‘immethodical’, and ‘accessible’. Geertz, C. (1983) Common sense as a cultural system. In Local Knowledge (pp.73–93). New York: Basic Books .

CP.N79 Bowlby, J. (1980) Loss , p.17. London: Pimlico .

CP.N80 Bowlby, J. (1972) Notes towards Separation . PP/Bow/K.5./17 .

CP.N81 Bowlby, J. (1973) Separation , p.118. New York: Basic Books . As a mature scholar, Bowlby regularly warned his students regarding the use of language in their theorizing. E.g. Issroff, J. (2005) Donald Winnicott and John Bowlby: Personal and Professional Perspectives . London: Karnac : ‘He concentrated on ensuring that language used was not loose, and on keeping speculation to a minimum’ (p.26). ‘Often he held forth about the importance of language used for conceptualising’ (p.27).

CP.N82 Bowlby, J. (1987–90) Darwin’s Scientific Achievement . Cambridge University Library, MS Add. 8884 .

CP.N83 Benjafield, J.G. (2016) The digital history of the anglophone vocabulary of psychology: an exploration using Zipfian methods. History of Psychology , 19(2), 125–40, p.127 .

CP.N84 E.g. Bowlby, J. (1983) Letter to Helen Block Lewis , 12 January 1983. PP/Bow/J.9/123: ‘As I expect you know, some difficulties have arisen over the best use of the term attachment. For purely historical reasons it seems best now to confine it to protection and comfort-seeking behaviour as seen most obviously in childhood.’

CP.N85 On the costs and gains of metaphor for Bowlby’s reception, see Duniec, E. & Raz, M. (2011) Vitamins for the soul: John Bowlby’s thesis of maternal deprivation, biomedical metaphors and the deficiency model of disease. History of Psychiatry , 22(1), 93–107 . The issue is likewise discussed in Fonagy, P. (2003) Some complexities in the relationship of psychoanalytic theory to technique. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly , 72(1), 13–47 : ‘Science regularly employs metaphor in the absence of detailed knowledge of the underlying process. Provided that metaphor is not confused with a full understanding—or, to use Freud’s expression, the scaffolding is not mistaken for the building—heuristic considerations might outweigh any disadvantages of such employment’ (p.36).

CP.N86 Waters, E. & McIntosh, J. (2011) Are we asking the right questions about attachment? Family Court Review , 49(3), 474–82, p.474 .

CP.N87 Ibid.

CP.N88 Foucault refers to a ‘field of stabilization’ for the concepts and methods of a discipline that make recognition of equivalence possible. Attachment research has benefited from allowing many an expansive field of stabilization that allows many phenomena to be recognized as pertaining to ideas relating to attachment. On the concept of ‘field of stabilization’ see Foucault, M. (1969, 1972) The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language , p.103, trans. A.M. Sheridan Smith . New York: Pantheon .

CP.N89 Luyten, P. (2015) Unholy questions about five central tenets of psychoanalysis that need to be empirically verified. Psychoanalytic Inquiry , 35(1), 5–23 .

CP.N90 For instance, the term ‘coherence’ has a central place in the conceptualization and coding of the Adult Attachment Interview (Chapter 3 ). Beijersbergen, Bakermans-Kranenburg, and van IJzendoorn conducted a detailed empirical study in 2006 to see whether attachment researchers used the term ‘coherent’ in the same way as ordinary language or other academic specialisms. The answer was a resounding ‘no’. Beijersbergen, M.D. , Bakermans-Kranenburg, M.J. , & van IJzendoorn, M.H. (2006) The concept of coherence in attachment interviews: comparing attachment experts, linguists, and non-experts. Attachment & Human Development , 8(4), 353–69 .

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Learning Theory (Explanations Of Attachment Formation)

June 5, 2021 - paper 1 introductory topics in psychology | attachment.

There are two main explanations of attachment formation; the Learning Theory of attachment which states that all attachments are learned and, the Evolutionary Explanation of Attachment which states that all attachments are formed on the basis of a genetic, innate process.

Explanations Of Attachment The Learning Theory, (AO1, Description):

Learning Theory of Attachment’ The Behavioural Explanation: Miller and Dollard (1950) (Remember Learning Theory can also be referred to as the Behavioural Explanation in the exam).

Learning theory suggests that all infants are born as ‘blank slates’ and that ALL behaviour is ‘learned’ rather than innate. In other words, attachment is a result of nurture rather than nature. This theory is often referred to as a ‘cupboard love theory’ because it suggests that the infant becomes attached to a caregiver because it ‘learns’ that the caregiver will meet their physiological (nutritional) needs (i.e. becomes attached to the care giver who provides the infant with food). Behaviourists suggest that attachment is learned by classical conditioning (learning by association) .

Definition of Classical Conditioning: Ivan Pavlov was the first Psychologist to describe learning through (classical) conditioning. The main assumption is that behaviour is learnt through association (for example, we learn to respond to new events and people in the same way as we already respond to other events). Look at the classical conditioning schedule below to see how attachment behaviour is learned

Evaluation Of Explanations Of Attachment The Learning Theory, (AO3, Evaluation):

(1) POINT: Learning theory can provide an adequate explanation of how attachments form. EVIDENCE/EXAMPLE: For example, we do seem to learn in a number of ways through association in real-life (e.g. we associate certain situations with danger when we develop phobias even if that association is irrational). The case of Little Albert shows that classical conditioning is the process by which we learn a variety of behaviours. Little Albert’s case shows that when you combine a loud noise (an unconditioned stimulus) with a neutral stimulus (a rat) after much repetition, this creates a conditioned response (fear of the rat). EVALUATION: This is positive because it suggests learning theory may at least play a part in attachment formation.

Weaknesses:

(3) POINT: Further evidence against learning theory comes from Lorenz’s theory of ‘imprinting’ , EVIDENCE/EXAMPLE: Evidence to support this theory comes from Lorenz’s (1952) research using newly hatched Greylag geese who, after seeing Lorenz shortly after hatching (their first image), they followed him everywhere as he became their ‘imprinted’ parent. This means that newborns ‘imprint’ an image of the first moving object they see (usually their parents) within hours of being born which allows them to stick closely to this important source of protection and food. EVALUATE: This criticises learning theory as it suggests that attachment is innate as the infants were far too young to have learned anything at this stage.

IMAGES

What Is Attachment Theory Bowlby S 4 Stages Explained Attachment
Explanations for Attachment: Learning Theory AND Bowlby's Monotropic
Schaffer And Emerson Attachment Theory
LT essay
Attachment Theory: Bowlby and Ainsworth's Theory Explained
Learning Theory of Attachment

COMMENTS

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With the aim of unraveling this black box, we propose to integrate evidence from conditioning research with attachment theory to formulate a Learning Theory of Attachment. In this review, we explain how the development of individual differences in attachment security at least partly follows the principles of classical and operant conditioning ...
Learning Theory of Attachment
The Learning Theory of attachment suggests that attachment is a set of learned behaviors. The basis for the learning of attachments is the provision of food. This theory encompasses two types of learning: classical conditioning, where an infant learns to associate the caregiver with comfort and eventually forms an attachment; and operant conditioning, where the behavior of the infant, such as ...
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Attachment has traditionally been considered an innate, biologically driven system. A clear and testable model of how individual differences develop is missing. Contrasting long-existing views, we propose a learning theory of attachment. This theory can explain discrepancies between attachment theory and research.
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Although clinicians typically acknowledge the importance of insecure attachment as one factor that can contribute to children's psychopathology, translating attachment theory into clinical practice has proved a challenge. By specifying some of the mechanisms through which the child's attachment develops and changes, learning theory can enhance attachment based approaches to therapy.
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In addition, better and more direct measurement of IWMs and their functioning will contribute to theory development and more interpretable research findings. Innovations in attachment research (e.g. script methodology) and advances in allied fields (e.g. research in autobiographical representation) together provide incentives for attachment ...
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592 Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review (2022) 25:591 612 1 3 Enhancing children s attachment security, that is their con dence in a parent s or other caregiver s ability to pro-
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Attachment theorists have modified the theory in response to empirical findings, advances in allied fields, and further ideas. Yet, as evidenced by this Forum, work still remains. This chapter summarizes changes to some of the central areas of attachment theory as well as remaining points of contention: To whom do infants become attached?
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This finding fits with the learning theory of attachment that builds on learning research showing that both positive and negative memories are stored in the brain but that the context determines to which memories individuals can have access (also demonstrated for attachment: ). Thus, priming can help to reactivate the more positive memories ...
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The findings from Lorenz's research (as outlined below) offers support for the idea that infants have an attachment gene and that they imprint on a caregiver not long after birth. ... Harlow's research supports the Learning Theory of attachment. Aim: To test Learning theory by comparing attachment behaviour in baby monkeys given a wire ...
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Theories of Attachment: The Evidence. Dollard & Miller's learning theory of attachment suggest that attachment is a set of learned behaviours. The basis for the learning of attachments is the provision of food. An infant will initially form an attachment to whoever feeds it. They learn to associate the feeder (usually the mother) with the ...
A learning theory of attachment: Unraveling the black box of attachment
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Although clinicians typically acknowledge the importance of insecure attachment as one factor that can contribute to children's psychopathology, translating attachment theory into clinical practice has proved a challenge. By specifying some of the mechanisms through which the child's attachment develops and changes, learning theory can enhance attachment based approaches to therapy ...
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One gets a glimpse of the germ of attachment theory in John Bowlby's 1944 article, "Forty-Four Juvenile Thieves: Their Character and Home-Life," published in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis.Using a combination of case studies and statistical methods (novel at the time for psychoanalysts) to examine the precursors of delinquency, Bowlby arrived at his initial empirical insight ...
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Introduction
CP.P3 Yet the most well-known account of attachment is in many regards based on certain early claims by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, the originators of attachment theory, at the expense of their own and others' later conclusions and qualifications. Ainsworth herself complained of a tendency to describe psychological theories in terms of early findings and ideas; these enter into ...
Learning Theory (Explanations Of Attachment Formation)
Learning theory suggests that all infants are born as 'blank slates' and that ALL behaviour is 'learned' rather than innate. In other words, attachment is a result of nurture rather than nature. This theory is often referred to as a 'cupboard love theory' because it suggests that the infant becomes attached to a caregiver because it ...

Learning Theory of Attachment

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A Learning Theory Approach to Attachment Theory: Exploring Clinical Applications

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Contributions of Attachment Theory and Research: A Framework for Future Research, Translation, and Policy

Jason D. Jones

A Simple Model of Infant-Mother Attachment

Internal Working Models

New Directions in the Examination of IWM Formation during Infancy

Child-Parent Attachment, Response to Threat, and Physiological Mechanisms of Influence

Another Level of “Representation” or Internal Structure: Physiology

Early Attachment-Related Experiences and Human Infant Biological Response to Stress

Attachment as a Regulator of Infant Stress Reactivity: Further Questions

Maternal Caregiving and Infant Attachment: Intergenerational Transmission of Attachment and the “Transmission Gap”

A focus on secure base provision

Additional mediational pathways: Genetics, cognitions, and emotions

Caregiving as a Function of Adult Attachment Style

Mothers and Fathers

Attachment and Psychopathology

Bowlby's Theory of Attachment and Psychopathology

Attachment and Internalizing/Externalizing Behavior Problems: State of the Field

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Targets of early intervention

Intervention development and issues of implementation

Interventions during Adolescence

Policy Implications

Brief Conclusions

Acknowledgments

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