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15 - Attachment Theory

from Part III - Development, Health and Change: Life Span and Health Outcomes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

By
Mario Mikulincer  and
Phillip R. Shaver
Edited by
Philip J. Corr  and
Gerald Matthews
Philip J. Corr
Affiliation:
City, University London
Gerald Matthews
Affiliation:
University of Central Florida
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Summary

Attachment theory, created by British psychoanalyst John Bowlby (1973, 1980, 1982) and initially operationalized by Mary Ainsworth and colleagues (e.g., Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters & Wall, 1978), began its intellectual life as a modest attempt on Bowlby’s part to understand why separations from mother early in life later cause so much psychological difficulty for children, adolescents and adults (e.g., Bowlby, 1958). As Bowlby worked his way deeper and deeper into this problem area, he eventually created a broad alternative to psychoanalytic theory, one much more solidly grounded in primate ethology, cognitive developmental psychology and clinical research. Ainsworth et al. (1978) added important ideas and assessment procedures, which allowed her and Bowlby’s theory to be rigorously tested, revised and expanded for more than forty years. Today, because of this auspicious theoretical and psychometric foundation, attachment theory has generated a large and complex literature comprising thousands of empirical studies, a literature that continues to reflect Bowlby’s psychoanalytic origins. As a personality theory, attachment theory combines psychoanalytic, evolutionary, developmental, social-cognitive and personality trait constructs in a systematic framework that transcends the usual typologies of personality traits.

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The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology , pp. 208 - 220
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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