Posted by alexandra_k on January 14, 2014, at 0:30:11
In reply to Attachment Theory?, posted by SLS on January 13, 2014, at 22:18:23
developed in the 60's (I think). Ainsworth?
Kid and mother. Mother leaves. Kid cries.
Kid doesn't settle - dependent
Kid settles.
Mother comes back.
Kid rejects mother - avoidant.
Kid settles. Normal.
Some kids push-pull they are - disorganized.
I think that was it.
Then the idea is that one can predict from how the kid behaves under these experimental condition... What attachment style they will exhibit throughout their life.
One issue is: Whether attachment patterns are stable over time. It might be that people exhibit different patterns of attachment depending on different relationships / through time.
This criticism has led to some theorists being very dubious about the notion of attachment style - and in some cases being very dubious indeed about the notion of personality as similarly being something consistent throughout the lifetime. Sceptics claim that there is more predictive leverage to be had by considering features of the external situation rather than features that are internal to the individual.
More recently there has indeed been a return to more sophisticated versions of attachment theory, though. Ones that look at the neurobiology of trauma and attachment. By theorists like Shore etc etc. Twinleaf knows about this stuff...
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1058503
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20131211/msgs/1058510.html