Attachment theory

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.