This paper attempts first steps toward reworking Bowlby’s attachment theory and formulating an updated version. The paper examines 11 tenets of attachment theory as it was originally proposed by Bowlby and colleagues. These tenets are discussed in terms both of historical and recent criticisms, and of relevant research. Reasons are given for why the discussion omits work involving animal models or focused on measurement issues. In conclusion, the tenets are assigned to four categories: ideas that have received little criticism; ideas that have been criticized but are generally accepted, although they need to take new research evidence into account; ideas that have been rejected or questioned more than they have been accepted; and ideas that have been rejected or extensively reinterpreted.
Ahnert, L., Pinquart, M., & Lamb, M.E. ( 2006). Security of children’s relationships with nonparental care provider: A meta-analysis. Child Development, 77, 664-679.
2.
Ainsworth, M., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wall, S. ( 1978). Patterns of attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
3.
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed). Washington, DC: Author.
4.
Aslin, R. ( 1993). Commentary: The strange attractiveness of dynamic systems to development. In L. Smith & E. Thelen (Eds.), A dynamic systems approach to development: Applications (pp. 385-399). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
5.
Baillargeon, R. ( 1994). How do infants learn about the physical world? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 3(5), 133-140.
6.
Bauer, P., & Dow, G. ( 1994). Episodic memory in 16- and 20-month-old children: Specifics are generalized but not forgotten. Developmental Psychology , 30, 403-417.
7.
Bauer, P., & Mandler, J. ( 1992). Putting the horse before the cart: The use of temporal order in recall of events by one-year-old children. Developmental Psychology, 28, 441-452.
8.
Beauchaine, T.P. ( 2009). Some difficulties in interpreting psychophysiological research with children. In M. El-Sheikh, C.D. Kouros, S. Rath , E.M. Cummings, P. Keller, & L. Staton (Eds.), Marital conflict and children’s externalizing behavior: Interactions between parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system activity. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 74(1, Serial No. 292), 80-88.
9.
Becket, C., Maughan, B., Rutter, M., Castle, J., Colvert, E., Groothues, C., ... Sonuga-Barke, E.J.S. (2007). Early adolescent outcomes for institutionally-deprived and non-deprived adoptees: I. Disinhibited attachment . Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48, 17-30.
10.
Bowlby, J. ( 1958). The nature of the child’s tie to his mother. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 39, 350-373.
11.
Bowlby, J. ( 1960). Grief and mourning in infancy and early childhood. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 15, 9-52.
12.
Bowlby, J. ( 1982). Attachment. New York, NY: Basic Books.
13.
Brannigan, C.R., & Humphries, D.A. (1972). Human non-verbal behavior: A means of communication. In N.B. Jones (Ed.), Ethological studies of child behaviour (pp. 37-64). Cambridge , UK: Cambridge University Press.
14.
Butterworth, G. ( 1990). Self-perception in infancy. In D. Cicchetti & M. Beeghley (Eds.), The self in transition (pp. 119-138). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
15.
Cicchetti, D. ( 1991). Fractures in the crystal: Developmental psychopathology and the emergence of self. Developmental Review, 11, 271-287.
16.
Coleman, P., & Watson, A. ( 2000). Infant attachment as a dynamic system. Human Development, 43, 295-313.
17.
Crnic, L.S., Reite, M.L., & Shucard, D.W. ( 1982). Animal models of human behavior: Their application to the study of attachment. In R.N. Emde & R.J. Harmon (Eds.), The development of attachment and affiliation (pp. 31-42). New York, NY: Plenum.
18.
Crockenberg, S. ( 1992). How children learn to resolve conflict in families. Zero to Three, 12(4), 11-13.
19.
Dozier, M. ( 2003). Attachment-based treatment for vulnerable children. Attachment & Human Development, 5, 253-257.
20.
Emery, A.M.P., & von Bayern, N.J. (2009). Jackdaws respond to human attentional states and communicative cues in different contexts. Current Biology, 19, 602-606.
21.
Flavell, J.H. ( 2007). Theory-of-Mind development: Retrospect and prospect. In G.W. Ladd (Ed.), Appraising the human developmental sciences (pp. 38-55). Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.
22.
Fonagy, P., Gergely, G., Jurist, E.L., & Target, M. ( 2002). Affect regulation, mentalization, and the development of the self. New York, NY: Other Press.
23.
Fraiberg, S. ( 1969). Libidinal object constancy and mental representation . Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 24, 9-47.
24.
Freud, A. ( 1960). Discussion of Dr. John Bowlby’s paper. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 15, 53-62.
25.
Freud, A., & Dann, S. ( 1951). An experiment in group upbringing. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 6, 127-168.
26.
Gewirtz, J.L. ( 1961). A learning analysis of the effects of normal stimulation, privation and deprivation on the acquisition of social motivation and attachment . In B. Foss (Ed.), Determinants of infant behavior (pp. 213-299). London, UK: Methuen.
27.
Gewirtz, J.L., & Boyd, E.F. ( 1977). Experiments on mother-infant interaction underlying mutual attachment acquisition: The infant conditions the mother. In T. Alloway, P. Pliner, & L. Krames (Eds.), Advances in the study of communication and affect: Vol. 3. Attachment behavior (pp. 109-143). New York, NY : Plenum.
28.
Goldstein, J., Solnit, A., Goldstein, S., & Freud, A. ( 1996). The best interest of the child: The least detrimental alternative. New York, NY: Free Press.
29.
Greenough, W., Black, J., & Wallace, C. ( 1987). Experience and brain development. Child Development, 58, 535-559.
30.
Greenspan, S.I. ( 1992). Infancy and early childhood. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.
31.
Hartmann, H. ( 1956). Notes on the reality principle. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 11, 31-53.
32.
Hinde, R.A. ( 1982). Ethology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
33.
Hofer, M.A. ( 2006). Psychobiological roots of early attachment. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(2), 84-88.
34.
Kagan, J. ( 1998). Three seductive ideas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
35.
Kaufman, J. ( 2008). Genetic and environmental modifiers of risk and resiliency in maltreated children. In J.J. Hudziak (Ed.), Developmental psychopathology and wellness: Genetic and environmental influences (pp.141-160). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
36.
Laible, D., Panfile, T., & Makariev, D. ( 2008). The quality and frequency of mother-toddler conflict: Links with attachment and temperament. Child Development, 79, 426-443.
37.
Lamb, M.E. ( 1997). The development of father-infant relationships. In M.E. Lamb (Ed.) The role of the father in child development (pp. 104-120). Hoboken, NJ : Wiley.
38.
Lamey, A., Hollenstein, T., Lewis, M.D., & Granic, I. ( 2004). GridWare (Version 1.1 Beta) [Computer software]. Available: http://statespacegrids.org
39.
Le Grand, R., Mondloch, C., Maurer, D., & Brent, H.P. ( 2003). Expert face processing requires visual input to the right hemisphere during infancy. Nature Neuroscience, 6, 1108-1112.
Meltzoff, A.N., & Moore, M.K. ( 1989). Imitation in newborn infants: Exploring the range of gestures imitated and the underlying mechanisms. Developmental Psychology, 25, 954-962.
42.
Nilsen, W.J. ( 2003). Perceptions of attachment in academia and the child welfare system: The gap between research and reality. Attachment & Human Development, 5, 303-306.
43.
Ovtscharoff, W., Jr. , & Braun, K. (2001). Maternal separation and social isolation modulate the postnatal development of synaptic composition in the infralimbic cortex of octodon degus. Neuroscience, 104, 33-40.
44.
Prodan, C.I., Orbelo, D.M., Testa, J.A., & Ross, E.D. ( 2001). Hemispheric differences in recognizing upper and lower facial displays of emotion. Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neurology, 14, 206-212.
45.
Rheingold, H. ( 1963). Maternal behavior in mammals. Oxford , UK: Wiley.
46.
Robertson, J., & Robertson, J. ( 1971). Young children in brief separation: A fresh look. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 26, 264-313.
47.
Roisman, G.I., & Fraley, R.C. ( 2006). The limits of genetic influence: A behavior-genetic analysis of infant-caregiver relationship quality and temperament. Child Development, 77, 1656-1667.
48.
Rovee-Collier, C., & Boller, K. ( 1995). Current theory and research on infant learning and memory: Application to early intervention. Infants and Young Children , 7, 1-12.
49.
Rutter, M. ( 1995). Clinical implications of attachment concepts: Retrospect and prospect. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 36, 549-571.
50.
Rutter, M. ( 2002). Nature, nurture, and development: From evangelism through science toward policy and practice. Child Development, 73, 1-21.
51.
Rutter, M., Colvert, E., Kreppner, J., Beckett, C., Castle, J., Groothues, C., ... Sonuga-Barke, E.J.S. (2007). Early adolescent outcomes for institutionally-deprived and non-deprived adoptees: I. Disinhibited attachment . Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48, 17-30.
52.
Ryan, R.M., Deci, E.L., Grolnick, W.S., & La Guardia, J.G. (2006). The significance of autonomy and autonomy support in psychological development of psychopathology. In D. Cicchetti & D.J. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Vol. 1. Theory and method (2nd ed., pp. 795-849). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley .
53.
Santiago Declaration (2007). Retrieved from http://www.santiagodeclaration.org
54.
Scarr, S. ( 1992). Developmental theories for the 1990s: Development and individual differences. Child Development, 63, 1-19.
55.
Schore, A.N. ( 2000). Attachment and the regulation of the right brain. Attachment & Human Development, 2, 23-47.
56.
Schore, J.R., & Schore, A.N. ( 2008). Modern attachment theory: The central role of affect regulation in development and treatment. Clinical Social Work Journal, 36, 9-20.
57.
Schur, M. ( 1960). Discussion of Dr. John Bowlby’s paper. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 15, 63-84.
58.
Scott, J.P. ( 1960). Comparative social psychology. In R.H. Waters, D.A. Rethlingschafer, & W.E. Caldwell (Eds.), Principles of comparative psychology (pp. 250-288). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
59.
Soares, I., Lemos, M.S., & Almeida, C. ( 2005). Attachment and motivational strategies in adolescence: Exploring links. Adolescence, 40, 129-154.
60.
Sroufe, L.A. ( 1979). The coherence of individual development. American Psychologist, 34, 834-841.
61.
Sroufe, L.A. ( 1996). Emotional development: The organization of emotional life in the early years. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
62.
Sroufe, L.A. ( 2005). Attachment and development: A prospective, longitudinal study from birth to adulthood. Attachment & Human Development , 7, 349-367.
63.
Sroufe, L.A., Egeland, B., Carlson, E., & Collins, W.A. ( 2005). The development of the person: The Minnesota study of risk and adaptation from birth to adulthood. New York, NY: Guilford.
64.
Sroufe, L.A., & Waters, E. ( 1977). Attachment as an organizational construct. Child Development, 48, 1184-1189.
65.
Sullivan, R.M., & Gratton, A. ( 2002). Prefrontal cortical regulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function in the rat and implications for psychopathology: Side matters. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 27, 99-114.
Toda, S., & Fogel, A. ( 1993). Infant response to the still-face situation at 3 and 6 months. Developmental Psychology, 29, 532-538.
68.
Trause, M.A., Klaus, M.H., & Kennell, J.H. ( 1982). Maternal behavior in mammals. In M.H. Klaus & J.H. Kennell (Eds.), Parent-infant bonding (2nd ed., pp. 130-150). St. Louis, MO: C.V. Mosby.
69.
van Ijzendoorn, M. ( 1995). Adult attachment representations, parental responsiveness, and infant attachment: A meta-analysis on the predictive validity of the Adult Attachment Interview. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 387-403.
70.
Van Ryzin, M.J., Gravely, A.A., & Roseth, C.J. ( 2009). Autonomy, belongingness, and engagement in school as contributors to adolescent psychological well-being. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 38, 1-12.
71.
Waters, E., & Cummings, E.M. (2000). A secure base from which to explore close relationships. Child Development, 71, 164-172.
72.
Waters, H.S., & Waters, E. ( 2006). The attachment working models concept: Among other things, we build script-like representations of secure base experiences. Attachment & Human Development, 8, 185-197.
73.
Werner, H. ( 1948). Comparative psychology of mental development. New York, NY: Science Editions.
74.
Wynn, K. ( 1992, August 27). Addition and subtraction by human infants . Nature, 358, 749-750.
75.
Wootton, B. ( 1962). A social scientist’s approach to maternal deprivation . In World Health Organization (Eds.), Deprivation of maternal care (pp. 255-265). New York, NY: Schocken Books.
76.
Zeanah, C.H., & Smyke, A.T. ( 2008). Attachment disorders in family and social context. Infant Mental Health Journal, 29, 219-233.
77.
Zero to Three. (2005). Diagnostic classification of mental health and developmental disorders (Rev. ed.). Washington, DC: Zero to Three.
