Attachment Theory, Foundations and Frameworks Series

Attachment theory explains why a baby reaches for one person over every other, and why that early bond still shapes how you love, trust, and fight as an adult. This book gives you the real science behind the ideas, laid out in plain language. Ten chapters follow the theory in the order it was built, starting with Bowlby’s first observations of children separated from their parents and ending with the questions researchers are still testing today. You get the landmark studies, the people who ran them, and what the data showed, including long-term work in Minnesota that followed the same children from before birth into their thirties. Each chapter closes with a discussion question, so you can better engage with the material before moving on. Topics include: - Harlow’s rhesus monkey experiments and the 1951 WHO report on maternal deprivation - Safe haven and secure base functions - Ainsworth’s Strange Situation and the four infant patterns it revealed: secure, avoidant, resistant, and disorganized, along with how researchers code each one - Maternal sensitivity, mind-mindedness, and frightening caregiver behavior - Internal working models and the roots of self-worth - Hyperactivating and deactivating strategies, with findings on cortisol, vagal tone, and the HPA axis - How attachment shifts in adolescence as friends and partners take on roles parents once held, and where fathers and siblings fit - Hazan and Shaver on romantic love, partner conflict, sex, and breakups - The Adult Attachment Interview compared with self-report scales - Romanian orphanage studies, grief and mourning, earned security, and programs such as Circle of Security and Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up The later chapters take on questions that popular versions tend to skip. You will see how attachment patterns vary by culture, why a parent’s own history only partly predicts a child’s security, and how adults raised in hard circumstances can still become secure. They also cover what happens to children raised in institutions with no steady caregiver at all. Extra material at the back helps the ideas stick: - A historical timeline of major studies - Worked example answers to every chapter question - A glossary with precise definitions of the technical terms - Works cited and recommended readings This book suits: - Psychology students - Counselors - Therapists - Social workers - Teachers - Parents It also fits anyone who has taken an online attachment style quiz and wants to know what the research actually says. You will finish able to read a fussing infant, a moody teenager, or a partner who goes silent mid-argument with a clearer sense of what is happening. You’ll also be able to tell careful research apart from the confident claims that circulate online. You will also have a solid idea of where your own habits in close relationships began, and whether they can change.