Editing Attachment theory (section)

===Formulation of the theory===
Following the publication of ''Maternal Care and Mental Health'', Bowlby sought new understanding from the fields of evolutionary biology, ethology, [[developmental psychology]], [[cognitive science]] and control systems theory. He formulated the innovative proposition that mechanisms underlying an infant's emotional tie to the caregiver(s) emerged as a result of [[evolutionary pressure]]. He set out to develop a theory of motivation and behaviour control built on science rather than Freud's psychic energy model. Bowlby argued that with attachment theory he had made good the "deficiencies of the data and the lack of theory to link alleged cause and effect" of ''Maternal Care and Mental Health''.<ref name="Bowlby 86">{{cite web |url=http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics1986/A1986F063100001.pdf |title=Citation Classic, ''Maternal Care and Mental Health'' | vauthors = Bowlby J |date=December 1986 |publisher=Current Contents |access-date=July 13, 2008 |volume=50 |issue=18}}</ref>

====Ethology====
Bowlby's attention was drawn to [[ethology]] in the early 1950s when he read [[Konrad Lorenz]]'s work.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bretherton |first=Inge |year=1992 |title=The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth |url=http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/attachment/online/inge_origins.pdf |journal=Developmental Psychology |volume=28 |issue=5 |pages=759–775 |doi=10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759}}</ref>  Other important influences were ethologists [[Nikolaas Tinbergen]] and [[Robert Hinde]].{{sfn|Holmes|1993|p=62}} Bowlby subsequently collaborated with Hinde.<ref name="3 vans">{{cite journal | vauthors = Bowlby J | title = John Bowlby and ethology: an annotated interview with Robert Hinde | journal = Attachment & Human Development | volume = 9 | issue = 4 | pages = 321–35 | date = December 2007 | pmid = 17852051 | doi = 10.1080/14616730601149809 | s2cid = 146211690 }}</ref> In 1953 Bowlby stated "the time is ripe for a unification of psychoanalytic concepts with those of ethology, and to pursue the rich vein of research which this union suggests."<ref name="bowlby 53">{{cite journal | vauthors = Bowlby J |year=1953 |title=Critical Phases in the Development of Social Responses in Man and Other Animals |journal=New Biology |volume=14 |pages=25–32}}</ref> Konrad Lorenz had examined the phenomenon of "[[Imprinting (psychology)|imprinting]]", a behaviour characteristic of some birds and mammals which involves rapid learning of recognition by the young, of a [[wikt:conspecific|conspecific]] or comparable object. After recognition comes a tendency to follow.
[[File:Moose-Imprinting-sr81-15.jpg|thumb|right |alt=A young woman in rubber boots is walking with arms crossed through a muddy clearing in a birch wood, followed by a young moose calf running through a puddle|This bottle-fed young moose has developed an attachment to its caregiver (at [[Kostroma Moose Farm]]).]]

Certain types of learning are possible, respective to each applicable type of learning, only within a limited age range known as a [[critical period]]. Bowlby's concepts included the idea that attachment involved learning from experience during a limited age period, influenced by adult behaviour. He did not apply the imprinting concept in its entirety to human attachment. However, he considered that attachment behaviour was best explained as instinctive, combined with the effect of experience, stressing the readiness the child brings to social interactions.{{sfn|Bowlby|1982|pp=220-23}} Over time it became apparent there were more differences than similarities between attachment theory and imprinting so the analogy was dropped.<ref name="Rutter 95" />

Ethologists expressed concern about the adequacy of some research on which attachment theory was based, particularly the generalization to humans from animal studies.<ref name="crnic">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1982 |title=Animal models of human behavior: Their application to the study of attachment |encyclopedia=The development of attachment and affiliative systems |publisher=Plenum |location=New York |pages=31–42 |isbn=978-0-306-40849-6 |vauthors=Crnic LS, Reite ML, Shucard DW |veditors=Emde RN, Harmon RJ}}</ref><ref name="Brann">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1972 |title=Human non-verbal behaviour: A means of communication |encyclopedia=Ethological studies of child behaviour |publisher=Cambridge University Press | veditors = Blurton-Jones N |pages=37–64 |isbn=978-0-521-09855-7 |quote=...&nbsp;it must be emphasized that data derived from species other than man can be used only to ''suggest'' hypotheses that may be worth applying to man for testing by critical observations. In the absence of critical evidence derived from observing man such hypotheses are no more than intelligent guesses. There is a danger in human ethology&nbsp;... that interesting, but untested, hypotheses may gain the status of accepted theory. [One author] has coined the term 'ethologism' as a label for the present vogue [in 1970]&nbsp;... for uncritically invoking the findings from ethological studies of other species as necessary and sufficient explanations&nbsp;... Theory based on superficial analogies between species has always impeded biological understanding&nbsp;... We conclude that a valid ethology of man must be based primarily on data derived from man, and not on data obtained from fish, birds, or other primates |vauthors=Brannigan CR, Humphries DA}}</ref> Schur, discussing Bowlby's use of ethological concepts (pre-1960) commented that concepts used in attachment theory had not kept up with changes in ethology itself.<ref name="schur">{{cite journal | vauthors = Schur M | title = Discussion of Dr. John Bowlby's paper | journal = The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child | volume = 15 | pages = 63–84 | year = 1960 | pmid = 13749000 | doi = 10.1080/00797308.1960.11822568 | quote = Bowlby&nbsp;... assumes the fully innate, unlearned character of most complex behavior patterns&nbsp;... (whereas recent animal studies showed)&nbsp;... both the early impact of learning and the great intricacy of the interaction between mother and litter"&nbsp;... (and applies)&nbsp;... "to human behavior an instinct concept which neglects the factor of development and learning far beyond even the position taken by Lorenz [the ethological theorist] in his early propositions }}</ref> Ethologists and others writing in the 1960s and 1970s questioned and expanded the types of behaviour used as indications of attachment.<ref name="SchafEm">{{cite journal |vauthors=Schaffer HR, Emerson PE |year=1964 |title=The development of social attachment in infancy |journal=Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Serial No. 94 |volume=29 |issue=3}}</ref> Observational studies of young children in natural settings provided other behaviours that might indicate attachment; for example, staying within a predictable distance of the mother without effort on her part and picking up small objects, bringing them to the mother but not to others.<ref name="anderson">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1972 |title=Attachment behaviour out of doors |encyclopedia=Ethological studies of child behaviour |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge | veditors = Blurton-Jones N |pages=199–216 |isbn=978-0-521-09855-7 | vauthors = Anderson JW }}</ref> Although ethologists tended to be in agreement with Bowlby, they pressed for more data, objecting to psychologists writing as if there were an "entity which is 'attachment', existing over and above the observable measures."<ref name="jones">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1972 |title=Behaviour of children and their mothers at separation and greeting |encyclopedia=Ethological studies of child behaviour |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge | veditors = Blurton-Jones N |pages=217–48 |isbn=978-0-521-09855-7 |vauthors=Jones NB, Leach GM}}</ref> [[Robert Hinde]] considered "attachment behaviour system" to be an appropriate term which did not offer the same problems "because it refers to postulated control systems that determine the relations between different kinds of behaviour."<ref name="Hinde 82">{{cite book |title=Ethology | vauthors = Hinde R |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1982 |isbn=978-0-00-686034-1 |location=Oxford |page=229}}</ref>

====Psychoanalysis====
[[Image:Evacuation of Schoolchildren in Japan.JPG|thumb|left|alt=Several lines of school children march diagonally from top right to bottom left. Each carries a bag or bundle and each raises their right arm in the air in a salute. Adults stand in a line across the bottom right hand corner making the same gesture.|Evacuation of smiling Japanese school children in [[World War II]] from the book ''Road to Catastrophe'']]

[[Psychoanalysis|Psychoanalytic]] concepts influenced Bowlby's view of attachment, in particular, the observations by [[Anna Freud]] and [[Dorothy Burlingham]] of young children separated from familiar caregivers during World War II.<ref name="anna">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/Freud_Burlingham_1943_War_and_Children_k |title=War and children |vauthors=Freud A, Burlingham DT |publisher=Medical War Books |year=1943 |isbn=978-0-8371-6942-2}}</ref> However, Bowlby rejected psychoanalytical explanations for early infant bonds including "[[Drive theory (psychoanalysis)|drive theory]]" in which the motivation for attachment derives from gratification of hunger and libidinal drives. He called this the "[[Cupboard Love|cupboard-love]]" theory of relationships. In his view it failed to see attachment as a psychological bond in its own right rather than an instinct derived from feeding or sexuality.{{sfn|Holmes|1993|pp=62–63}} Based on ideas of primary attachment and [[Neo-Darwinism]], Bowlby identified what he saw as fundamental flaws in psychoanalysis: the overemphasis of internal dangers rather than external threat, and the view of the development of personality via linear ''phases'' with [[regression (psychology)|''regression'']] to fixed points accounting for psychological distress. Bowlby instead posited that several lines of development were possible, the outcome of which depended on the interaction between the organism and the environment. In attachment this would mean that although a developing child has a propensity to form attachments, the nature of those attachments depends on the environment to which the child is exposed.{{sfn|Holmes|1993|pp=64–65}}

From early in the development of attachment theory there was criticism of the theory's lack of congruence with various branches of psychoanalysis. Bowlby's decisions left him open to criticism from well-established thinkers working on similar problems.<ref name="Steele">{{cite journal |vauthors=Steele H, Steele M |year=1998 |title=Attachment and psychoanalysis: Time for a reunion |journal=Social Development |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=92–119 |doi=10.1111/1467-9507.00053}}</ref><ref name="Cass 98">{{cite journal | vauthors = Cassidy J |year=1998 |title=Commentary on Steele and Steele: Attachment and object relations theories and the concept of independent behavioral systems |journal=Social Development |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=120–26 |doi=10.1111/1467-9507.00054}}</ref><ref name="Steele 98">{{cite journal |vauthors=Steele H, Steele M |year=1998 |title=Debate: Attachment and psychoanalysis: Time for a reunion |journal=Social Development |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=92–119 |doi=10.1111/1467-9507.00053}}</ref>

====Internal working model====
The philosopher [[Kenneth Craik]] had noted the ability of thought to predict events. He stressed the survival value of natural selection for this ability. A key component of attachment theory is the attachment behaviour system where certain behaviours have a predictable outcome (i.e. proximity) and serve as self-preservation method (i.e. protection).<ref name="Cassidy, Jude 2013">{{cite journal | vauthors = Cassidy J, Jones JD, Shaver PR | title = Contributions of attachment theory and research: a framework for future research, translation, and policy | journal = Development and Psychopathology | volume = 25 | issue = 4 Pt 2 | pages = 1415–34 | date = November 2013 | pmid = 24342848 | pmc = 4085672 | doi = 10.1017/s0954579413000692 }}</ref> All taking place outside of an individual's awareness,  This [[Internal Working Model of Attachment|internal working model]] allows a person to try out alternatives mentally, using knowledge of the past while responding to the present and future. Bowlby applied Craik's ideas to attachment, when other psychologists were applying these concepts to adult perception and cognition.<ref name="JLaird">{{cite book |title=Mental models |url=https://archive.org/details/mentalmodelstowa0000john | vauthors = Johnson-Laird PN |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-674-56881-5 |location=Cambridge, MA |pages=[https://archive.org/details/mentalmodelstowa0000john/page/179 179]–87}}</ref>

Infants absorb all sorts of complex social-emotional information from the social interactions that they observe. They notice the helpful and hindering behaviours of one person to another. From these observations they develop expectations of how two characters should behave, known as a "secure base script." These scripts provide as a template of how attachment related events should unfold and they are the building blocks of ones internal working models.<ref name="Cassidy, Jude 2013"/>  An infant's internal working model is developed in response to the infant's experience based internal working models of self, and environment, with emphasis on the caregiving environment and the outcomes of his or her proximity-seeking behaviours. Theoretically, secure child and adult script, would allow for an attachment situation where one person successfully utilizes another as a secure base from which to explore and as a safe haven in times of distress. In contrast, insecure individuals would create attachment situations with more complications.<ref name="Cassidy, Jude 2013"/> For example, If the caregiver is accepting of these proximity-seeking behaviours and grants access, the infant develops a secure organization; if the caregiver consistently denies the infant access, an avoidant organization develops; and if the caregiver inconsistently grants access, an ambivalent organization develops.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Main M, Kaplan N, Cassidy J |year=1985 |title=Security in Infancy, Childhood, and Adulthood: A Move to the Level of Representation |journal=Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development |volume=50 |issue=1/2 |pages=66–104 |doi=10.2307/3333827 |jstor=3333827}}</ref> In retrospect, internal working models are constant with and reflect the primary relationship with our caregivers. Childhood attachment directly influences our adult relationships.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ravitz |first1=Paula |last2=Maunder |first2=Robert |last3=Hunter |first3=Jon |last4=Sthankiya |first4=Bhadra |last5=Lancee |first5=William |date=2010-10-01 |title=Adult attachment measures: A 25-year review |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022399909003304 |journal=Journal of Psychosomatic Research |language=en |volume=69 |issue=4 |pages=419–432 |doi=10.1016/j.jpsychores.2009.08.006 |pmid=20846544 |issn=0022-3999|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

A parent's internal working model that is operative in the attachment relationship with her infant can be accessed by examining the parent's mental representations.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Lieberman AF |title=Attachment and psychopathology | url = https://archive.org/details/attachmentpsycho0000unse |pages=[https://archive.org/details/attachmentpsycho0000unse/page/277 277]–292 |year=1997 | veditors = Atkinson L, Zucker KJ |chapter=Toddlers' internalization of maternal attributions as a factor in quality of attachment |place=New York, NY, US |publisher=Guilford Press |isbn=978-1-57230-191-7 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Zeanah CH, Keener MA, Anders TF | title = Adolescent mothers' prenatal fantasies and working models of their infants | journal = Psychiatry | volume = 49 | issue = 3 | pages = 193–203 | date = August 1986 | pmid = 3749375 | doi = 10.1080/00332747.1986.11024321 }}</ref> Recent research has demonstrated that the quality of maternal attributions as markers of maternal mental representations can be associated with particular forms of maternal psychopathology and can be altered in a relative short time-period by targeted psychotherapeutic intervention.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Schechter DS, Moser DA, Reliford A, McCaw JE, Coates SW, Turner JB, Serpa SR, Willheim E | title = Negative and distorted attributions towards child, self, and primary attachment figure among posttraumatically stressed mothers: what changes with Clinician Assisted Videofeedback Exposure Sessions (CAVES) | journal = Child Psychiatry and Human Development | volume = 46 | issue = 1 | pages = 10–20 | date = February 2015 | pmid = 24553738 | pmc = 4139484 | doi = 10.1007/s10578-014-0447-5 }}</ref>

====Cybernetics====
The theory of control systems ([[cybernetics]]), developing during the 1930s and 1940s, influenced Bowlby's thinking.<ref name="Robbins">{{cite journal | vauthors = Robbins P, Zacks JM | s2cid = 17846200 | title = Attachment theory and cognitive science: commentary on Fonagy and Target | journal = Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association | volume = 55 | issue = 2 | pages = 457–67; discussion 493–501 | year = 2007 | pmid = 17601100 | doi = 10.1177/00030651070550021401 }}</ref> The young child's need for proximity to the attachment figure was seen as balancing [[Homeostasis|homeostatically]] with the need for exploration. (Bowlby compared this process to physiological homeostasis whereby, for example, blood pressure is kept within limits). The actual distance maintained by the child would vary as the balance of needs changed. For example, the approach of a stranger, or an injury, would cause the child exploring at a distance to seek proximity. The child's goal is not an object (the caregiver) but a state; maintenance of the desired distance from the caregiver depending on circumstances.<ref name="Cassidy"/>

====Cognitive development====
Bowlby's reliance on [[Jean Piaget|Piaget]]'s theory of cognitive development gave rise to questions about object permanence (the ability to remember an object that is temporarily absent) in early attachment behaviours. An infant's ability to discriminate strangers and react to the mother's absence seemed to occur months earlier than Piaget suggested would be cognitively possible.<ref name="fraiberg">{{cite journal | vauthors = Fraiberg S | title = Libidinal object constancy and mental representation | journal = The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child | volume = 24 | pages = 9–47 | year = 1969 | pmid = 5353377 | doi = 10.1080/00797308.1969.11822685 }}</ref> More recently, it has been noted that the understanding of mental representation has advanced so much since Bowlby's day that present views can be more specific than those of Bowlby's time.<ref name="waters2">{{cite journal | vauthors = Waters HS, Waters E | title = The attachment working models concept: among other things, we build script-like representations of secure base experiences | journal = Attachment & Human Development | volume = 8 | issue = 3 | pages = 185–97 | date = September 2006 | pmid = 16938702 | doi = 10.1080/14616730600856016 | s2cid = 11443750 }}</ref>

====Behaviourism====
In 1969, Gerwitz discussed how mother and child could provide each other with positive reinforcement experiences through their mutual attention, thereby learning to stay close together. This explanation would make it unnecessary to posit innate human characteristics fostering attachment.<ref name= "Gewirtz">{{cite journal| vauthors = Gewirtz N|year=1969|title=Potency of a social reinforcer as a function of satiation and recovery| url = https://archive.org/details/sim_developmental-psychology_1969-01_1_1/page/2|journal= Developmental Psychology|volume= 1|pages= 2–13|doi= 10.1037/h0026802}}</ref> Learning theory, ([[behaviourism]]), saw attachment as a remnant of dependency with the quality of attachment being merely a response to the caregiver's cues. The main predictors of attachment quality are parents being sensitive and responsive to their children. When parents interact with their infants in a warm and nurturing manner, their attachment quality increases. The way that parents interact with their children at four months is related to attachment behaviour at 12 months, thus it is important for parents' sensitivity and responsiveness to remain stable. The lack of sensitivity and responsiveness increases the likelihood for attachment disorders to development in children.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Volling |first=B |date=2002 |title=Parents' emotional availability and infant emotional competence: Predictors of parent-infant attachment and emerging self-regulation. |url=https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2002-06713-010 |journal=Journal of Family Psychology |volume=164 |issue=4 |pages=447–465 |doi=10.1037/0893-3200.16.4.447 |pmid=12561291 |via=APA PsycArticles|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Behaviourists saw behaviours like crying as a random activity meaning nothing until reinforced by a caregiver's response. To behaviourists, frequent responses would result in more crying. To attachment theorists, crying is an inborn attachment behaviour to which the caregiver must respond if the infant is to develop emotional security. Conscientious responses produce security which enhances autonomy and results in less crying. Ainsworth's research in Baltimore supported the attachment theorists' view.<ref>[[#Karen98|Karen]] pp. 166–73.</ref>

In the last decade, [[Behavior analysis of child development|behaviour analysts]] have constructed models of attachment based on the importance of [[Contingency (philosophy)|contingent]] relationships. These behaviour analytic models have received some support from research<ref name="kassow">{{cite journal| vauthors = Kassow DZ, Dunst CJ|year=2004|title= Relationship between parental contingent-responsiveness and attachment outcomes|journal= Bridges|volume= 2|issue= 4|pages= 1–17}}</ref> and meta-analytic reviews.<ref name="dunst">{{cite journal| vauthors = Dunst CJ, Kassow DZ |year=2008|title= Caregiver Sensitivity, Contingent Social Responsiveness, and Secure Infant Attachment|journal=Journal of Early and Intensive Behavior Intervention|volume= 5|issue=1|pages= 40–56|doi=10.1037/h0100409|issn=1554-4893}}</ref>

====Developments since 1970s====
In the 1970s, problems with viewing attachment as a trait (stable characteristic of an individual) rather than as a type of behaviour with organizing functions and outcomes, led some authors to the conclusion that attachment behaviours were best understood in terms of their functions in the child's life.<ref name="Sroufe, Waters, 1977">{{cite journal |vauthors=Sroufe LA, Waters E |year=1977 |title=Attachment as an organizational construct |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_child-development_1977-12_48_4/page/1184 |journal=Child Development |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=1184–99 |doi=10.2307/1128475 |jstor=1128475}}</ref> This way of thinking saw the secure base concept as central to attachment theory's logic, coherence, and status as an organizational construct.<ref name="WatCum">{{cite journal | vauthors = Waters E, Cummings EM | title = A secure base from which to explore close relationships | journal = Child Development | volume = 71 | issue = 1 | pages = 164–72 | year = 2000 | pmid = 10836570 | doi = 10.1111/1467-8624.00130 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.505.6759 | s2cid = 15158143 }}</ref> Following this argument, the assumption that attachment is expressed identically in all humans cross-culturally was examined.<ref name="Tronick">{{cite journal |vauthors=Tronick EZ, Morelli GA, Ivey PK |s2cid=1756552 |year=1992 |title=The Efe forager infant and toddler's pattern of social relationships: Multiple and simultaneous |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_developmental-psychology_1992-07_28_4/page/568 |journal=Developmental Psychology |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=568–77 |doi=10.1037/0012-1649.28.4.568}}</ref> The research showed that though there were cultural differences, the three basic patterns, secure, avoidant and ambivalent, can be found in every culture in which studies have been undertaken, even where communal sleeping arrangements are the norm. The selection of the secure pattern is found in the majority of children across cultures studied. This follows logically from the fact that attachment theory provides for infants to adapt to changes in the environment, selecting optimal behavioural strategies.<ref name="ijzsag">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |title=Cross-Cultural Patterns of Attachment; Universal and Contextual Dimensions |encyclopedia=Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research and Clinical Applications |publisher=Guilford Press |location=New York and London |pages=880–905 |isbn=978-1-59385-874-2 |vauthors=van IJzendoorn MH, Sagi-Schwartz A |veditors=Cassidy J, Shaver PR}}</ref> How attachment is expressed shows cultural variations which need to be ascertained before studies can be undertaken; for example [[Kisii people|Gusii]] infants are greeted with a handshake rather than a hug. Securely attached Gusii infants anticipate and seek this contact. There are also differences in the distribution of insecure patterns based on cultural differences in child-rearing practices.<ref name=ijzsag/> The scholar [[Michael Rutter]] in 1974 studied the importance of distinguishing between the consequences of attachment deprivation upon intellectual retardation in children and lack of development in the emotional growth in children.<ref>{{cite book | first = Michael | last = Rutter | date = 1974 | title = The Qualities of Mothering | url = https://archive.org/details/qualitiesofmothe0000unse | location = New York, N.Y. | isbn = 978-0-87668-189-3 }}</ref> Rutter's conclusion was that a careful delineation of maternal attributes needed to be identified and differentiated for progress in the field to continue.

The biggest challenge to the notion of the universality of attachment theory came from studies conducted in Japan where the concept of ''[[amae]]'' plays a prominent role in describing family relationships. Arguments revolved around the appropriateness of the use of the Strange Situation procedure where ''amae'' is practised. Ultimately research tended to confirm the universality hypothesis of attachment theory.<ref name=ijzsag/> Most recently a 2007 study conducted in [[Sapporo]] in Japan found attachment distributions consistent with global norms using the six-year Main and Cassidy scoring system for attachment classification.<ref name="Behrens">{{cite journal | vauthors = Behrens KY, Hesse E, Main M | title = Mothers' attachment status as determined by the Adult Attachment Interview predicts their 6-year-olds' reunion responses: a study conducted in Japan | url = https://archive.org/details/sim_developmental-psychology_2007-11_43_6/page/1553 | journal = Developmental Psychology | volume = 43 | issue = 6 | pages = 1553–1567 | date = November 2007 | pmid = 18020832 | doi = 10.1037/0012-1649.43.6.1553 }}</ref><ref name="MainCass">{{cite journal |vauthors=Main M, Cassidy J |year=1988 |title=Categories of response to reunion with the parent at age 6: Predictable from infant attachment classifications and stable over a 1-month period |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_developmental-psychology_1988-05_24_3/page/415 |journal=Developmental Psychology |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=415–26 |doi=10.1037/0012-1649.24.3.415}}</ref>

Critics in the 1990s such as [[Judith Rich Harris|J. R. Harris]], [[Steven Pinker]] and [[Jerome Kagan]] were generally concerned with the concept of infant determinism ([[nature versus nurture]]), stressing the effects of later experience on personality.<ref name="harris">{{cite book |title=The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do |title-link=The Nurture Assumption | vauthors = Harris JR |publisher=Free Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-684-84409-1 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/nurtureassumptio00harr_0/page/1 1–4] |author-link=Judith Rich Harris}}</ref><ref name="pinker">{{cite book |title=The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature |title-link=The Blank Slate | vauthors = Pinker S |publisher=Allen Lane |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-14-027605-3 |location=London |pages=372–99 |author-link=Steven Pinker}}</ref><ref name="kagan">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/threeseductiveid00kaga_0/page/83 |title=Three Seductive Ideas | vauthors = Kagan J |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-674-89033-6 |location=Cambridge, MA |pages=[https://archive.org/details/threeseductiveid00kaga_0/page/83 83–150]}}</ref> Building on the work on [[temperament]] of [[Stella Chess]], Kagan rejected almost every assumption on which attachment theory's cause was based. Kagan argued that heredity was far more important than the transient developmental effects of early environment. For example, a child with an inherently difficult temperament would not elicit sensitive behavioural responses from a caregiver. The debate spawned considerable research and analysis of data from the growing number of longitudinal studies. Subsequent research has not borne out Kagan's argument, possibly suggesting that it is the caregiver's behaviours that form the child's attachment style, although how this style is expressed may differ with the child's temperament.<ref name=vbv/> Harris and Pinker put forward the notion that the influence of parents had been much exaggerated, arguing that socialization took place primarily in peer groups. H. Rudolph Schaffer concluded that parents and peers had different functions, fulfilling distinctive roles in children's development.<ref name="schaffer">{{cite book |title=Introducing Child Psychology | vauthors =Schaffer HR |publisher=Blackwell |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-631-21627-8 |location=Oxford |page=113}}</ref>

Psychoanalyst/psychologists [[Peter Fonagy]] and [[Mary Target]] have attempted to bring attachment theory and psychoanalysis into a closer relationship through cognitive science as [[mentalization]]. Mentalization, or theory of mind, is the capacity of human beings to guess with some accuracy what thoughts, emotions and intentions lie behind behaviours as subtle as facial expression.<ref name="Fonagy et al.">{{cite book |title=Affect regulation, mentalization, and the development of the self |vauthors=Fonagy P, Gergely G, Jurist EL, Target M |publisher=Other Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-59051-161-9 |location=New York}}</ref> It has been speculated that this connection between theory of mind and the internal working model may open new areas of study, leading to alterations in attachment theory.{{sfn|Mercer|2006|pp=165–68}} Since the late 1980s, there has been a developing rapprochement between attachment theory and psychoanalysis, based on common ground as elaborated by attachment theorists and researchers, and a change in what psychoanalysts consider to be central to psychoanalysis. [[Object relations]] models which emphasise the autonomous need for a relationship have become dominant and are linked to a growing recognition in psychoanalysis of the importance of infant development in the context of relationships and internalized representations. Psychoanalysis has recognized the formative nature of a child's early environment including the issue of childhood trauma. A psychoanalytically based exploration of the attachment system and an accompanying clinical approach has emerged together with a recognition of the need for measurement of outcomes of interventions.<ref name="fogeta">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |encyclopedia=Handbook of Attachment: Theory, research and Clinical Applications |publisher=Guilford Press |location=New York and London |pages=783–810 |isbn=978-1-59385-874-2 |contribution=Psychoanalytic Constructs and Attachment Theory and Research |veditors=Cassidy J, Shaver PR |vauthors=Fonagy P, Gergely G, Target M|title=Handbook of Attachment, Second Edition: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications }}</ref>

One focus of attachment research has been the difficulties of children whose attachment history was poor, including those with extensive non-parental child care experiences. Concern with the effects of child care was intense during the so-called "day care wars" of the late-20th century, during which some authors stressed the deleterious effects of day care.<ref name="belsky">{{cite journal | vauthors = Belsky J, Rovine MJ | title = Nonmaternal care in the first year of life and the security of infant-parent attachment | url = https://archive.org/details/sim_child-development_1988-02_59_1/page/157 | journal = Child Development | volume = 59 | issue = 1 | pages = 157–67 | date = February 1988 | pmid = 3342709 | doi = 10.2307/1130397 | jstor = 1130397 }}</ref> As a result of this controversy, training of child care professionals has come to stress attachment issues, including the need for relationship-building by the assignment of a child to a specific care-giver. Although only high-quality child care settings are likely to provide this, more infants in child care receive attachment-friendly care than in the past.{{sfn|Mercer|2006|pp=160–63}} A [[natural experiment]] permitted extensive study of attachment issues as researchers followed thousands of Romanian orphans adopted into Western families after the end of the [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]] regime. The English and Romanian Adoptees Study Team, led by [[Michael Rutter]], followed some of the children into their teens, attempting to unravel the effects of poor attachment, adoption, new relationships, physical problems and medical issues associated with their early lives. Studies of these adoptees, whose initial conditions were shocking, yielded reason for optimism as many of the children developed quite well. Researchers noted that separation from familiar people is only one of many factors that help to determine the quality of development.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Rutter M | s2cid = 10334844 | title = Nature, nurture, and development: from evangelism through science toward policy and practice | journal = Child Development | volume = 73 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–21 | date = January–February 2002 | pmid = 14717240 | doi = 10.1111/1467-8624.00388 }}</ref> Although higher rates of atypical insecure attachment patterns were found compared to native-born or early-adopted samples, 70% of later-adopted children exhibited no marked or severe attachment disorder behaviours.<ref name=PPP/>

Authors considering attachment in non-Western cultures have noted the connection of attachment theory with Western family and child care patterns characteristic of Bowlby's time.<ref name="MC">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1985 |title=Infant temperament, mother's mode of interaction, and attachment in Japan: An interim report |encyclopedia=Growing Points of Attachment Theory and Research: Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development |volume=50 1–2, Serial No. 209 |pages=276–97 |isbn=978-0-226-07411-5 |vauthors=Miyake K, Chen SJ |veditors=Bretherton I, Waters E}}</ref> As children's experience of care changes, so may attachment-related experiences. For example, changes in attitudes toward female sexuality have greatly increased the numbers of children living with their never-married mothers or being cared for outside the home while the mothers work. This social change has made it more difficult for childless people to adopt infants in their own countries. There has been an increase in the number of older-child adoptions and adoptions from third-world sources in first-world countries. Adoptions and births to same-sex couples have increased in number and gained legal protection, compared to their status in Bowlby's time.{{sfn|Mercer|2006|pp=152–56}} Regardless of whether parents are genetically related, adoptive parents attachment roles they will still influence and affect their child's attachment behaviours throughout their lifetime.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Raby |first1=Kenneth Lee |last2=Dozier |first2=Mary |date=February 2019 |title=Attachment across the lifespan: insights from adoptive families |journal=Current Opinion in Psychology |language=en |volume=25 |pages=81–85 |doi=10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.03.011 |pmc=6158124 |pmid=29621692}}</ref> Issues have been raised to the effect that the [[wikt:dyadic|dyadic]] model characteristic of attachment theory cannot address the complexity of real-life social experiences, as infants often have multiple relationships within the family and in child care settings.<ref name="McHale">{{cite journal | vauthors = McHale JP | title = When infants grow up in multiperson relationship systems | journal = Infant Mental Health Journal | volume = 28 | issue = 4 | pages = 370–392 | date = July 2007 | pmid = 21512615 | pmc = 3079566 | doi = 10.1002/imhj.20142 }}</ref> It is suggested these multiple relationships influence one another reciprocally, at least within a family.<ref name="Zhang">{{cite journal | vauthors = Zhang X, Chen H | title = Reciprocal influences between parents' perceptions of mother-child and father-child relationships: a short-term longitudinal study in Chinese preschoolers | journal = The Journal of Genetic Psychology | volume = 171 | issue = 1 | pages = 22–34 | year = 2010 | pmid = 20333893 | doi = 10.1080/00221320903300387 | s2cid = 35227740 }}</ref>

Principles of attachment theory have been used to explain adult social behaviours, including mating, social dominance and hierarchical power structures, in-group identification,<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Milanov M, Rubin M, Paolini S | title = Adult attachment styles as predictors of different types of ingroup identification. | journal = Bulgarian Journal of Psychology | date = 2013 | volume = 1 | issue = 4 | pages = 175–186 | url = https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BycrcvpKCBNWZTRseVpja2Rjejg/edit?usp=sharing&pli=1 }}</ref> group coalitions, membership in cults and totalitarian systems<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stein |first1=Alexandra |title=Terror, love and brainwashing : attachment in cults and totalitarian systems |isbn=978-1-138-67797-5|year=2017 |publisher=Routledge }}</ref> and negotiation of reciprocity and justice.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Bugental DB | s2cid = 8499316 | title = Acquisition of the algorithms of social life: a domain-based approach | journal = Psychological Bulletin | volume = 126 | issue = 2 | pages = 187–219 | date = March 2000 | pmid = 10748640 | doi = 10.1037/0033-2909.126.2.187 }}</ref> Those explanations have been used to design parental care training, and have been particularly successful in the design of child abuse prevention programmes.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Bugental DB, Ellerson PC, Lin EK, Rainey B, Kokotovic A, O'Hara N | s2cid = 32696082 | title = A cognitive approach to child abuse prevention | journal = Journal of Family Psychology | volume = 16 | issue = 3 | pages = 243–58 | date = September 2002 | pmid = 12238408 | doi = 10.1037/0893-3200.16.3.243 }}</ref>

While a wide variety of studies have upheld the basic tenets of attachment theory, research has been inconclusive as to whether self-reported early attachment and later depression are demonstrably related.<ref name="Ma_attachment">{{cite journal | vauthors = Ma K |title=Attachment theory in adult psychiatry. Part 1: Conceptualizations, measurement and clinical research findings |journal=Advances in Psychiatric Treatment|volume=12 |pages=440–449 |year=2006|issue=6 |url=http://apt.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/12/6/440 |access-date=2010-04-21| doi=10.1192/apt.12.6.440 |doi-access=free |url-access=subscription }}</ref>