Replication crisis lost in translation? On translational caution and premature applications of attachment theory

ABSTRACT

In the biomedical, behavioral and neurobiological sciences reproducibility and replicability of research results have become a major issue. The question is whether attachment research is also plagued by lack of replicability, and if so whether one can speak of a crisis? Furthermore, discussions about the applicability of attachment research findings to policy and (clinical) practice have recently been intensified. The subsequent question arises whether one could even speak of a “translational crisis”. In this paper assumptions and conditions of replicability and applicability will be outlined. Some examples of attachment findings lost or found in translation to policy and practice (e.g. on infant crying and parental insensitive responsiveness) will be used to illustrate the challenges and chances of bridging the gap between attachment science and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Attachment
• replication
• translational crisis
• policy
• ethics
• crying
• Lakatosian research program

Note

Based on an invited key note at the International Attachment Conference on “Science and Practice over the Lifespan”, Vancouver, Canada, July 18-20, 2019, and on a corona-cancelled contribution to the Cambridge symposium on “Attachment: retrospect and prospect”, organized by Robbie Duschinsky at Cambridge, Pembroke College, March 12-14, 2020. This paper was accepted for publication on September 9, 2020.

The work of MHVIJ was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, Spinoza Prize 2004. MJB-K was supported by the European Research Council (ERC AdG). MHVIJ and MJB-K were additionally supported by the Gravitation award of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO grant number 024.001.003).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).