The Strange Situation of Attachment Research: A Review of Three Books

Abstract

Attachment theory currently plays an important role in both research and practice concerned with children's healthy development, yet there is mounting criticism of its core assumptions and methods of investigation. Three recent books bring together a number of these criticisms, based on cross-cultural studies of children in diverse environments as well as an historical analysis of how attachment theory was created and sustained over time. The two cross-cultural books (Attachment Reconsidered, edited by Naomi Quinn and Jeannette Mageo, and Different Faces of Attachment, edited by Hiltrud Otto and Heidi Keller) include ethnographic observations of how infants and young children are cared for in many non-Western societies, as well as research on children's behavior in attachment-related situations. Common themes include multiple caregiving, maternal responsiveness, and autonomy versus relatedness, viewed from evolutionary, cross-cultural, and developmental perspectives. Marga Vicedo's historical study (The Nature and Nurture of Love) offers a scholarly account of the creators of attachment theory and the social-historical context of its development. Based on detailed documentation of the intellectual careers of these people, those who influenced them and those who criticized them, Vicedo builds an argument that attachment theory is not as scientifically solid as has been claimed, and that its core ideas are ultimately damaging to mothers. Taken as a whole, these books suggest seven observations on the current “strange situation” of attachment theory, which are summarized at the conclusion of the review.

KEYWORDS:

• attachment
• culture
• history

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sara Harkness

SARA HARKNESS is a Professor of Human Development, Pediatrics, and Public Health at the University of Connecticut, where she also serves as Director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Health, and Human Development. Her research focuses on cultural influences on child development and families, especially parents' cultural belief systems and practices of care. Recent publications include S. Harkness, C. J. Mavridis, J. L. Liu, and C. M. Super (2015), “Parental Ethnotheories and the Development of Family Relationships in Early and Middle Childhood,” in L. A. Jensen, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Human Development and Culture: An Interdisciplinary Perspective (pp. 271–291); and S. Harkness, P. O. Zylicz, C. M. Super, B. Welles-Nyström, M. Ríos Bermúdez, S. Bonichini et al., “Children's Activities and Their Meanings for Parents: A Mixed-Methods Study in Six Western Cultures,” Journal of Family Psychology 25, no. 6(2011):799–813.