Longitudinal studies¶
Longitudinal studies demonstrate that early assessments of attachment styles are not persistent throughout childhood, let alone into adulthood. Life events beyond childhood are far more relevant indicators of social functioning.
https://t.co/IfpNTK9bs3 https://t.co/o29CwO18kD An important critique of attachment theory is its presupposition of the western-style bourgeois family form, while investigations in other cultural contexts shows a lack of universality of the basic premises and key indications of the model.
https://t.co/Nrf4PHlgmZ In other words, the precepts of attachment theory -- that the interactions between an infant and a single primary caregiver (generally the mother) construct an internal working model for the development of their future social interactions -- are flawed from the start. The categorization of "secure vs insecure" is rooted in the biases of investigators, drawing conclusions based on how infants react to simulated stressful events (the "Strange Situation protocol"). They extrapolate psychological profiles based on the vagaries of infant attention. The fact that these categorizations do not reliably predict future social functioning, nor are the hypothesized etiologies borne out across variable family models (i.e. "the mom isn't responsive enough to her baby!") indicates that the theory has very little explanatory power.