Discusses the conflict between situational influences and stable individual differences in attachment behavior and attempts to resolve this conflict by examining the functions, outcomes, and context sensitivity of attachment behavior and the underlying behavioral control systems that organize it. (JMB)

Discusses implications of a study of middle-class infants seen in the Ainsworth strange situation at 12.5 and 19.5 months; the investigation produced results inconsistent with the corpus of previous findings. (Author/RH)

Argues that none of the conventional methods for assessing attachment meet all criteria. Describes development of a 100-item sort for assessing secure attachment in toddlers, closely tied to Bowlby's control systems model of attachment. Evaluates the Q-sort in terms of criteria for valid thoery-based assessments that have applicability beyond this…

Two studies addressed the implications of concordance versus discrepancy of attachment representations in individuals at 2 stages in their marital relationships. Engaged (n = 157) and dating (n = 101) couples participated in a multimethod 6-year longitudinal study of adult attachment. Individuals completed the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), the…

Two studies assessed the positive affective correlates of secure attachment in infancy and the relation between secure attachment in infancy and competence in the peer group at 3 1/2 years of age. (JMB)

Found that secure-secure dyads were more harmonious, less controlling, and more responsive than secure-insecure dyads. There were no differences between secure-secure and secure-insecure dyads on measures of coordinated play, cohesiveness, self-disclosure, or play tempo. (RH)

Examines empirical successes of theory of attachment as a secure base relationship, including nature of infant-caregiver and adult-adult relationships. Maintains that researchers need to continually examine the logic and coherence of attachment theory and redress errors of emphasis and analysis. Suggests that the theory be updated in light of…

Presents Attachment Q-Set (AQS), consisting of 90 individual statements descriptive of the behavior of infants and young children observed during periods of interaction with primary caregivers. Items selected are intended to provide a comprehensive characterization of the secure-base behavior of the child as observed over a period of two to six…

Presents Attachment Q-Set adapted for study of monkeys as described by Kondo-Ikemura and Waters in this issue. (HTH)

This study compared three ways of analyzing individual mother-infant attachment behaviors in order to test the hypothesis that success in the search for stable individual differences in attachment behavior is in part a function of the level at which behavior individuality is assessed. Fifty infants were videotaped in the Ainsworth and Wittig…

Highlights three longitudinal studies examining the hypothesis that attachment security during infancy influences individual differences and adult representations of attachment. Notes that attachment security was significantly stable in two studies, with discontinuity in all three studies related to negative life events and circumstances.…

Assessed attachment security in 60 white middle-class infants at 12 months and conducted Adult Attachment Interview 20 years later. Found that 72 percent of infants received same attachment classification in early adulthood. Forty-four percent of infants whose mothers reported negative life events changed attachment classifications by adulthood,…

Maintains that the preceding studies extend a long line of research demonstrating the coherence of individual development in attachment security. Notes that the studies clarify that attachment security can be stable from infancy through early adulthood and that changes in security are meaningfully related to changes in the family environment.…