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Evolving Attachment Theory: Beyond Bowlby and Back to Darwin
Author(s) -
Del Giudice Marco,
Belsky Jay
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
child development perspectives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1750-8606
pISSN - 1750-8592
DOI - 10.1111/j.1750-8606.2010.00128.x
Subject(s) - attachment theory , evolutionary psychology , psychology , darwin (adl) , criticism , field (mathematics) , face (sociological concept) , epistemology , social psychology , developmental psychology , cognitive science , cognitive psychology , psychoanalysis , sociology , social science , philosophy , art , literature , mathematics , pure mathematics , systems engineering , engineering
— In our reply to M. H. van IJzendoorn and M. J. Bakermans‐Kranenburg (this issue) and R. A. Thompson (this issue), we highlight 2 challenges that attachment researchers face today: (a) closing the gap between the developmental and social psychological traditions and (b) connecting attachment theory to the broader field of evolutionary psychology. We contend that an evolutionary life history approach can contribute to both goals and argue that attachment researchers should consider moving beyond some of Bowlby’s original formulations in order to permit further advancement of the field. Finally, we review van IJzendoorn and Bakermans‐Kranenburg’s criticism of the hypothesis that sex differences in attachment arise in middle childhood; we conclude that the claim that the hypothesis has been falsified is premature and that more research is necessary, thereby making our evolutionary‐inspired view potentially useful for the time being.