Measuring attachment across the lifespan

Abstract

Developmental psychologists have devised a number of methods to assess the security of attachment depending on the age of the population being studied. Mary Ainsworth’s great contribution to attachment theory was to develop a procedure that attempted to measure attachment security in infants. Bowlby’s theoretical genius was therefore nicely complemented by Ainsworth’s empirical creativity. Her development of a practical measure of infant attachment behaviour allowed researchers to examine parent-child relationships in a rigorous, systematic and standardised way.