Introduction

Abstract

Attachment theory and research were born out of John Bowlby’s wish to understand the nature of the infant–mother attachment bond. In the seminal attachment literature, adults existed solely as parental caregivers to children. Attachment behaviors were seen as an innate part of the human evolutionary survival kit, designed to assure that the young would remain in close proximity to their parents so they too could survive and reproduce their own genes, becoming parents themselves. Bowlby (1969/1982) noted, almost in passing, that attachment behaviors continue throughout life, though they are less intense than in infancy. Later, he stated unequivocally that attachment bonds “are present and active throughout the life cycle” (Bowlby, 1980, p. 39). It was, however, his contribution of the idea of internal working models (Bowlby, 1973) of attachment figures and of self – the idea that early attachment/caregiving experiences form a script for attachment/caregiving experiences throughout life – that gave the biggest impetus to the expansion of theory and research about adult attachment.