attachment theory

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a psychological framework developed by John Bowlby and extended by Mary Ainsworth proposing that the quality of early emotional bonds between infants and their primary caregivers shapes the internal working models through which people approach relationships throughout life; Ainsworth's Strange Situation experiments identified secure, anxious-avoidant, anxious-ambivalent, and disorganised attachment styles; attachment theory has transformed clinical psychology, child welfare policy, and relationship research, and is among the most empirically productive frameworks in developmental science