The Applications of Attachment Theory to Psychotherapy

Transforming Attachments: genetic and environmental influences on attachment in infancy and adolescence

The concept of an internal working model is central in the conceptualization of developmental continuity and inter-generational transmission of patterns of attachment. Attachment theory has tended to make two basic assumptions about the ways these internal working models work: first, they are believed to arise in early development in response to variations in the quality of care and in that sense they are initially highly plastic and environmentally-driven. Second, these working models, though presumed to be open to change, are expected to be quite stable over time and come to influence attachment-related functioning across the lifespan. In this talk, Pasco Fearon presents two lines of evidence that seem to confirm some aspects of this theory and question others. In particular, he outlines the results of behavioral-genetic studies of attachment and long-term longitudinal follow-up studies of attachment from infancy to adulthood, which suggest marked discontinuity between early and later attachments. The findings prompt us to question what precisely is measured when we measure attachment through narrative-based interviews.