Attachment Through the Life

Course
R. Chris Fraley

By

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The purpose of this module is to provide a brief review of attachment

theory—a theory designed to explain the significance of the close,
emotional bonds that children develop with their caregivers and the
implications of those bonds for understanding personality
development. The module discusses the origins of the theory,
research on individual differences in attachment security in infancy
and childhood, and the role of attachment in adult relationships.

Learning Objectives
Explain the way the attachment system works and its evolutionary
significance.
Identify three commonly studied attachment patterns and what is
known about the development of those patterns.
Describe what is known about the consequences of secure
versus insecure attachment in adult relationships.

Introduction
Some of the most rewarding experiences in people’s lives involve the

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 development and maintenance of close relationships. For example,
some of the greatest sources of joy involve falling in love, starting a
family, being reunited with distant loved ones, and sharing
experiences with close others. And, not surprisingly, some of the most
painful experiences in people’s lives involve the disruption of
important social bonds, such as separation from a spouse, losing a
parent, or being abandoned by a loved one.

Why do close relationships play such a profound role in human

experience? Attachment theory is one approach to understanding the
nature of close relationships. In this module, we review the origins of
the theory, the core theoretical principles, and some ways in which
attachment influences human behavior, thoughts, and feelings across
the life course.

Close relationships are the fabric of society, and are integral to the maintenance of our species. [Image:
CC0 Public Domain, https://goo.gl/m25gce]

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 Attachment Theory: A Brief History and Core
Concepts
Attachment theory was originally developed in the 1940s by John
Bowlby, a British psychoanalyst who was attempting to understand
the intense distress experienced by infants who had been separated
from their parents. Bowlby (1969) observed that infants would go to
extraordinary lengths to prevent separation from their parents or to
reestablish proximity to a missing parent. For example, he noted that
children who had been separated from their parents would often cry,
call for their parents, refuse to eat or play, and stand at the door in
desperate anticipation of their parents’ return. At the time of Bowlby’s
initial writings, psychoanalytic writers held that these expressions
were manifestations of immature defense mechanisms that were
operating to repress emotional pain. However, Bowlby observed that
such expressions are common to a wide variety of mammalian species
and speculated that these responses to separation may serve an
evolutionary function (see Focus Topic 1).

Focus Topic 1:

Harlow's research on contact comfort

When Bowlby was originally developing his theory of attachment,

there were alternative theoretical perspectives on why infants were
emotionally attached to their primary caregivers (most often, their
biological mothers). Bowlby and other theorists, for example, believed

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 that there was something important about the responsiveness and
contact provided by mothers. Other theorists, in contrast, argued that
young infants feel emotionally connected to their mothers because
mothers satisfy more basic needs, such as the need for food. That is,
the child comes to feel emotionally connected to the mother because
she is associated with the reduction of primary drives, such as hunger,
rather than the reduction of drives that might be relational in nature.

In a classic set of studies, psychologist Harry Harlow placed young

monkeys in cages that contained two artificial, surrogate “mothers”
(Harlow, 1958). One of those surrogates was a simple wire
contraption; the other was a wire contraption covered in cloth. Both of
the surrogate mothers were equipped with a feeding tube so that
Harrow and his colleagues had the option to allow the surrogate to
deliver or not deliver milk. Harlow found that the young macaques
spent a disproportionate amount of time with the cloth surrogate as
opposed to the wire surrogate. Moreover, this was true even when the
infants were fed by the wire surrogate rather than the cloth surrogate.
This suggests that the strong emotional bond that infants form with
their primary caregivers is rooted in something more than whether the
caregiver provides food per se. Harlow’s research is now regarded as
one of the first experimental demonstrations of the importance of
“contact comfort” in the establishment of infant–caregiver bonds.

Drawing on evolutionary theory, Bowlby (1969) argued that these

behaviors are adaptive responses to separation from a primary
attachment figure—a caregiver who provides support, protection, and
care. Because human infants, like other mammalian infants, cannot
feed or protect themselves, they are dependent upon the care and

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 protection of “older and wiser” adults for survival. Bowlby argued that,
over the course of evolutionary history, infants who were able to
maintain proximity to an attachment figure would be more likely to
survive to a reproductive age.

According to Bowlby, a motivational system, what he called the

attachment behavioral system, was gradually “designed” by natural
selection to regulate proximity to an attachment figure. The
attachment system functions much like a thermostat that
continuously monitors the ambient temperature of a room, comparing
that temperature against a desired state and adjusting behavior (e.g.,
activating the furnace) accordingly. In the case of the attachment
system, Bowlby argued that the system continuously monitors the
accessibility of the primary attachment figure. If the child perceives
the attachment figure to be nearby, accessible, and attentive, then the
child feels loved, secure, and confident and, behaviorally, is likely to
explore his or her environment, play with others, and be sociable. If,
however, the child perceives the attachment figure to be inaccessible,
the child experiences anxiety and, behaviorally, is likely to exhibit
attachment behaviors ranging from simple visual searching on the low
extreme to active searching, following, and vocal signaling on the
other. These attachment behaviors continue either until the child is
able to reestablish a desirable level of physical or psychological
proximity to the attachment figure or until the child exhausts himself
or herself or gives up, as may happen in the context of a prolonged
separation or loss.

Individual Differences in Infant Attachment

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 Although Bowlby believed that these basic dynamics captured the
way the attachment system works in most children, he recognized
that there are individual differences in the way children appraise the
accessibility of the attachment figure and how they regulate their
attachment behavior in response to threats. However, it was not until
his colleague, Mary Ainsworth, began to systematically study infant–
parent separations that a formal understanding of these individual
differences emerged. Ainsworth and her students developed a
technique called the strange situation—a laboratory task for studying
infant–parent attachment (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). In
the strange situation, 12-month-old infants and their parents are
brought to the laboratory and, over a period of approximately 20
minutes, are systematically separated from and reunited with one
another. In the strange situation, most children (about 60%) behave in
the way implied by Bowlby’s normative theory. Specifically, they
become upset when the parent leaves the room, but, when he or she
returns, they actively seek the parent and are easily comforted by him

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 or her. Children who exhibit this pattern of behavior are often called
secure. Other children (about 20% or less) are ill at ease initially and,
upon separation, become extremely distressed. Importantly, when
reunited with their parents, these children have a difficult time being
soothed and often exhibit conflicting behaviors that suggest they
want to be comforted, but that they also want to “punish” the parent
for leaving. These children are often called anxious-resistant. The
third pattern of attachment that Ainsworth and her colleagues
documented is often labeled avoidant. Avoidant children (about 20%)
do not consistently behave as if they are stressed by the separation
but, upon reunion, actively avoid seeking contact with their parent,
sometimes turning their attention to play objects on the laboratory
floor.

Ainsworth’s work was important for at least three reasons. First, she
provided one of the first empirical demonstrations of how attachment
behavior is organized in unfamiliar contexts. Second, she provided the
first empirical taxonomy of individual differences in infant attachment
patterns. According to her research, at least three types of children
exist: those who are secure in their relationship with their parents,
those who are anxious-resistant, and those who are anxious-avoidant.
Finally, she demonstrated that these individual differences were
correlated with infant–parent interactions in the home during the first
year of life. Children who appear secure in the strange situation, for
example, tend to have parents who are responsive to their needs.
Children who appear insecure in the strange situation (i.e., anxious-
resistant or avoidant) often have parents who are insensitive to their
needs, or inconsistent or rejecting in the care they provide.

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 Antecedents of Attachment Patterns

In the years that have followed Ainsworth’s ground-breaking research,

researchers have investigated a variety of factors that may help
determine whether children develop secure or insecure relationships
with their primary attachment figures. As mentioned above, one of the
key determinants of attachment patterns is the history of sensitive
and responsive interactions between the caregiver and the child. In
short, when the child is uncertain or stressed, the ability of the
caregiver to provide support to the child is critical for his or her
psychological development. It is assumed that such supportive
interactions help the child learn to regulate his or her emotions, give
the child the confidence to explore the environment, and provide the
child with a safe haven during stressful circumstances.

Evidence for the role of sensitive caregiving in shaping attachment

patterns comes from longitudinal and experimental studies. For

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 example, Grossmann, Grossmann, Spangler, Suess, and Unzner
(1985) studied parent–child interactions in the homes of 54 families,
up to three times during the first year of the child’s life. At 12 months
of age, infants and their mothers participated in the strange situation.
Grossmann and her colleagues found that children who were
classified as secure in the strange situation at 12 months of age were
more likely than children classified as insecure to have mothers who
provided responsive care to their children in the home environment.

Van den Boom (1994) developed an intervention that was designed to

enhance maternal sensitive responsiveness. When the infants were 9
months of age, the mothers in the intervention group were rated as
more responsive and attentive in their interaction with their infants
compared to mothers in the control group. In addition, their infants
were rated as more sociable, self-soothing, and more likely to explore
the environment. At 12 months of age, children in the intervention
group were more likely to be classified as secure than insecure in the
strange situation.

Attachment Patterns and Child Outcomes

Attachment researchers have studied the association between
children’s attachment patterns and their adaptation over time.
Researchers have learned, for example, that children who are
classified as secure in the strange situation are more likely to have
high functioning relationships with peers, to be evaluated favorably by
teachers, and to persist with more diligence in challenging tasks. In
contrast, insecure-avoidant children are more likely to be construed
as “bullies” or to have a difficult time building and maintaining

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 friendships (Weinfield, Sroufe, Egeland, & Carlson, 2008).

Attachment in Adulthood
Although Bowlby was primarily focused on understanding the nature
of the infant–caregiver relationship, he believed that attachment
characterized human experience across the life course. It was not until
the mid-1980s, however, that researchers began to take seriously the
possibility that attachment processes may be relevant to adulthood.
Hazan and Shaver (1987) were two of the first researchers to explore
Bowlby’s ideas in the context of romantic relationships. According to
Hazan and Shaver, the emotional bond that develops between adult
romantic partners is partly a function of the same motivational system
—the attachment behavioral system—that gives rise to the emotional
bond between infants and their caregivers. Hazan and Shaver noted
that in both kinds of relationship, people (a) feel safe and secure when
the other person is present; (b) turn to the other person during times
of sickness, distress, or fear; (c) use the other person as a “secure
base” from which to explore the world; and (d) speak to one another in
a unique language, often called “motherese” or “baby talk.” (See
Focus Topic 2)

Focus Topic 2:

Attachment and social media

Social media websites and mobile communication services are

coming to play an increasing role in people’s lives. Many people use

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 Facebook, for example, to keep in touch with family and friends, to
update their loved ones regarding things going on in their lives, and to
meet people who share similar interests. Moreover, modern cellular
technology allows people to get in touch with their loved ones much
easier than was possible a mere 20 years ago.

From an attachment perspective, these innovations in

communications technology are important because they allow people
to stay connected virtually to their attachment figures—regardless of
the physical distance that might exist between them. Recent research
has begun to examine how attachment processes play out in the use
of social media. Oldmeadow, Quinn, and Kowert (2013), for example,
studied a diverse sample of individuals and assessed their attachment
security and their use of Facebook. Oldmeadow and colleagues found
that the use of Facebook may serve attachment functions. For
example, people were more likely to report using Facebook to connect
with others when they were experiencing negative emotions. In
addition, the researchers found that people who were more anxious in
their attachment orientation were more likely to use Facebook
frequently, but people who were more avoidant used Facebook less
and were less open on the site.

On the basis of these parallels, Hazan and Shaver (1987) argued that
adult romantic relationships, such as infant–caregiver relationships,
are attachments. According to Hazan and Shaver, individuals gradually
transfer attachment-related functions from parents to peers as they
develop. Thus, although young children tend to use their parents as
their primary attachment figures, as they reach adolescence and
young adulthood, they come to rely more upon close friends and/or

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 romantic partners for basic attachment-related functions. Thus,
although a young child may turn to his or her mother for comfort,
support, and guidance when distressed, scared, or ill, young adults
may be more likely to turn to their romantic partners for these
purposes under similar situations.

Hazan and Shaver (1987) asked a diverse sample of adults to read the
three paragraphs below and indicate which paragraph best
characterized the way they think, feel, and behave in close
relationships:

1. I am somewhat uncomfortable being close to others; I find it

difficult to trust them completely, difficult to allow myself to
depend on them. I am nervous when anyone gets too close, and
often, others want me to be more intimate than I feel comfortable
being.
2. I find it relatively easy to get close to others and am comfortable
depending on them and having them depend on me. I don’t worry
about being abandoned or about someone getting too close to
me.
3. I find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like. I
often worry that my partner doesn’t really love me or won’t want
to stay with me. I want to get very close to my partner, and this
sometimes scares people away.

Conceptually, these descriptions were designed to represent what

Hazan and Shaver considered to be adult analogues of the kinds of
attachment patterns Ainsworth described in the strange situation
(avoidant, secure, and anxious, respectively). Hazan and Shaver
(1987) found that the distribution of the three patterns was similar to

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 that observed in infancy. In other words, about 60% of adults
classified themselves as secure (paragraph B), about 20% described
themselves as avoidant (paragraph A), and about 20% described
themselves as anxious-resistant (paragraph C). Moreover, they found
that people who described themselves as secure, for example, were
more likely to report having had warm and trusting relationships with
their parents when they were growing up. In addition, they were more
likely to have positive views of romantic relationships. Based on these
findings, Hazan and Shaver (1987) concluded that the same kinds of
individual differences that exist in infant attachment also exist in
adulthood.

Research on Attachment in Adulthood

Attachment theory has inspired a large amount of literature in social,
personality, and clinical psychology. In the sections below, I provide a
brief overview of some of the major research questions and what
researchers have learned about attachment in adulthood.

Who Ends Up with Whom?

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 When people are asked what kinds of psychological or behavioral
qualities they are seeking in a romantic partner, a large majority of
people indicate that they are seeking someone who is kind, caring,
trustworthy, and understanding—the kinds of attributes that
characterize a “secure” caregiver (Chappell & Davis, 1998). But we
know that people do not always end up with others who meet their
ideals. Are secure people more likely to end up with secure partners—
and, vice versa, are insecure people more likely to end up with
insecure partners? The majority of the research that has been
conducted to date suggests that the answer is “yes.” Frazier, Byer,
Fischer, Wright, and DeBord (1996), for example, studied the
attachment patterns of more than 83 heterosexual couples and found
that, if the man was relatively secure, the woman was also likely to be
secure.

One important question is whether these findings exist because (a)

secure people are more likely to be attracted to other secure people,
(b) secure people are likely to create security in their partners over

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 time, or (c) some combination of these possibilities. Existing empirical
research strongly supports the first alternative. For example, when
people have the opportunity to interact with individuals who vary in
security in a speed-dating context, they express a greater interest in
those who are higher in security than those who are more insecure
(McClure, Lydon, Baccus, & Baldwin, 2010). However, there is also
some evidence that people’s attachment styles mutually shape one
another in close relationships. For example, in a longitudinal study,
Hudson, Fraley, Vicary, and Brumbaugh (2012) found that, if one
person in a relationship experienced a change in security, his or her
partner was likely to experience a change in the same direction.

Relationship Functioning
Research has consistently demonstrated that individuals who are
relatively secure are more likely than insecure individuals to have high
functioning relationships—relationships that are more satisfying, more
enduring, and less characterized by conflict. For example, Feeney and
Noller (1992) found that insecure individuals were more likely than
secure individuals to experience a breakup of their relationship. In
addition, secure individuals are more likely to report satisfying
relationships (e.g., Collins & Read, 1990) and are more likely to
provide support to their partners when their partners were feeling
distressed (Simpson, Rholes, & Nelligan, 1992).

Do Early Experiences Shape Adult

Attachment?

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 The majority of research on this issue is retrospective—that is, it relies
on adults’ reports of what they recall about their childhood
experiences. This kind of work suggests that secure adults are more
likely to describe their early childhood experiences with their parents
as being supportive, loving, and kind (Hazan & Shaver, 1987). A
number of longitudinal studies are emerging that demonstrate
prospective associations between early attachment experiences and
adult attachment styles and/or interpersonal functioning in adulthood.
For example, Fraley, Roisman, Booth-LaForce, Owen, and Holland
(2013) found in a sample of more than 700 individuals studied from
infancy to adulthood that maternal sensitivity across development
prospectively predicted security at age 18. Simpson, Collins, Tran, and
Haydon (2007) found that attachment security, assessed in infancy in
the strange situation, predicted peer competence in grades 1 to 3,
which, in turn, predicted the quality of friendship relationships at age
16, which, in turn, predicted the expression of positive and negative
emotions in their adult romantic relationships at ages 20 to 23.

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 It is easy to come away from such findings with the mistaken
assumption that early experiences “determine” later outcomes. To be
clear: Attachment theorists assume that the relationship between
early experiences and subsequent outcomes is probabilistic, not
deterministic. Having supportive and responsive experiences with
caregivers early in life is assumed to set the stage for positive social
development. But that does not mean that attachment patterns are
set in stone. In short, even if an individual has far from optimal
experiences in early life, attachment theory suggests that it is possible
for that individual to develop well-functioning adult relationships
through a number of corrective experiences—including relationships
with siblings, other family members, teachers, and close friends.
Security is best viewed as a culmination of a person’s attachment
history rather than a reflection of his or her early experiences alone.
Those early experiences are considered important not because they
determine a person’s fate, but because they provide the foundation
for subsequent experiences.

Outside Resources
Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an
attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52,
511-524. Retrieved from:
http://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~schaller/Psyc591Readings/HazanSha
ver1987.pdf
Hofer, M. A. (2006). Psychobiological roots of early attachment.
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15, 84-88.
doi:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2006.00412.x
http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/15/2/84.short

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 Strange Situation Video

The Strange Situation - Mary Ainsworth

Survey: Learn more about your attachment patterns via this online
survey
http://www.yourpersonality.net/relstructures/
Video on Harry Harlow’s Research with Rhesus Monkeys

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 Harlow's Studies on Dependency in Monkeys

Discussion Questions
1. What kind of relationship did you have with your parents or
primary caregivers when you were young? Do you think that had
any bearing on the way you related to others (e.g., friends,
relationship partners) as you grew older?
2. There is variation across cultures in the extent to which people
value independence. Do you think this might have implications for

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 the development of attachment patterns?
3. As parents age, it is not uncommon for them to have to depend
on their adult children. Do you think that people’s history of
experiences in their relationships with their parents might shape
people’s willingness to provide care for their aging parents? In
other words, are secure adults more likely to provide responsive
care to their aging parents?
4. Some people, despite reporting insecure relationships with their
parents, report secure, well-functioning relationships with their
spouses. What kinds of experiences do you think might enable
someone to develop a secure relationship with their partners
despite having an insecure relationship with other central figures
in their lives?
5. Most attachment research on adults focuses on attachment to
peers (e.g., romantic partners). What other kinds of things may
serve as attachment figures? Do you think siblings, pets, or gods
can serve as attachment figures?

Vocabulary
Attachment behavioral system
A motivational system selected over the course of evolution to
maintain proximity between a young child and his or her primary
attachment figure.
Attachment behaviors
Behaviors and signals that attract the attention of a primary
attachment figure and function to prevent separation from that
individual or to reestablish proximity to that individual (e.g.,
crying, clinging).

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 Attachment figure
Someone who functions as the primary safe haven and secure
base for an individual. In childhood, an individual’s attachment
figure is often a parent. In adulthood, an individual’s attachment
figure is often a romantic partner.
Attachment patterns
(also called “attachment styles” or “attachment orientations”)
Individual differences in how securely (vs. insecurely) people
think, feel, and behave in attachment relationships.
Strange situation
A laboratory task that involves briefly separating and reuniting
infants and their primary caregivers as a way of studying
individual differences in attachment behavior.

References
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978).
Patterns of attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment. New York,
NY: Basic Books
Chappell, K. D., & Davis, K. E. (1998). Attachment, partner choice, and
perception of romantic partners: An experimental test of the
attachment-security hypothesis. Personal Relationships, 5, 327–342.
Collins, N., & Read, S. (1990). Adult attachment, working models and
relationship quality in dating couples. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 58, 644-663.
Feeney, J. A., & Noller, P. (1992). Attachment style and romantic love:
Relationship dissolution. Australian Journal of Psychology, 44, 69–74.
Fraley, R. C., Roisman, G. I., Booth-LaForce, C., Owen, M. T., &

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 Holland, A. S. (2013). Interpersonal and genetic origins of adult
attachment styles: A longitudinal study from infancy to early
adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104, 8817-
838.
Frazier, P. A, Byer, A. L., Fischer, A. R., Wright, D. M., & DeBord, K. A.
(1996). Adult attachment style and partner choice: Correlational and
experimental findings. Personal Relationships, 3, 117–136.
Grossmann, K., Grossmann, K. E., Spangler, G., Suess, G., & Unzner, L.
(1985). Maternal sensitivity and newborns orientation responses as
related to quality of attachment in northern Germany. Monographs of
the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1-2), 233–256.
Harlow, H. F. (1958). The nature of love. American Psychologist, 13,
673–685.
Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. R. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an
attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52,
511-524.
Hudson, N. W., Fraley, R. C., Vicary, A. M., & Brumbaugh, C. C. (2012).
Attachment coregulation: A longitudinal investigation of the
coordination in romantic partners’ attachment styles. Manuscript
under review.
McClure, M. J., Lydon., J. E., Baccus, J., & Baldwin, M. W. (2010). A
signal detection analysis of the anxiously attached at speed-dating:
Being unpopular is only the first part of the problem. Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 1024–1036.
Oldmeadow, J. A., Quinn, S., & Kowert, R. (2013). Attachment style,
social skills, and Facebook use amongst adults. Computers in Human
Behavior, 28, 1142–1149.
Simpson, J. A., Collins, W. A., Tran, S., & Haydon, K. C. (2007).
Attachment and the experience and expression of emotions in adult

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 romantic relationships: A developmental perspective. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 355–367.
Simpson, J. A., Rholes, W. S., & Nelligan, J. S. (1992). Support seeking
and support giving within couples in an anxiety-provoking situation.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 434–446.
Weinfield, N. S., Sroufe, L. A., Egeland, B., Carlson, E. A. (2008).
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Authors
R. Chris Fraley

R. Chris Fraley is a professor at the University of Illinois's Department

of Psychology. In 2007 he received the American Psychological
Association's Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career
Contribution to Psychology in the area of Individual Differences. He
conducts research on attachment, close relationships, and personality
development.

How to cite this Noba module using APA Style

Fraley, R. C. (2024). Attachment through the life course. In R. Biswas-
Diener & E. Diener (Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology.

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