The Myth of Attachment Theory

A Critical Understanding for Multicultural Societies

Heidi Keller

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000467581
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychologie
• Subtopic: Histoire et théorie en psychologie

The Myth of Attachment Theory confronts the uncritical acceptance of attachment theory – challenging its scientific basis and questioning the relevance in our modern, superdiverse and multicultural society – and exploring the central concern of how children, and their way of forming relationships, differ from each other.

In this book, Heidi Keller examines diverse multicultural societies, proposing that a single doctrine cannot best serve all children and families. Drawing on cultural, psychological and anthropological research, this challenging volume respects cultural diversity as the human condition and demonstrates how the wide heterogeneity of children's worlds must be taken seriously to avoid painful or unethical consequences that might result from the application of attachment theory in different fields. The book explores attachment theory as a scientific construct, deals with attachment theory as the foundation of early education, specifies the dimensions that need to be considered for a culturally conscious approach and, finally, approaches ethical problems which result from the universality claim of attachment theory in different areas. This book employs multiple and mixed methods, while also going beyond critical analysis of theory to offer insight into the implications of the unquestioning acceptance of this theory in such areas as childhood interventions, diagnosis of attachment security, international intervention programs and educational settings.

This volume will be a crucial read for scholars and researchers in developmental, educational and clinical psychology, as well as educators, teachers-in-training and other professionals working with children and their families.

1 Introduction

Chinese children in a German kindergarten

© Heidi Keller

DOI: 10.4324/9781003167099-1

Attachment theory is a story of success since the 1950s/60s and represents today the most popular theory of children’s social emotional development. Numerous books in numerous languages are devoted to attachment theory. There are handbooks (the most comprehensive being the 2016 third edition of Jude Cassidy and Phillip Shaver’s Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications), general scientific societies (e.g. the Society of Emotion and Attachment Studies), specialized societies (e.g. the Association for Training on Trauma and Attachment), regional societies (e.g. the Attachment Association of Canada) and also regular national and international conferences. There are specialized journals such as Attachment and Human Development. Attachment theory is presented in most textbooks and handbooks of developmental psychology and attachment related research is being published in all major psychological and educational journals. Moreover, there is a widespread – and expensive – choice of workshops and seminars for the training and application of attachment methodology.

The broad dissemination and recognition in the scientific mainstream were not present in the beginning. Quite the contrary was the case: attachment theory was not considered as a serious alternative to psychoanalysis, e.g., from the Royal Society of Medicine in Great Britain, where John Bowlby, the founder of attachment theory, was a member. Also, psychologists, who had started to favor the principles of learning theories like Jacob Gewirtz from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, thought that attachment theory was misleading.

1.1 Not directly accepted

Jacob Gewirtz, together with his colleague Elizabeth Boyd in 1977 (a,b), published a well received paper in Child Development where they critically dealt with an early paper of Silvia Bell and Mary Ainsworth (1972) demonstrating that sensitive parenting reduced infant crying. Boyd and Gewirtz argued from a learning theory perspective that unconditional maternal responsivity must reinforce infant crying and therefore increase its occurrence.

Mary Ainsworth, together with John Bowlby, later became one of the two major proponents of attachment theory, and her collaborator Silvia Bell published a widely received reply that appeared in the same year in the same journal. They had studied 26 US American families and found that prompt maternal responsivity to infant crying was associated with reduced crying. They argued that the occurrence and duration of infant crying at the age of one reflects the mother–child relational history during the preceding year. Today we know that an infant’s crying during the first year is a process that is much more complex and part of the social dynamics in a cultural context.

However, slowly scientists started to deal with attachment theory. Particularly the assumed connection with human biology and basic needs seemed plausible to a wider audience. This development is exemplified by the reception of one of the flagship publications – Mary Ainsworth, Mary Blehar, Everett Waters and Sally Wall’s monograph, Patterns of Attachment. A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation. Published in 1978, the book only gained popularity in the late 1990s, tripling its sales until 2010. Presently the reception of the original sources may decline again, not because of decreasing interest but increasing secondary literature, summarizing and interpreting attachment theory for different groups of customers.

1.2 A marketing issue?

The Spanish-American science historian Marga Vicedo (2013) suspects a sophisticated marketing strategy as the reason for the success story: on the one hand attachment researchers present themselves as a unitary group despite existing discrepancies; on the other hand they boost their visibility by cross referencing.

Parallel to the scientific dispersion, the acceptance in the applied fields also became notable, first in the clinical context which is understandable given the origins in the clinical/psychiatric field (see section 2.1). However, soon attachment theory became prominent in the wider health sector dealing with the development and well being of children, such as the fields of family counseling, transition to parenthood programs, custody decisions and child placement.

Eventually attachment theory became introduced into the programs of NGOs and policy decisions of UNICEF, WHO, World Bank and other international organizations with the goal of supporting children and families in regions of crisis and poverty all over the world. This strategy was justified by the universality claim of attachment theory expressing that attachment based assumptions and methods would be valid and the best for children and families all over the planet. The motto “what is good for us is also good for everybody else” is still maintained with other misconceptions like, e.g., that poverty is equivalent with poor parenting. An enormous amount of money is thus invested with poor returns. Also, serious ethical questions are involved (see more detail in Chapter 9).

Figure 1.1 Nso children pose for a picture

© Heidi Keller

1.3 The prize is high

My personal kick off for writing this book is the application of attachment theory in educational settings, particularly in kindergarten and daycare. “No education without attachment” is the slogan that characterizes the early pedagogical work and structures the everyday life in the institutions from the child’s transition into the kindergarten to the social behavior of teachers and caregivers. With increasing numbers of migrant and refugee families in Western countries, cultural clashes which are already there between different social pockets of societies become more apparent.

Obviously many families have other ideas and beliefs about good education and good care than attachment based quality standards, which are regarded as a leap in quality in kindergarten pedagogy (e.g. Hédervári-Heller & Dreier, 2013)¹. Not only teachers are overwhelmed with these complexities and have the right for clarification and support, but first and foremost children and families who visit these institutions. This field is huge and urgently needs thorough revision in order to provide different children with equal chances. The programmatic claim that no child is left behind needs to pass the practice check.

Figure 1.2 Children in a village outside Delhi

© Nandita Chaudhary

1.4 Not the best for every child

Already common sense leaves serious doubts that one conception and one method should be the best for everybody. One size may fit all but is everybody looking equally good and feeling equally comfortable in the one size T shirt. Does one size provide everybody with the same confidence? Certainly not! It is equally unlikely that a particular concept that is based in the philosophy of one cultural context and adapted to it supports children in all cultures equally. The opposite is the case: some children must be systematically disadvantaged. This is certainly not the intention of teachers nor a societal or political claim.

There is no more time to waste; rethinking and reassessment should be top priorities. The time seems to be ripe, since there is movement in the discussion about attachment theory, in science as well as in the applied fields. In the field of science, finally cultural and anthropological evidence about different socialization strategies and child rearing philosophies and practices are recognized (see, e.g., the edited volumes by Otto & Keller, 2014; Quinn & Mageo, 2013; Keller & Bard, 2017). In the practice fields, the apparent cultural clashes in multicultural societies can no longer be ignored.

With this book I want to insistently question the implicitness and the credulity with which attachment theory is accepted and applied. I also want to demonstrate the inevitable consequences that necessarily result from the airy application. I hope for an urgently needed discourse among all the parties involved.

1.5 Structure of this book

The first six chapters (Chapters 1–6) address attachment theory as a scientific construct. Conceptual problems, obscure and wrong assumptions are discussed in the different sections. Cultural variability in children’s socio emotional development plays a pivotal role.

From there, Chapter 7 then deals with attachment theory as the foundation of early education. Problems resulting from ignoring cultural perspectives of different stakeholders of early education are discussed. Results from an exploratory online survey are included. Daycare and kindergarten teachers as well as institutional representatives answered closed and open ended questions about the role of attachment theory in early education. I thank Veronika Bergmann, Sabine Dalheimer-Meyer, Petra Evanschitzky, Marina Freund, Sandra Lukas and Xenia Roth for their logistical help in distributing the questionnaire in their professional networks. I also thank all the participants who shared their views with me. These voices are important feedback loops.

Chapter 8 then specifies in different sub sections the dimensions that need to be considered for a culture conscious approach, i.e. the families, the children, the other children in the institution, the children’s groups, the place and the context or social space respectively. Many examples from science and practice are presented.

Finally, Chapter 9 approaches ethical problems which result from the universality claim of attachment theory in different areas, particularly the diagnosis of attachment security, international intervention programs and the educational field. Chapter 10 presents a concluding discussion and considerations for the future.

The four main subjects of the book relate to each other but can also be read independently. If knowledge from other parts is necessary and/or helpful in particular places, cross references are included. Since knowledge is not sufficient to stimulate reflection processes, reflection questions are inserted which should stimulate thinking about one’s own experiences and one’s own biography with respect to the topics raised. Xenia Roth once said, “Pedagogical work is always biographical work” – a motto that I would like the readers of this book to adopt. Attitudes are often disguised as opinions that are regarded as self evident. Relating these opinions to one’s own history and experiences may pave the way for the development of new perspectives.

Note

1. The examples mainly stem from Germany, but there are many similarities with Western middle class v...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword To The German Edition
• In Defence of Difference: Foreword to the English edition
• A Personal Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The beginnings of attachment theory
• 3 The attachment theory of the 21st CENTURY
• 4 Unresolved problems
• 5 Cultural blindness of attachment theory
• 6 Checking facts: what is and what can attachment theory really do?
• 7 Attachment theory and daycare
• 8 Reflections about culture conscious transition processes
• 9 Ethical questions
• 10 Concluding comments
• Annotated bibliography
• References
• Index