Measuring Attachment: Developmental Assessment across the Lifespan

This volume provides an in-depth examination of traditional and emerging measures of attachment behavior and representations from infancy to adulthood. Leading authorities share their expertise on the Strange Situation, the Attachment Q-set, Ainsworth's Maternal Sensitivity Scales, the Adult Attachment Interview, the Attachment Script Assessments, and the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System, as well as analogue and experimental methods. The book clarifies the conceptual and empirical underpinnings of the various measures and shows how they fit into a coherent developmental framework. Offering detailed discussions of key constructs such as attachment security, the secure base phenomenon, disorganization, and narrative structure, this is a valuable resource for both researchers and practitioners who use attachment assessments in their work.

Everett Waters, PhD, is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Stony Brook University, State University of New York. A graduate of the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development, he is a coauthor of Mary Ainsworth’s classic volume Patterns of Attachment. He is a recipient of the 2009 Bowlby–Ainsworth Award for contributions to attachment theory and measurement and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Emotion and Attachment Studies.

Brian E. Vaughn, PhD, holds the Human Sciences Professor of Human Development Chair in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at Auburn University. A graduate of the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development, he has published widely on attachment and temperament and the relation of infant attachment to social competence in early childhood. He is a recipient of the 2011 Bowlby–Ainsworth Award for advancing ethological methods in attachment study.

Harriet Salatas Waters, PhD, is Emerita Professor of Psychology at Stony Brook University, State University of New York. A graduate of the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development, she has made significant contributions to research on attachment narratives in middle childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. She is a recipient of the 2021 Bowlby–Ainsworth Award for contributions to the theory and measurement of attachment representations.