Attachment Reconsidered - (Culture, Mind, and Society) by N Quinn & J Mageo (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Attachment theory has massively influenced contemporary psychology, primarily from an American perspective. However, the anthropological criticism of ethnocentrism has wider implications for the discipline of psychology, which often unintentionally introduces psychologists' culturally biased assumptions into theory intended to be general, and is so devoted to culturally decontextualized experimental procedures that fail to challenge this ethnocentrism. Thus the current volume is not only challenge to attachment theorists, but also an object lesson for psychologists of many other stripes. Beyond simply a Euro-American perspective, attachment theory must be contextualized by examining it through local meanings and childrearing practices, along with cultural models of virtue and psychodynamics, all of which are best discovered through ethnography. The contributors expand this critique beyond questions of classification and measurement, to question the cultural assumptions and extend this line of questioning to other ethnocentric concepts"--

Book Synopsis

Since the 1950s, the study of early attachment and separation has been dominated by a school of psychology that is Euro-American in its theoretical assumptions. Based on ethnographic studies in a range of locales, this book goes beyond prior efforts to critique attachment theory, providing a cross-cultural basis for understanding human development.

Review Quotes

"A richer, more contextualized rethinking of attachment theory. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries." - CHOICE

"Naomi Quinn and Jeannette Marie Mageo have guided the development of a stunning interdisciplinary book! Attachment Reconsidered challenges exclusive attention to the mother-infant bond in classical attachment theory and the universal applicability of a single measuring instrument, the Strange Situation. For example, systematic natural observation reveals that, for Aka children, it is the sensitivity of nonmaternal rather than maternal care that determines their degree of distress during separation from their mothers." - Patricia M. Greenfield, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

About the Author

Kathleen Barlow, Central Washington University, USA Bambi L. Chapin, University of Maryland, USA Alyssa Crittenden, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA Suzanne Gaskins, Northeastern Illinois University, USA Sean Hawks, Washington State University, USA Paula Ivey Henry, Harvard School of Public Health, USA Frank W. Marlowe, University of Cambridge, UK Courtney Meehan, Washington State University, USA Gilda Morelli, Boston College, USA Susan Seymour, Pitzer College, USA