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CHAPTER THREE Attachluent Research Compact Problem Definition in a Conceptually Driven Field Attachment research has developed over the last twenty to thirty years as a subfield of developmental psychology. Within the larger discipline of psychology, developmentalists focus on understanding inbncy and childhood. Within that subfield, there are further subfields; developmentalists more interested in cognition focus their research on the development of thinking and reasoning while those interested in social behavior focus on emotions, attachment, peer relations, and personality. Attachment research is a readily identifiable subfield among those focusing on social development. The field's boundaries are permeable in that developmental researchers with other primary interests might look to attachment research for possible explanations of the origins of ehild abuse or which kindergarteners are most popular among their peers. But despite this permeability, attachment research remains an identifiable field because ofthe clarity and continuity of its problem definition. I begin with a historical account of the growth of attachment research in order to trace the continuity, development, and compacting of its problem definition. I then discuss the relation between 53 CHAPTER THREE Attachment Research Compact Problem Definition in a Conceptually Driven Field Attachment research has developed over the last twenty to thirty years as a subfield of developmental psychology. Within the larger discipline of psychology, developmentalists focus on understanding inbncy and childhood. Within that subfield, there are further subfields; developmentalists more interested in cognition focus their research on the development of thinking and reasoning while those interested in social behavior focus on emotions, attachment, peer relations, and personality. Attachment research is a readily identifiable subfield among those focusing on social development. The field's boundaries are permeable in that developmental researchers with other primary interests might look to attachment research for possible explanations of the origins of child abuse or which kindergarteners are most popular among their peers. But despite this permeability, attachment research remains an identifiable field because ofthe clarity and continuity of its problem definition. I begin with a historical account of the growth of attachment research in order to trace the continuity, devclopment, and compacting of its problem definition. I then discuss the relation between 53 generalization and particulars in this conceptually driven, explanatory field. 'Progress and Compacting in Attachment's Problem Definition The abstract from a 1983 psychology article in my sample of attachment research will serve both to introduce some aspects of compact problem definition and to describe typical concerns in attachment research: In the past 15 years, a major advance in the study of early social development has been the conceptual distinction between attachment (the relationship between infant and caregiver) and dependency (the reliance of the child on adults for nurturance, attention, or assistance). Having made this distinction, it is possible to ask questions anew concerning the relationship bctwecn infant-caregiver relations and later overdepcndency of the child. In this study such a tie was examined by assessing children with varying attachment historics in a preschool setting. It was found that groups of children classified at 12 and 18 months as avoidant (Ainsworth Group A) and resistant (Ainsworth Group C) both were highly dependent in the preschool, based on teacher ratings, rankings and Qsorts, observed physical contact sceking , and observed guidancc and discipline received from teachers. Children who had been securely attached (Group B) were significantly lower on all these measures and significantly higher on "seeking attention in positive ways." The high dependcncy ofboth anxiously attached groups, despite their differences in manifest behavior in the attachment assessments, suggests that the roots ofoverdependency lie in the quality of the early infant-caregiver relationship. (Sroufe, Fox, and Pancake 1615) This abstract displays a number of traits of compact disciplinary work, beginning with its representation ofdisciplinary progress. Writing in 1983, Sroufe, Fox, and Pancake were able to represent their field as having fifteen years ofcumulative work Their term "advance" implied that thc field was making progress on the problems it had chosen to focus on, as did their statement "Having made this distinction , it is possible to ask questions anew." Even if this was merely an overly neat narrative imposed upon a messy body of research over time, it is still significant that practitioners in the field could 54 / Case Studies in Three Subfields generalization and particulars in this conceptually driven, explanatory field. 'Progress and Compacting in Attachment's Problem Definition The abstract from a 1983 psychology article in my sample of attachment research will serve both to introduce some aspects of compact problem definition and to describe...

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