Raising Good Humans Ep 94: The Real Attachment Science: What it is And What it is Not, with Legendary Professor Alan Sroufe
May 7, 2021
Professor Alan Sroufe, renowned developmental psychologist who led the longest-running longitudinal study of attachment, shares his career origins and the story behind his landmark research. He outlines how early caregiver–infant interactions shape the emerging self. He discusses study design, family stress, early predictors of school outcomes, temperament versus attachment, and how later supportive relationships can change trajectories.
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How The Longest Running Attachment Study Began
- The Minnesota study began before birth and followed children into adulthood to capture formative processes.
- Sroufe describes recruiting Everett Waters and starting an attachment study that included heart rate measures in the Strange Situation.
The Self Is Built Through Caregiver Co-Organization
- The self emerges relationally as caregivers create an organized interaction pattern with the infant.
- Sroufe explains how caregiver-infant co-organization over the first year becomes the child's personality framework.
Lower Family Stress To Shift Attachment Fast
- Reduce family stress and increase social support to improve parenting and child outcomes.
- Sroufe reports children moved from anxious to secure attachment within six months when family stress decreased in his study.
