Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T09:01:58.983Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Pre-adjustment of adult attachment style to extrinsic risk levels via early attachment style is neither specific, nor reliable, nor effective, and is thus not an adaptation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Johannes Hönekopp
Affiliation:
School of Psychology and Sport Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, United Kingdom. johannes.honekopp@unn.ac.uk

Abstract

The mechanism proposed by Del Giudice by which adult attachment style is adapted to the extrinsic risk in the local environment via attachment style during the early years does not fulfill important criteria of an adaptation. The proposed mechanism is neither specific, nor developmentally reliable, nor effective. Therefore, it should not be considered an adaptation.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrews, P. A., Gangestad, S. W. & Mathews, D. (2002) Adaptationism – How to carry out an exaptationist program. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 25:489553.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Belsky, J., Steinberg, L. & Draper, P. (1991) Childhood experience, interpersonal development, and reproductive strategy: An evolutionary theory of socialization. Child Development 62:647–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chisholm, J. S. (1993) Death, hope, and sex: Life-history theory and the development of reproductive strategies. Current Anthropology 34:124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chisholm, J. S. (1996) The evolutionary ecology of attachment organization. Human Nature 7:138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chisholm, J. S. (1999) Death, hope and sex: Steps to an evolutionary ecology of mind and morality. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Wolff, M.S. & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (1997) Sensitivity and attachment: A meta-analysis on parental antecedents of infant attachment. Child Development 68:571–91.Google ScholarPubMed
Gangestad, S. W. & Simpson, J. A. (2000) The evolution of human mating: Trade-offs and strategic pluralism. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23:573–87; discussion 597–644.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hönekopp, J., Rudolph, U., Beier, L., Liebert, A. & Müller, C. (2007) Physical attractiveness of face and body as indicators of physical fitness. Evolution and Human Behavior 28:106–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van IJzendoorn, M. H. & Sagi, A. (1999) Cross-cultural patterns of attachment: Universal and contextual dimensions. In: Handbook of attachment: Theory, research and clinical applications, ed. Cassidy, J. & Shaver, P. R., pp. 713–34. Guilford Press.Google Scholar