Becoming Attached—the Process and Mechanisms of Attachment Formation in Humans and Other Animals

Dear Colleagues,

Attachment theory is arguably the main conceptual foundation for understanding why humans and other animals form long-term bonds with parents in the first year of life and with peers and sexual partners beyond childhood. However, basic questions regarding the normative processes of bond formation in filial and romantic attachments remain understudied. Shortly after Bowlby published his classic trilogy over 50 years ago, research attention shifted from the normative aspects of attachment formation to individual differences in attachment quality. As a result, contemporary views on what it means to become attached continue to follow the basic timeline, stage-like progression, and theoretical conclusions derived from seminal longitudinal studies. The editors of this Special Issue call for a renewed focus on the first two phases of Bowlby’s model of attachment formation (see Freeman, 2024 and Robledo et al., 2022), which comprise the behavior and neurobiology of selecting a discriminated figure. We invite research and review articles that can shed light on this process in humans and other animals. The following research questions are of particular interest:

1. What is the state of the art of the primitive phases of attachment formation? Bowlby described four phases of attachment formation, deeming a human to be properly attached ‘around’ the third one. Because research has mainly focused on “full-fledged” attachment, scientific progress on the earlier, more primitive phases of attachment has received less general attention and remain less systematized. How much is currently known about attachment formation up to the point of figure discrimination, locomotion, and goal-correction? What progress has been made in this topic since the post-war discussion on human imprinting? Is there literature on infant signaling, infant-directed communication, or early social cognition that fails to label itself as part of a primitive phase of attachment?
2. What are the essential criteria for attachment formation? Although a half century of research has investigated the social correlates and development of secure and insecure patterns of attachment, the essential criteria and mechanisms that predict attachment formation remain ambiguous. It is unclear what thresholds of care in terms of specific experiences, dosage, and timing are necessary for attachment to occur? Even less understood is whether the essential criteria are different beyond the initial/primary attachment bond, or within different relationship types (romantic versus filial).
3. Is there sufficient evidence for a sensitive period in attachment formation? Animal studies and advances in epigenetic theory suggest that early adverse environments accelerate the pace and timing of sensitive periods. We invite research on how early rearing conditions may alter the pace, timing, and strength of early discrimination, and whether such experiences impact later sexual strategies or pair bonding.
4. Do infants, children, and adults form attachments one at a time or simultaneously? While the number of attachment figures change over the life course, it remains unclear whether these relationships are normatively formed one at a time or simultaneously. It may also be the case that the process is more independent for the first (primary) relationship, but additional figures can be adopted relatively quickly and possibly at the same time.

Prof. Dr. Harry Freeman
Dr. Juan-Pablo Robledo
Guest Editors

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• attachment theory
• attachment formation
• social recognition
• imprinting
• human imprinting
• bond formation