Affect Integration and Attachment in Children and Youth: Conceptual Issuses - Implications for Practice and Research

Abstract

The essential role of affect and emotion in human behavior, motivation, cognition, and interpersonal interaction is emphasized in various efforts to understand how children develop. However, various theoretical traditions have focused on different features. In this article we focus on the views in attachment theory and the affect consciousness (AC) model/related affect integration perspectives. The attachment theory and the AC perspective/related affect integration perspectives are widely recognized approaches that explicitly focus on the role of affect, cognition, and behavior in the context of others as the main areas in both children’s developmental processes and psychotherapeutic processes. However, these traditions represent both overlapping and contrasting views. On this background we discuss the following questions: 1. How does attachment theory describe the view on affect/emotion, motivation, cognition, and interpersonal interaction, and how do the AC perspective/related affect integration perspectives describe the view on the same subjects? What central theoretical similarities and differences do we find when we compare AC and attachment theory? 2. What role does AC play in attachment, and what role does attachment play in AC? 3. Can the AC perspective/related affect integration perspectives expand and provide nuance to our understanding of the role of affect and emotion in attachment theory, including an understanding of typical and nontypical emotional learning processes? We identified six central AC aspects that can expand our understanding of the function and role of affect and emotion in attachment theory. This understanding is considered central to both practice and research.