RESEARCH_FILE
John Bowlby
Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, London
Known for:Founding attachment theory — the proposal that early caregiver interactions produce internal working models of self and others that shape relationship expectations throughout life
SEE THE PRACTICE
Turn a thought this research explains into one clear move.
THE THOUGHT
“I always quit”
YOUR RECORDED RESPONSE
“My last attempt is data about that attempt, not a verdict on me.”
ONE PRIVATE MOVE
Choose one low-stakes task and deliberately pause it halfway for two minutes. Leave a visible marker where you stopped, then return and finish only one tiny part. Notice what changed, if anything, after the break.
Key findings
- 1969
In Volume 1 of Attachment and Loss, Bowlby proposed that infants develop internal working models from early caregiver interactions — templates of what to expect from self and others — and that disrupted or unpredictable caregiving produces models primed to detect threat and maximize proximity to the attachment figure. Attachment (Attachment and Loss, Vol. 1) ↗