2005 Awardees

Inge Bretherton

Historian To The Bowlby-Ainsworth
Tradition. For Bridging Attachment,
Cognition, And Language

John Bowlby recognized very early that cognitive psychology might provide rigorous interpretations and empirical underpinnings for key attachment insights. But the cognitive psychology of his day was not up to the task. Although cognitive psychology rapidly matured, its advances were largely inaccessible to researchers trained in the ethological-observational tradition. Inge Bretherton was the first attachment theorist truly conversant with modern cognitive psychology, theories of mental representation, and the origins of communication. Soon after completing her dissertation with Mary Ainsworth, she and Elizabeth Bates conducted landmark work on the child’s first symbolic representations and on the cognitive and social prerequisites of early language use. She wrote early and insightfully on the ability to talk about emotional states, social referencing, and early attachment representations. She was also the first to point out the relevance of event representation theory for understanding the working models concept. Today, these contributions are recognized as essential to the cognitive underpinnings of attachment theory. Inge has also served informally as the historian of attachment study. Her interest in our history, wonderfully researched and retold, and her generosity to others writing about this history are lasting contributions to the Bowlby-Ainsworth tradition.

Susan Goldberg*

For Advancing Attachment Study

And Children’s Health. A Generous Mentor

To Colleagues And Students Alike

Susan Goldberg distinguished herself as a developmental psychologist long before her interest turned to attachment study. From her base at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, she conducted groundbreaking work on links between secure attachment and better general health in chronically ill children. This work broadened the tradition of applying attachment study to make practical differences in children’s lives. As a co-founder of the Home County Attachment Workshop, she engaged and encouraged a network of attachment researchers and practitioners that spans southern Ontario and Quebec. Her authoritative but very personal textbook, Attachment and Development, has welcomed countless students in psychology, child health, family therapy, social work, and child psychiatry to attachment study. A fine theorist and researcher and a generous mentor to colleagues and students alike, Sue Goldberg’s hard work, wisdom, and kind heart have enriched the Bowlby-Ainsworth tradition.

* Sadly, Susan Goldberg died in June 2005.

Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg

For Rigor And Originality In
Attachment Study. A Generous Colleague,
Mentor, And Steadfast Secure Base
In The Bowlby-Ainsworth Tradition

John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth set high standards for attachment study. They insisted on a central role for theory, rigorous empirical methods, and close critical analysis. Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg has maintained and elevated these standards in her careful and imaginative research on attachment assessment. Her use of meta-analytic methods has helped identify and communicate the best established and most important results from an entire generation of attachment research. Intrigued by the possibilities of changing the course of insecure attachment development, she has also helped realize John Bowlby's goal of translating theory and research into practical, effective interventions. A generous and patient colleague and mentor, Dr. Bakermans-Kranenburg has been the invisible hand guiding an impressive range of attachment research and training from the Leiden attachment laboratories. A devoted mother of three, her successes in research and teaching have not diminished her success as a steadfast secure base. Those who would follow in her footsteps recognize that this too has enriched the Bowlby-Ainsworth tradition.

Special Award
Morris N. Eagle
Friend and Interpreter to Psychoanalysis
And Attachment Theory

Bowlby's attachment theory combines the insights of psychoanalysis and the rigor of modern science. Before Morris Eagle's interests turned to psychoanalysis, he, was an imaginative experimentalist contributing to the emergence of cognitive psychology. And before his interests turned to attachment theory, he developed a deep understanding of traditional and modern themes in psychoanalysis. Trusted and admired by psychoanalysts and psychologists alike, he has been a translator and bridge across generations and paradigms, and between theory and practice. He has done so with wisdom, enthusiasm, and humor in his classroom teaching, clinical supervision, and prolific scholarship. He has also been exceptionally generous in his service as President of the American Psychological Association's Division on Psychoanalysis and as co-founder of the New York Attachment Consortium. This award is made in recognition of Morris Eagle's contributions to the good health of the Bowlby-Ainsworth tradition.