Jude Cassidy

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Jude Cassidy
Alma materUniversity of Virginia
Occupation(s)Professor of Psychology, University of Maryland
AwardsAPA Boyd McCandless Award

Jude Anne Cassidy is Professor of Psychology and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland. Cassidy was awarded the American Psychological Association Boyd McCandless Young Scientist Award in 1991 for her early career contributions to Developmental Psychology. [1] She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Division 7 (Developmental Psychology) and the Association for Psychological Science.

Contents

Cassidy co-edited the Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Implications [2] with Phillip Shaver. She is the author of two monographs on attachment theory published by the Society for Research in Child Development. [3] [4] One of these monographs, Security in infancy, childhood, and adulthood: A move to the level of representation, cited 6229 times according to GoogleScholar, provided new insight into individual differences in parent-infant attachment relations as assessed through the Strange Situation. [5] Cassidy currently serves as co-editor of the journal Attachment and Human Development. [6]

Biography

Cassidy received a B.A. in English (magna cum laude) from Duke University. She subsequently attended New York University where she obtained an M.F.A. Cassidy then pursued graduate studies in Developmental Psychology at the University of Virginia where she completed her Ph.D. under the supervision of Mary Ainsworth in 1986.

Cassidy joined the faculty of Psychology at Pennsylvania State University in 1988 where she remained until 1996. She moved to the University of Maryland in 1996 and was promoted to Full Professor in 1999. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Cassidy delivered the John Bowlby Memorial Lecture in 2010.

Research

Cassidy's research program focuses on attachment, family relationships, and social and emotional development in children and adolescents. [7] Her work expanded the attachment behavioral system developed by John Bowlby, which described internal working models as organized frameworks for understanding the world, developed by infants through experience with their caregivers. Cassidy's work linked secure attachment patterns in infancy with the development of empathy and altruism, school readiness, and successful peer relationships, and insecure patterns of attachment with child psychopathology. [8] Cassidy's work with Mary Main led to the identification of disorganized attachment, the fourth category of attachment styles in the Strange Situation. In this rare form of attachment, children will react inconsistently and often in a confused manner when presented with toys, strangers, and the separation and reunion with the mom. [9] [10] Cassidy, along Mary Main and George Kaplan, found that a parent's “state of mind with respect to attachment” was predictive of his or her infant's pattern of attachment, which suggested intergenerational transmission of attachment patterns. [3] [11] Her research on attachment theory has important clinical applications for understanding addiction [12] and for developing educational efforts to foster secure parent-child relationships. [13]

Representative Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Developmental psychology</span> Scientific study of psychological changes in humans over the course of their lives

Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire lifespan. Developmental psychologists aim to explain how thinking, feeling, and behaviors change throughout life. This field examines change across three major dimensions, which are physical development, cognitive development, and social emotional development. Within these three dimensions are a broad range of topics including motor skills, executive functions, moral understanding, language acquisition, social change, personality, emotional development, self-concept, and identity formation.

Attachment disorder is a broad term intended to describe disorders of mood, behavior, and social relationships arising from unavailability of normal socializing care and attention from primary caregiving figures in early childhood. Such a failure would result from unusual early experiences of neglect, abuse, abrupt separation from caregivers between three months and three years of age, frequent change or excessive numbers of caregivers, or lack of caregiver responsiveness to child communicative efforts resulting in a lack of basic trust. A problematic history of social relationships occurring after about age three may be distressing to a child, but does not result in attachment disorder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attachment theory</span> Psychological ethological theory about human relationships

An attachment theory is a psychological, evolutionary, and ethological theory concerning relationships between humans. The most important tenet is that young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for their survival, and for them to develop a healthy social and emotional functioning. The theory was formulated by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby (1907–1990).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Bowlby</span> British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (1907–1990)

Edward John Mostyn Bowlby, CBE, FBA, FRCP, FRCPsych was a British psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attachment theory. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Bowlby as the 49th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

Mary Dinsmore Ainsworth was an American-Canadian developmental psychologist known for her work in the development of the attachment theory. She designed the strange situation procedure to observe early emotional attachment between a child and their primary caregiver.

In psychology, an affectional bond is a type of attachment behavior one individual has for another individual, typically a caregiver for their child, in which the two partners tend to remain in proximity to one another. The term was coined and subsequently developed over the course of four decades, from the early 1940s to the late 1970s, by psychologist John Bowlby in his work on attachment theory. The core of the term affectional bond, according to Bowlby, is the attraction one individual has for another individual. The central features of the concept of affectional bonding can be traced to Bowlby's 1958 paper, "The Nature of the Child's Tie to his Mother".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attachment in children</span> Biological instinct

Attachment in children is "a biological instinct in which proximity to an attachment figure is sought when the child senses or perceives threat or discomfort. Attachment behaviour anticipates a response by the attachment figure which will remove threat or discomfort". Attachment also describes the function of availability, which is the degree to which the authoritative figure is responsive to the child's needs and shares communication with them. Childhood attachment can define characteristics that will shape the child's sense of self, their forms of emotion-regulation, and how they carry out relationships with others. Attachment is found in all mammals to some degree, especially primates.

In psychology, the theory of attachment can be applied to adult relationships including friendships, emotional affairs, adult romantic and carnal relationships and, in some cases, relationships with inanimate objects. Attachment theory, initially studied in the 1960s and 1970s primarily in the context of children and parents, was extended to adult relationships in the late 1980s. The working models of children found in Bowlby's attachment theory form a pattern of interaction that is likely to continue influencing adult relationships.

Attachment measures, or attachment assessments, are the various procedures used to assess the attachment system in children and adults. These procedures can assess patterns of attachment and individual self-protective strategies. Some assessments work across the several models of attachment and some are model-specific. Many assessments allow children and adults' attachment strategies to be classified into three primary attachment pattern groups: B-pattern, A-pattern, C-pattern. In most models, each pattern group is further broken down into several sub-patterns. Some assessments are capable of finding additional information about an individual, such as unresolved trauma, depression, history of family triangulation, and lifespan changes in the attachment pattern. Some assessments specifically or additionally look for caregiving behaviors, as caregiving and attachment are widely considered two separate systems for organizing thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Some methods assess disorders of attachment or romantic attachment.

Cupboard love is a popular learning theory of the 1950s and 1960s based on the research of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, Melanie Klein and Mary Ainsworth. Rooted in psychoanalysis, the theory speculates that attachment develops in the early stages of infancy. This process involves the mother satisfying her infant's instinctual needs, exclusively. Cupboard love theorists conclude that during infancy, our primary drive is food which leads to a secondary drive for attachment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maternal deprivation</span> Work on the effects of separating infants/young children from their mother

Maternal deprivation is a scientific term summarising the early work of psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby on the effects of separating infants and young children from their mother. Although the effect of loss of the mother on the developing child had been considered earlier by Freud and other theorists, Bowlby's work on delinquent and affectionless children and the effects of hospital and institutional care led to his being commissioned to write the World Health Organization's report on the mental health of homeless children in post-war Europe whilst he was head of the Department for Children and Parents at the Tavistock Clinic in London after World War II. The result was the monograph Maternal Care and Mental Health published in 1951, which sets out the maternal deprivation hypothesis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of attachment theory</span>

Attachment theory, originating in the work of John Bowlby, is a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory that provides a descriptive and explanatory framework for understanding interpersonal relationships between human beings.

Attachment-based therapy applies to interventions or approaches based on attachment theory, originated by John Bowlby. These range from individual therapeutic approaches to public health programs to interventions specifically designed for foster carers. Although attachment theory has become a major scientific theory of socioemotional development with one of the broadest, deepest research lines in modern psychology, attachment theory has, until recently, been less clinically applied than theories with far less empirical support. This may be partly due to lack of attention paid to clinical application by Bowlby himself and partly due to broader meanings of the word 'attachment' used amongst practitioners. It may also be partly due to the mistaken association of attachment theory with the pseudo-scientific interventions misleadingly known as attachment therapy. The approaches set out below are examples of recent clinical applications of attachment theory by mainstream attachment theorists and clinicians and are aimed at infants or children who have developed or are at risk of developing less desirable, insecure attachment styles or an attachment disorder.

The strange situation is a procedure devised by Mary Ainsworth in the 1970s to observe attachment in children, that is relationships between a caregiver and child. It applies to children between the age of nine and 30 months. Broadly speaking, the attachment styles were (1) secure and (2) insecure. Later, Mary Main and her husband Erik Hesse introduced the 4th category, disorganized. The procedure played an important role in the development of attachment theory.

Mary Main was an American psychologist notable for her work in the field of attachment. A Professor at the University of California Berkeley, Main is particularly known for her introduction of the 'disorganized' infant attachment classification and for development of the Adult Attachment Interview and coding system for assessing states of mind regarding attachment. This work has been described as 'revolutionary' and Main has been described as having 'unprecedented resonance and influence' in the field of psychology.

Patricia McKinsey Crittenden is an American psychologist known for her work in the development of attachment theory and science, her work in the field of developmental psychopathology, and for creation of the Dynamic-Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation (DMM).

Internal working model of attachment is a psychological approach that attempts to describe the development of mental representations, specifically the worthiness of the self and expectations of others' reactions to the self. This model is a result of interactions with primary caregivers which become internalized, and is therefore an automatic process. John Bowlby implemented this model in his attachment theory in order to explain how infants act in accordance with these mental representations. It is an important aspect of general attachment theory.

Mary Dozier, an American psychologist, holds the Amy E. du Pont Chair of Child Development at the University of Delaware.

Beatrice Beebe is a clinical psychologist known for her research in attachment and early infant-parent communication. Her work helped established the importance of non-verbal communication in early child development. She is a Clinical Professor of Medical Psychology at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University and the director of the Communications Science Lab at the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI).

The dynamic-maturational model of attachment and adaptation (DMM) is a biopsychosocial model describing the effect attachment relationships can have on human development and functioning. It is especially focused on the effects of relationships between children and parents and between reproductive couples. It developed initially from attachment theory as developed by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, and incorporated many other theories into a comprehensive model of adaptation to life's many dangers. The DMM was initially created by developmental psychologist Patricia McKinsey Crittenden and her colleagues including David DiLalla, Angelika Claussen, Andrea Landini, Steve Farnfield, and Susan Spieker.

References

  1. "Boyd McCandless Award". APA. Retrieved 2017-11-28.
  2. Handbook of attachment : theory, research, and clinical applications. Cassidy, Jude., Shaver, Phillip R. New York: Guilford Press. 1999. ISBN   9781572308268. OCLC   40489212.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. 1 2 Main, Mary; Kaplan, Nancy; Cassidy, Jude (1985). "Security in Infancy, Childhood, and Adulthood: A Move to the Level of Representation". Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. 50 (1/2): 66–104. doi:10.2307/3333827. JSTOR   3333827.
  4. Cassidy, Jude (1994-02-01). "Emotion Regulation: Influences of Attachment Relationships". Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. 59 (2–3): 228–249. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5834.1994.tb01287.x. ISSN   1540-5834. PMID   7984163.
  5. "Jude Cassidy" . Retrieved November 30, 2017.
  6. "Attachment & Human Development". www.tandfonline.com. Retrieved 2017-11-29.
  7. "Family and Relationships: Raising Well-Connected Kids". www.vision.org. Retrieved 2017-11-29.
  8. Cassidy, Jude; Jones, Jason D.; Shaver, Phillip R. (2013). "Contributions of attachment theory and research: A framework for future research, translation, and policy". Development and Psychopathology. 25 (4pt2): 1415–1434. doi:10.1017/s0954579413000692. ISSN   0954-5794. PMC   4085672 . PMID   24342848.
  9. Lilienfeld, Scott O.; Lynn, Steven J.; Namy, Laura L. (March 25, 2017). Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding (4th ed.). Hoboken: NJ: Pearson. p. 389. ISBN   978-0134552514.
  10. Main, Mary; Cassidy, Jude (1988). "Categories of response to reunion with the parent at age 6: Predictable from infant attachment classifications and stable over a 1-month period". Developmental Psychology. 24 (3): 415–426. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.24.3.415.
  11. Shah, Prachi E.; Fonagy, Peter; Strathearn, Lane (2010-07-05). "Is attachment transmitted across generations? The plot thickens". Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 15 (3): 329–345. doi:10.1177/1359104510365449. PMC   3060612 . PMID   20603421.
  12. Richard., Gill (2014). Addictions From an Attachment Perspective : Do Broken Bonds and Early Trauma Lead to Addictive Behaviours?. London: Karnac Books. ISBN   9781782201076. OCLC   896800069.
  13. Powell, Bert (2013-09-20). The circle of security intervention : enhancing attachment in early parent-child relationships. New York. ISBN   9781593853143. OCLC   834390427.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)