Everett Waters
Biographic Data
| ID | 79587 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Everett Waters |
| GIVEN NAMES | Everett |
| FAMILY NAME | Waters |
| SIGNATURE | WATERS E |
| AFFILIATIONS | State University of New York |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1738-4971 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 287 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Practitioner Review
Attachment theory, with its core concepts, perspectives, and insights developed over the past five decades, is influential for professionals working with young children. However, practitioners face challenges translating attachment theory and research into practical applications. This manifests in attachment myths, theoretical misinterpretations, and inconsistency of application. This state‐of‐the‐art review is authored by 47 attachment researche…
Seymour (Sy) Epstein (1924–2016)
Disorganized attachment in infancy
Disorganized/Disoriented (D) attachment has seen widespread interest from policy makers, practitioners, and clinicians in recent years. However, some of this interest seems to have been based on some false assumptions that (1) attachment measures can be used as definitive assessments of the individual in forensic/child protection settings and that disorganized attachment (2) reliably indicates child maltreatment, (3) is a strong predictor of path…
Patterns of Attachment
Ethological attachment theory is a landmark of 20th century social and behavioral sciences theory and research. This new paradigm for understanding primary relationships across the lifespan evolved from John Bowlby’s critique of psychoanalytic drive theory and his own clinical observations, supplemented by his knowledge of fields as diverse as primate ethology, control systems theory, and cognitive psychology. By the time he had written the first…
Strange Situation Procedure
Measuring infant attachment security in rhesus macaques ( Macaca mulatta )
John Bowlby defined offspring–parent attachment as a relationship in which an infant or child uses one or a few preferred adults as a secure base from which to explore and as a haven of safety. He defined attachment security in terms of confidence in the adult's availability and responsiveness and the smooth organization of exploration and proximity seeking. Developmental psychologists have found this perspective productive in both observational …
The attachment working models concept
Mental representations are of central importance in attachment theory. Most often conceptualized in terms of working models, ideas about mental representation have helped guide both attachment theory and research. At the same time, the working models concept has been criticized as overly extensible, explaining too much and therefore too little. Once unavoidable, such openness is increasingly unnecessary and a threat to the coherence of attachment…
Attachment, Other Relationships, and the Theory that All Good Things Go Together
When "New" Meets "Old
Two studies addressed the implications of concordance versus discrepancy of attachment representations in individuals at 2 stages in their marital relationships. Engaged (n 157) and dating (n 101) couples participated in a multimethod 6-year longitudinal study of adult attachment. Individuals completed the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), the Current Relationship Interview (CRI), and various questionnaires and were observed in interactions with …
Are there really patterns of attachment? Comment on Fraley and Spieker (2003)
Ainsworth's description of attachment patterns in the Strange Situation is one of the best known and most enduring descriptive insights in developmental psychology. Yet attachment theorists have paid little attention to whether ABC classifications represent a true taxonomy or to mechanisms that might produce truly distinct patterns of attachment. This comment focuses on three questions. Does attachment theory require distinct patterns of attachme…
Stability of attachment representations
Assessing secure base behavior in adulthood
A focus on the secure base phenomenon creates a framework for exploring the function of the attachment system in adulthood. Engaged couples (N = 157) were videotaped in a problem-solving interaction and assessed using the Secure Base Scoring System (SBSS), a system based on Ainsworth's analyses of infant-parent secure base use and support. Study 1 showed behavior was significantly related to representations assessed with the Adult Attachment Inte…
A Secure Base from Which to Explore Close Relationships
The theory of attachment as a secure-base relationship integrates insights about affect, cognition, and behavior in close relationships across age and culture. Empirical successes based on this theory include important discoveries about the nature of infant–caregiver and adult–adult close relationships, the importance of early experience, and about stability and change in individual differences. The task now is to preserve these insights and succ…
Attachment Security in Infancy and Early Adulthood
Sixty White middle-class infants were seen in the Ainsworth Strange Situation at 12 months of age; 50 of these participants (21 males, 29 females) were recontacted 20 years later and interviewed by using the Berkeley Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). The interviewers were blind to the participants' Strange Situation classifications. Overall, 72% of the infants received the same secure versus insecure attachment classification in early adulthood, …
The adult attachment interview and the relationship questionnaire
The study asked the following questions: How do interview and self‐report assessments of attachment status correspond? What is the relation between attachment status assessed by these methods to self‐reports of relationships with mothers and partners? Participants were 53 married white women assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), and the Relationship Questionnaire (RQ), and a variety of questionnaires assessing love, trust, and close…
Attachment security and temperament in infancy and early childhood
Relations between attachment security and temperament were studied in 6 samples. Ages at temperament assessments ranged from 5 to 42 months and attachment security was assessed between 12 and 45 months. Attachment security was assessed using the Waters and Deane Attachment Behavior Q-set. Principal component analyses were used with the temperament data, and scores for the first component (Emotional Reactivity) served as correlates of attachment s…
Security of Attachment and Preschool Friendships
Induced mood and preschoolers' behavior
A circumplex model of emotion was used to examine the role of hedonic tone and degree of arousal in the effects of induced mood on children's persistence behavior. A total of 45 preschool children were asked to describe and think about either exciting, calm, or sad experiences and then perform a persistence task. Heart rate was continuously recorded throughout the session. Observers' ratings of facial expressions and parents' ratings of the exper…
Defining and Assessing Individual Differences in Attachment Relationships
Everett Waters, Kathleen E. Deane, Defining and Assessing Individual Differences in Attachment Relationships: Q-Methodology and the Organization of Behavior in Infancy and Early Childhood, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Vol. 50, No. 1/2, Growing Points of Attachment Theory and Research (1985), pp. 41-65
Acquisition of emotion-descriptive language
Analyse des capacites de comprehension et de l'utilisation d'adjectifs decrivant des emotions chez des enfants âges de 18 a 71 mois, d'apres les evaluations effectuees par leurs parents sur la comprehension et l'usage de 125 adjectifs de ce type
Q-sort definitions of social competence and self-esteem
A road careened into the woods
Social competence as a developmental construct
Q-sort correlates of visual regard among preschool peers
Issues of temperament and attachment
Social competence as a developmental construct
When "New" Meets "Old
Two studies addressed the implications of concordance versus discrepancy of attachment representations in individuals at 2 stages in their marital relationships. Engaged (n 157) and dating (n 101) couples participated in a multimethod 6-year longitudinal study of adult attachment. Individuals completed the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), the Current Relationship Interview (CRI), and various questionnaires and were observed in interactions with …
Attention structure, sociometric status, and dominance
Stability of attachment representations
Assessing secure base behavior in adulthood
A focus on the secure base phenomenon creates a framework for exploring the function of the attachment system in adulthood. Engaged couples (N = 157) were videotaped in a problem-solving interaction and assessed using the Secure Base Scoring System (SBSS), a system based on Ainsworth's analyses of infant-parent secure base use and support. Study 1 showed behavior was significantly related to representations assessed with the Adult Attachment Inte…
Q-sort definitions of social competence and self-esteem
Acquisition of emotion-descriptive language
Analyse des capacites de comprehension et de l'utilisation d'adjectifs decrivant des emotions chez des enfants âges de 18 a 71 mois, d'apres les evaluations effectuees par leurs parents sur la comprehension et l'usage de 125 adjectifs de ce type
Attachment security and temperament in infancy and early childhood
Relations between attachment security and temperament were studied in 6 samples. Ages at temperament assessments ranged from 5 to 42 months and attachment security was assessed between 12 and 45 months. Attachment security was assessed using the Waters and Deane Attachment Behavior Q-set. Principal component analyses were used with the temperament data, and scores for the first component (Emotional Reactivity) served as correlates of attachment s…
Q-sort correlates of visual regard among preschool peers
Attachment as an Organizational Construct
Assumptions concerning the nature of constructs underlying developmental research are often only implicit, yet they guide data collection and inter-pretation of results. For example, a number of researchers have provided data concerning int-correlations among behaviors presumed to be in-dices of attachment (e.g., Coates, Anderson & Hartup 1972; Maccoby & Feldman 1972). Noting that such "index " behaviors do not intercorrelate highly, do not show …
Attachment, Positive Affect, and Competence in the Peer Group
Everett Waters, Judith Wippman, L. Alan Sroufe, Attachment, Positive Affect, and Competence in the Peer Group: Two Studies in Construct Validation, Child Development, Vol. 50, No. 3 (Sep., 1979), pp. 821-829
Individual Differences in Infant-Mother Attachment at Twelve and Eighteen Months
100 economically disadvantaged mothers and their infants were observed in the Ainsworth and Wittig "strange situation" at 12 and 18 months. Infants were classified as secure, anxiously attached/avoidant, or anxiously attached/resistant. In addition, mothers reported occurrence of stressful events related to the stability of the caretaking environment during the 12--18 month period by completing a 44-item checklist concerning work, finances, famil…
Attention structure, sociometric status, and dominance
Issues of temperament and attachment
A road careened into the woods
Social competence as a developmental construct
Q-sort correlates of visual regard among preschool peers
Defining and Assessing Individual Differences in Attachment Relationships
Everett Waters, Kathleen E. Deane, Defining and Assessing Individual Differences in Attachment Relationships: Q-Methodology and the Organization of Behavior in Infancy and Early Childhood, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Vol. 50, No. 1/2, Growing Points of Attachment Theory and Research (1985), pp. 41-65
Acquisition of emotion-descriptive language
Analyse des capacites de comprehension et de l'utilisation d'adjectifs decrivant des emotions chez des enfants âges de 18 a 71 mois, d'apres les evaluations effectuees par leurs parents sur la comprehension et l'usage de 125 adjectifs de ce type
Q-sort definitions of social competence and self-esteem
Induced mood and preschoolers' behavior
A circumplex model of emotion was used to examine the role of hedonic tone and degree of arousal in the effects of induced mood on children's persistence behavior. A total of 45 preschool children were asked to describe and think about either exciting, calm, or sad experiences and then perform a persistence task. Heart rate was continuously recorded throughout the session. Observers' ratings of facial expressions and parents' ratings of the exper…
Security of Attachment and Preschool Friendships
Attachment security and temperament in infancy and early childhood
Relations between attachment security and temperament were studied in 6 samples. Ages at temperament assessments ranged from 5 to 42 months and attachment security was assessed between 12 and 45 months. Attachment security was assessed using the Waters and Deane Attachment Behavior Q-set. Principal component analyses were used with the temperament data, and scores for the first component (Emotional Reactivity) served as correlates of attachment s…
The adult attachment interview and the relationship questionnaire
The study asked the following questions: How do interview and self‐report assessments of attachment status correspond? What is the relation between attachment status assessed by these methods to self‐reports of relationships with mothers and partners? Participants were 53 married white women assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), and the Relationship Questionnaire (RQ), and a variety of questionnaires assessing love, trust, and close…
A Secure Base from Which to Explore Close Relationships
The theory of attachment as a secure-base relationship integrates insights about affect, cognition, and behavior in close relationships across age and culture. Empirical successes based on this theory include important discoveries about the nature of infant–caregiver and adult–adult close relationships, the importance of early experience, and about stability and change in individual differences. The task now is to preserve these insights and succ…
Attachment Security in Infancy and Early Adulthood
Sixty White middle-class infants were seen in the Ainsworth Strange Situation at 12 months of age; 50 of these participants (21 males, 29 females) were recontacted 20 years later and interviewed by using the Berkeley Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). The interviewers were blind to the participants' Strange Situation classifications. Overall, 72% of the infants received the same secure versus insecure attachment classification in early adulthood, …
Stability of attachment representations
Assessing secure base behavior in adulthood
A focus on the secure base phenomenon creates a framework for exploring the function of the attachment system in adulthood. Engaged couples (N = 157) were videotaped in a problem-solving interaction and assessed using the Secure Base Scoring System (SBSS), a system based on Ainsworth's analyses of infant-parent secure base use and support. Study 1 showed behavior was significantly related to representations assessed with the Adult Attachment Inte…
Are there really patterns of attachment? Comment on Fraley and Spieker (2003)
Ainsworth's description of attachment patterns in the Strange Situation is one of the best known and most enduring descriptive insights in developmental psychology. Yet attachment theorists have paid little attention to whether ABC classifications represent a true taxonomy or to mechanisms that might produce truly distinct patterns of attachment. This comment focuses on three questions. Does attachment theory require distinct patterns of attachme…
When "New" Meets "Old
Two studies addressed the implications of concordance versus discrepancy of attachment representations in individuals at 2 stages in their marital relationships. Engaged (n 157) and dating (n 101) couples participated in a multimethod 6-year longitudinal study of adult attachment. Individuals completed the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), the Current Relationship Interview (CRI), and various questionnaires and were observed in interactions with …
Attachment, Other Relationships, and the Theory that All Good Things Go Together
The attachment working models concept
Mental representations are of central importance in attachment theory. Most often conceptualized in terms of working models, ideas about mental representation have helped guide both attachment theory and research. At the same time, the working models concept has been criticized as overly extensible, explaining too much and therefore too little. Once unavoidable, such openness is increasingly unnecessary and a threat to the coherence of attachment…
Measuring infant attachment security in rhesus macaques ( Macaca mulatta )
John Bowlby defined offspring–parent attachment as a relationship in which an infant or child uses one or a few preferred adults as a secure base from which to explore and as a haven of safety. He defined attachment security in terms of confidence in the adult's availability and responsiveness and the smooth organization of exploration and proximity seeking. Developmental psychologists have found this perspective productive in both observational …
Strange Situation Procedure
Psychology (26 works) · Developmental psychology (22 works) · Social Psychology (17 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (16 works) · Attachment theory (15 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (12 works) · Cognitive psychology (9 works) · Family Dynamics and Relationships (9 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Computer Science (6 works)