Disorganized attachment in infancy: a review of the phenomenon and its implications for clinicians and policy-makers.

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 pathology, and (4) represents a fixed or static "trait" of the child, impervious to development or help. This paper summarizes the evidence showing that these four assumptions are false and misleading. The paper reviews what is known about disorganized infant attachment and clarifies the implications of the classification for clinical and welfare practice with children. In particular, the difference between disorganized attachment and attachment disorder is examined, and a strong case is made for the value of attachment theory for supportive work with families and for the development and evaluation of evidence-based caregiving interventions.

Religious and spiritual development are determined 100% by nature, and 100% by nurture: A playful response to Boyatzis.

In this response, we respond to Boyatzis' commentary to our paper 'Nature meets nurture in religious and spiritual development'. We also provide additional elaborations on how nurture might co-sculpt nature in the context of religious and spiritual development.

Nature meets nurture in religious and spiritual development.

We consider nurture's (including culture's) sculpting influences on the evolved psychological predispositions that are expressed in religious and spiritual (R&S) development. An integrated understanding of R&S development requires a move away from the largely one-sided (nature-or-nurture) and additive (nature + nurture) accounts provided in the extant literature. R&S development has been understood as an expression of evolved cognitive modules (nature) on the one hand, and of socialization and social learning (nurture) on the other, or in similar albeit additive terms (e.g., nature produces the brain/mind, culture fills in the details). We argue that humans' evolved psychological predispositions are substantially co-shaped by environmental/cultural input, such as relational experiences and modelling at the microlevel through belief and value systems at the macrolevel. Nurture's sculpting of nature is, then, expressed in R&S development. Finally, for heuristic purposes, we illustrate a fully integrated nature-nurture model with attachment theory and its application to R&S development. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Development unfolds as a function of nature-nurture interaction. R&S development has mostly been understood from the point of view of separate nature or nurture models. What does this study add? A collected consideration of the intricate interactions between nature and nurture in development. A sketch, examples, and a conceptual toolbox of how nature and nurture interact in R&S development.