ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses primarily on the controversy between temperament and attachment theorists, and reviews the relevant evidence and attempts at resolving the controversy. Temperament and attachment theorists agree that relationships between parents and children are the outcome of child characteristics, parent characteristics, outside influences and the synergistic effects of all of these factors. The chapter considers two types of infant influences on development of attachment, namely those related to temperament and those related to medical conditions. Ability to moderate distress is widely accepted as a temperamental trait. Attachment theorists posit that attachment is both a trait and a dyadic characteristic. If attachment is a trait, then infants should show the same pattern of behaviour with a variety of caregivers. If attachment is a dyadic construct, then infants can show different patterns of attachment behaviour with different caregivers.
