ABSTRACT
We have attempted in this book to provide a succinct but thorough review of available evidence concerning the origins and implications of individual difference in patterns of attachment behavior in the Strange Situation. This exercise has left us with a clearer sense of the research landscape than we had before; an awareness of what we know, what we do not know, and what issues seem crucially important as we (as a subdiscipline) plan future research endeavors. In the three sections of this brief closing chapter, we aim to gather together the strands developed in the preceding chapters. In the first, we summarize the major conclusions emerging from our review of the literature to date. Second, we address key issues arising from our integration that seem to represent crucially important interpretive lacunae. Finally, we identify some promising and important areas for future empirical research.
