ABSTRACT
Security provision, the feeling of safety, and underlying trust are critically discussed in this chapter in the perspective of attachment theory and culture. Four theses are proposed that may be perceived as contradicting universal assumptions of therapeutic literature, yet are highlighted in psychology. One refers to universality of attachment, while the other three address interrelations between attachment (security, safety, trust) and culture. First, according to attachment theory the majority of the population worldwide is secure, thus have resilience-related capacities (mastery, positive world-view, and dyadic emotion regulation), allowing them to bounce back (by themselves) after hardships. Second, the individual threshold of threat perception that activates attachment need for proximity depends on socio-ecological, including cultural context. Third, the nature of trust, an underlying security in dyadic relationships, is culture-dependent. As such, it may be more robust based more on assurance linked to social role, or it may be more fragile as developed more based on life experiences with particular close others. Fourth, strategies of security provision differ across cultural contexts. Questions about the current state and the future of psychological practice and attachment theory in the Western/WEIRD part of the world are asked as concluding remarks.
