Attachment Theory and the Evolutionary Psychology of Religion

摘要

More than 40 years after its inception, Bowlby's theory of infant-mother attachment remains widely accepted and highly influential across many areas and applications of psychology, including the psychology of religion. As compelling as the theory is for explaining phenomena within its natural domain, however, its explanatory scope is inherently limited: There are many aspects of religion that it cannot, and should not be expected to, explain. From the perspective of contemporary evolutionary psychology—with which Bowlby's original theory has much in common—the attachment system is one among many functionally domain-specific cognitive adaptations that populate our species' evolved psychological architecture. Evolutionary psychology offers a valuable perspective within which the attachment system can be seen properly as just one (important) piece of a much larger puzzle—of psychology in general and religion in particular—as well as a powerful and generative paradigm for identifying and fitting together the many other pieces that will be required if we are to progress toward a comprehensive psychology of religion.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2012.679556