2004 Awardees

H. Rudolph Schaffer For Contributions To Attachment Study Becoming An Empirical Science

Rudolph Schaffer began his career in the clinics and seminars that spawned the Bowlby-Ainsworth tradition. His ground breaking work on attachment behavior, fear of strangers, physical contact, and infant hospitalization helped insure that attachment study would become an empirical science. This work also captured the imagination of countless students and scholars who became major contributors to attachment study.

In addition to his empirical contributions, Rudolph Schaffer has made key contributions to the Bowlby-Ainsworth tradition as organizer and editor of seminal volumes on social development. During an era in which women were often overlooked, his enthusiasm for Mary Ainsworth’s participation was important and appreciated. As editor of Social Development he has worked unselfishly to encourage young researchers and provide the kind of lively form necessary to the good health of social development theory and research.

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