2005 Awardees

Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg For Rigor And Originality In Attachment Study. A Generous Colleague, Mentor, And Steadfast Secure Base In The Bowlby-Ainsworth Tradition

John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth set high standards for attachment study. They insisted on a central role for theory, rigorous empirical methods, and close critical analysis. Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg has maintained and elevated these standards in her careful and imaginative research on attachment assessment. Her use of meta-analytic methods has helped identify and communicate the best established and most important results from an entire generation of attachment research. Intrigued by the possibilities of changing the course of insecure attachment development, she has also helped realize John Bowlby's goal of translating theory and research into practical, effective interventions. A generous and patient colleague and mentor, Dr. Bakermans-Kranenburg has been the invisible hand guiding an impressive range of attachment research and training from the Leiden attachment laboratories. A devoted mother of three, her successes in research and teaching have not diminished her success as a steadfast secure base. Those who would follow in her footsteps recognize that this too has enriched the Bowlby-Ainsworth tradition.