Coupling Structure and Transition: The Basis-Test Model (BTM) and the Puberty Model (PM) as an Integrated Theory of Attachment, Identity, and Autonomy Development
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper develops the Basis-Test Model (BTM) and the Puberty Model (PM) as a self-contained, coupled developmental theory. The BTM describes a three-tier state architecture — attachment, identity, trauma — determining which dispositions a subject brings into a developmental phase. The PM describes a transition function of four quantities (needing, wanting, shall, must) that decides, at a 'mysterious threshold', whether the autonomy conflict is integrated or subjugated through a rupture. Central thesis: the BTM supplies the state variables, the PM the transition function; only their coupling explains divergent developmental paths from similar starting points. Proposed are a two-regime model (integrable vs. unsolvable), a revocation test separating genuine wanting from recoded must, and a formal coupling table. Falsifiable, anti-essentialist, purely analytic-descriptive. English translation; German original and French translation published as separate records.
Author: Heiler, Maximilian
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7169447347
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