In search of an interpersonal compass: Predictive processing, early interpersonal processes, and the development of attachment (in)security

In recent years, the Free Energy Principle (FEP) and the Predictive Processing Framework (PPF) have gained prominence as comprehensive models for understanding perception, action, and psychopathology. This paper integrates these frameworks to propose that parent-child interactions trajectories over time, marked by sensitivity, mirroring, and emotional attunement, play a central role in shaping the child’s generative model of the self and the social world. Drawing on empirical findings and theoretical developments, we argue that attachment relationships provide the primary context for the acquisition of priors, the calibration of precision weighting, and the establishment of strategies for prediction error minimization. We explore how secure and insecure attachment styles correspond to distinct predictive profiles and error minimization policies, and how early relational experiences influence emotional regulation, epistemic trust, and long-term adaptability. We provide testable hypotheses and propose a scientific agenda for future experiments. By framing early interpersonal experience as a process of model setting within a hierarchical predictive system, this work offers novel insights into the developmental roots of socioemotional functioning and highlights the clinical relevance of predictive frameworks for understanding attachment-related psychopathology.