“Do you trust me?” That is the multi-dimensional question that Chris Gardner asks his son, Christopher, throughout the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness." It is a question that is used as a tool for reinforcement, as a pacifying effect, and as a probe for attachment theorists to examine the depth of the father/son relationship. In response to our assignment to identify the type of attachment between Chris and his son, our group identified patterns that matched well with multiple theories. Our text identifies Erik Erikson, John Bowlby, and Mary Ainsworth as very influential persons in defining attachment (Santrock p 366). In correlation to the movie, Erikson’s theory of eight stages of development can be applied with an emphasis on the initiative vs. guilt phase. John Bowlby is credited for origination works on the Attachment Theory. The fourth phase of his conceptualization of attachment can certainly be related to the movie. Our group also tagged the work of Mary Ainsworth and her Strange Situation measurement device. We concluded that Christopher fit the description of a "securely attached baby" very well. According to Erik Erikson’s view of a child’s development, physical comfort and sensitive care are vital to establishing a basic trust in infants. In turn, this sense of trust is the foundation for attachment and sets the stage for a lifelong expectation that the world will be a good and pleasant place to be (Santrock p 366). This trust coupled with Christopher’s age act as a buffer against all of the harsh realities that Chris must cope with. Christopher’s age places him in Erikson’s "initiative versus guilt" stage. During this stage, children are expected to take initiative in creating play situations that can help cope with challenges (Harder 2002). An excellent example of Christopher in this stage is when the two of them were in the subway station the first night after getting kicked out of the motel. Chris tells his son that the scanner really is a time machine and pretends that they are transported back in time. Christopher uses his imagination and play skills to pretend that they are really hiding from dinosaurs in a cave rather than sleepin