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Biomedical subjects

K E Grossmann

Publications and source records attributed to K E Grossmann.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Old and new internal working models of attachment: the organization of feelings and language.

Old internal working models of attachment are based on the organization of feelings and behavior which develop on the basis of parents' sensitivity to infants' and young children's attachment and exploratory needs. New internal working models reflect the process of language discourses with older and wiser conversation partners during the many subsequent years of immaturity. It is proposed that successful linguistic co-construction of internal coherence of attachment emotions and their external correspondence may lead to secure states of mind even in cases of less than optimal early attachment experiences--and vice versa. Attachment theory needs to address the problem of how early secure or insecure organizations of attachment emotions interact with the later construction of mature internal working models through language discourse with others, and with what emotional outcome. This would help to solve the theoretical paradox between continuity--unchangeable determinism from early infancy--and non-continuity--irrelevancy of early attachment experiences for later states of mind.

Child↗
PubMed1998

[Principles of attachment theory in subjective life satisfaction and individual orientation to the future in advanced adulthood].

Attachment representation was assessed in 48 elderly people with an average age of 69 years. The adult attachment interview was used plus an additional question about wishes for the future. Coherent correlations with subjective life satisfaction and individual future perspective were demonstrated. Elderly participants with secure attachment representation were more satisfied, they were also less anxious, and more often positive about their future. If their adult children had secure attachment representation, they were reported by their elderly parents to be socially, emotionally, and materially more supportive. Attachment representation as a biographical variable is the result of developmental processes. Our findings show qualitative differences in attachment representation with clear consequences for lifestyles in advanced age. Perception and interpretation of environment, and the ability to integrate negative emotions into positive life perspectives is mainly a matter of social-emotional experiences with significant attachment figures.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Continuity in parent-child relationships from infancy to middle childhood and relations with friendship competence.

This cross-cultural study examined continuity in parent-child relationships from infancy to middle childhood in a sample of German families. Connections were traced between individual differences in a composite of markers of the parent-child attachment relationship system (including classification of the infant via the Strange Situation and parent via the Adult Attachment Interview and for mothers' ratings of sensitivity) and later parent-child communications. Findings within the mother-child relationship revealed modest links between the composite and communications and were taken to suggest that the divergent fields of attachment and family communication research are addressing similar underlying relationship processes involving the interplay between relatedness and autonomy. Further findings revealed that the composite modestly predicted variability in children's competence in forming friendships and that differences in concurrent child-mother communications significantly added to and possibly mediated these effects. Results were interpreted as supporting a process model of development, whereby adaptation is influenced by both current and past relationship status.

Child Behavior↗
PubMed1993

Biobehavioral organization in securely and insecurely attached infants.

Attachment research has shown the emergence of individual differences in the security of infant-mother attachment during the first year of life as well as their importance for later social-emotional development. A biobehavioral perspective may help settle disagreements about the validity and interpretation of 12-month-old infants' different behavioral patterns of attachment assessed by Ainsworth's Strange Situation. It was shown that, despite less overt distress in insecure-avoidant infants after short separations from the mother, overall cardiac measures indicate arousal patterns similar to the secure infants during separation. However, differences in cardiac response emerged with regard to object versus person orientation during reunion. Additionally, findings of increased cortisol in both insecure-avoidant and disorganized infants support the theoretical interpretation that these infants, in contrast to secure infants, lack an appropriate coping strategy.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1973

Continuous, fixed-ratio, and fixed-interval reinforcement in honey bees.

Bees learned to enter a Plexiglas tube and to suck small portions of sugar solution; every entry or every fifth entry was reinforced. During an extinction phase, the bees on the fixed-ratio schedule emitted twice as many responses as did those given continuous reinforcement. Bees on a fixed-interval schedule of reinforcement emitted lower response rates than did those given fixed-ratio reinforcement. By extending the conditioning procedure for several days, it was possible to maintain responding with fixed-ratio schedules requiring 30 responses per reinforcement and with fixed-interval values up to 90 sec. Under fixed-interval schedules, response rates did not increase toward the end of the reinforcement intervals.

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Differences in linguistic representation of 10- to 12-year-old boys of divorced and not divorced parents].

Twenty-eight 10- to 14 years old boys from divorced families (separation of the parents was two years before the investigation) were compared with 26 10- to 14 years old boys from two-parent families on the basis of interviews about attachment related themes and daily situations, and by means of the California Child Q-Sort (CCQ). The interviews were analyzed with regard to coherence of language, emotional problems, reflectivity, supportive representation of their parents, verbal and nonverbal emotional openness and social network, as well as for personality variables. The boys of the divorced group did barely talk about relations, had problems in coping with emotional stress, and were less reflective about themselves and others. They felt insufficiently supported by their parents and did not show their emotions openly. They talked about themselves as dependent from their social environment and as less adaptive to new situations. These indications suggest an insecure attachment representation predominantly as a result of the parents' behavior leading to divorce (Table 1). The results show that separations and family disruptions, as a group effect, strongly affect pre-adolescent boys' state of mind. A minority of boys from the parental divorce group, however, show secure mental representations, comparable to a majority in the control group. Tables 2-5 show, independent of parental divorce, the major differences between boys with secure and boys with insecure mental representations.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Quality of attachment representation, social integration and use of social network resources in advanced age].

This study explores a possible biographical basis of interindividual differences in the extent of social integration and use of network resources in old age. Attachment theory was therefore integrated into a sociogerontological research approach. The attachment representations of 48 elderly people were assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview by Main and Goldwyn (31, 56, 57), whereas the subjects' social network was examined using a network questionnaire by Schütze (72). Results indicate that elderly persons' availability as well as use of social resources were, among other things, related to the biographically based attachment representation, which has been shown to be closely connected to emotional experiences usually made in one's family of origin.

Aged↗