Biomedical subjects

M Dozier

Publications and source records attributed to M Dozier.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

The challenge of treatment for clients with dismissing states of mind.

Thirty-four clients with serious psychopathological disorders were videotaped solving interpersonal problems with significant others or with case managers. Differential reliance on dismissing states of mind was examined in relation to behavioral ratings of clients during the interactions, and in relation to changes in clients' and partners' reports of feelings. Clients who relied more on dismissing strategies showed greater rejection of significant others, but not of case managers, compared with clients who relied more on preoccupied strategies. The partners of dismissing clients reported greater sadness following problem-solving interactions than the partners of preoccupied clients. Clients who relied more on dismissing strategies spent less time on task when interacting with their case managers than clients who relied more on preoccupied strategies, and reported more confusion following these interactions. These findings suggest that treatment is likely to provide a particularly challenging context for adults with dismissing states of mind.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

The development of attachment in new relationships: single subject analyses for 10 foster infants.

This paper presents single-subject analyses of newly developing attachment relationships in 10 foster infant-caregiver dyads. Using a diary methodology, at least 2 months of daily data were provided by foster parents on infants' attachment behaviors. Foster infant attachment was also assessed using the Strange Situation. Foster mother state of mind regarding attachment was measured using the Adult Attachment Interview. For eight infants, diary data revealed predominant patterns of attachment behavior emerging within 2 months of placement. In most cases, diary data predicted Strange Situation classifications. Both Strange Situation and diary data indicated that the three children placed in foster care before 12 months of age with foster parents having primary or secondary autonomous states of mind were classified as having secure attachments. The five children placed after 12 months of age showed predominantly insecure attachment behavior in the diary and were classified as insecure in the Strange Situation. Contingency analyses of behavioral sequences reported in the diary revealed that foster parents tended to complement their foster childrens' attachment behaviors.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Effective treatment relationships for persons with serious psychiatric disorders: the importance of attachment states of mind.

Participants were 54 clients with serious psychiatric disorders and 21 clinical case managers. Clients' serious psychiatric disorders included Axis I diagnoses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This study examined how attachment states of mind of both clients and case managers influenced the effectiveness of therapeutic relationships and client functioning. Client and case manager attachment states of mind interacted in predicting the working alliance and client functioning. Specifically, clients who were more deactivating with respect to attachment had better alliances and functioned better with less deactivating case managers, whereas clients who were less deactivating worked better with more deactivating case managers. These findings highlight the importance of clinicians and clients being matched in ways that balance their interpersonal and emotional strategies.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Clinicians as caregivers: role of attachment organization in treatment.

The relationship between case managers' attachment organization and interventions used with clients who have serious psychopathological disorders was examined. Adult Attachment Interviews were administered to 27 clients and their 18 case managers. Interviews were coded by means of Kobak's Q-set, which yields scores for secure-insecure and preoccupied-dismissing attachment strategies. Case managers were interviewed during each of 5 months regarding their most recent interventions; interventions were coded for depth of intervention and attention to dependency needs. Compared with secure case managers, insecure case managers attended more to dependency needs and intervened in greater depth with preoccupied clients than they did with dismissing clients. Case managers who were more preoccupied intervened with their clients in greater depth than did case managers who were more dismissing.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Psychophysiology in attachment interviews: converging evidence for deactivating strategies.

By asking the subject to consider a host of potentially threatening attachment-related issues, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) allows an assessment of different strategies for regulating the attachment system. These strategies can be assessed along the 2 dimensions of security/anxiety and deactivation/hyperactivation. The greatest inferential leaps may be in characterizing strategies as deactivating. For example, individuals using deactivating strategies often report extremely positive relationships with parents, display restricted recall of attachment memories, and play down the significance of early attachment experiences. If these descriptive features are guided by a strategy that requires diverting attention from attachment information, subjects employing this strategy should experience conflict or inhibition during the Attachment Interview. In the present study, skin conductance levels were monitored for 50 college students during a baseline period and throughout the Attachment Interview. Subjects employing deactivating strategies showed marked increases in skin conductance levels from baseline to questions asking them to recall experiences of separation, rejection, and threat from parents. This finding supports the notion that individuals employing deactivating attachment strategies experience conflict or inhibition during the Attachment Interview.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Functional measurement assessment of young children's ability to predict future behavior.

The reported experiments demonstrate that young children's ability to use previous behavioral information to predict future behavior emerges on quantitative, but not dichotomous, judgment tasks. In a first experiment, kindergartners, second graders, and fourth graders made quantitative liking judgments and predictions for peers after being presented 2 pieces of behavioral information. Children of all 3 age groups used both pieces of information in their liking judgments and predictions. In a second experiment, kindergartners were presented with 2 types of tasks; one was a quantitative prediction, comparable to the task in Experiment 1, and the second were dichotomous predictions, comparable to judgment tasks typically used in other experiments. Children's predictions were significantly more consistent with the behavioral information on the quantitative task than on either of the dichotomous tasks. These results suggest that young children believe in the ability of interpersonal behavior, but have difficulty dealing with the complexity of some prediction tasks.

Child↗

PubMed1988

Rejected children's processing of interpersonal information.

This research examined differences in the interpersonal information processing of socially rejected and average children. Rejected and average fifth-graders were presented with two pieces of videotaped information about peers, making judgments of the peers after each. Two judgment tasks, differing in the extent to which they were self-relevant, were used. The judgments were liking judgments for peers (low self-relevance) and predictions of how the peers would behave toward the self (high self-relevance). Rejected children used the available behavioral information differently than average children to make their predictions of how peers would behave toward them, but did not differ in their liking judgments. These findings were consistent with the hypothesis that rejected children's capabilities to process interpersonal information comparably to better adjusted children break down in highly self-relevant judgments.

Child↗

PubMed1988

Social disability in the young adult mentally ill.

The social functioning of young mentally ill adults was assessed in relationship to that of older mentally ill adults. In terms of family and friends, the younger and older groups were found to experience similar social withdrawal, although the younger group was more likely to be employed. It is suggested that such withdrawal may be typical of young mentally ill adults not enrolled in programs emphasizing social involvement.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1987

Social network density and rehospitalization among young adult patients.

The authors interviewed 30 patients under age 40 who had been hospitalized repeatedly to determine the relationship between social network density, or the extent to which network members know one another, and rehospitalization. They found that moderate levels of network density were associated with fewer days in the hospital. Time spent in the hospital was not related to network size, and patient diagnosis was not a good predictor of hospitalization. The authors hypothesize that a moderately dense network is optimal for psychologically vulnerable individuals because it can be maintained under stress.

Adult↗

PubMed1984

Measuring outcome.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Chronic Disease↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Attachment for infants in foster care: the role of caregiver state of mind.

The concordance between foster mothers' attachment state of mind and foster infants' attachment quality was examined for 50 foster mother-infant dyads. Babies had been placed into the care of their foster mothers between birth and 20 months of age. Attachment quality was assessed between 12 and 24 months of age, at least 3 months after the infants' placement into foster care. The two-way correspondence between maternal state of mind and infant attachment quality was 72%, kappa = .43, similar to the level seen among biologically intact mother-infant dyads. Contrary to expectations, age at placement was not related to attachment quality. Rather, concordance between maternal state of mind and infant attachment was seen for relatively late-placed babies, as well as early placed babies. These findings have two major implications. First, following a disruption in care during the first year and a half of life, babies appear capable of organizing their behavior around the availability of new caregivers. Second, these data argue for a nongenetic mechanism for the intergenerational transmission of attachment.

Adult↗