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PubMed2003

Commentary: cognitive-affective mechanisms and processes in autobiographical memory.

This commentary highlights some of the interesting points to emerge from the preceding papers about the self, social, and directive functions of autobiographical memory. Additionally some cognitive functions are also considered and especially the way in which autobiographical memory supports, constrains, and maintains the goals of the self. Directions for future research into the self, social, directive, and cognitive-affective functions and processes of autobiographical memory are reviewed. Emphasis is placed on future research into the function of autobiographical memory in representations of attachment.

Behavior↗
PubMed2001

Interpersonal variability in dependent personality.

The interpersonal circumplex (IPC) was recommended as a personality trait dimensional model with good potential to identify the phenomenological scope of personality disorders whose core dysfunction involves maladaptive expression of interpersonal traits. The IPC was then applied to the reconceptualization of dependent personality and dependent personality disorder. In Study 1, Pincus and Gurtman's (1995) three interpersonal vectors of dependency were validated via factor analyses conducted on two large samples (N = 921; N = 472) and a reliable self-report measure, the 3 Vector Dependency Inventory (3VDI) was constructed. In Study 2, two samples (N = 103; N = 122) of individuals identified as predominantly endorsing submissive dependence, exploitable dependence, or love dependence, or who were low in aspects of dependency were compared via ANOVA and chi-square analyses on parental representations, adult attachment styles, loneliness, and pathological attachment. Submissive dependence was associated with higher scores on maladaptive constructs (fearful attachment, pathological attachment, and loneliness) and was also associated with lower parental affiliation and higher maternal control. Love dependence was associated with lower scores on maladaptive constructs and higher scores on secure attachment and parental affiliation. Variability in dependent phenomenology was related to its three component traits. Multiple perspectives on integrating love dependence, exploitable dependence, and submissive dependence into a reconceptualization of dependent personality disorder were articulated.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

My life is a longing: child abuse and its adult sequelae. Results of the Brody longitudinal study from birth to age 30.

The psychoanalytically oriented Brody longitudinal study has followed the psychological development of 76 individuals from birth to age 30. Ten suffered severe maltreatment in childhood in the form of rejection and/or physical abuse at the hands of one or both parents. This report describes the effects of child abuse on the emerging personalities of the children, as well as on their adult personalities and mental health. Specifically, as adults the maltreated children had significantly more psychiatric illness (typically depressions and anxiety disorders), less mature psychological defense mechanisms, more insecure mental representations of attachment to their parents as indicated by the adult attachment interview, and a lower Global Assessment of Functioning than their well-treated counterparts. Additionally, their prevailing moods were joyless. Case examples show the emergence of symptoms, personality disorders, and defenses over time, as well as the workings of ameliorating influences. Several of the maltreated children made relatively successful adaptations as adults, indicating children's potential for resilience. Resilience, however, may be a superficial concept, for, in this series of cases, seemingly adequate coping in formerly mistreated children always came at the price of emotional vulnerability and compromised potential.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1999

Sensitivity, security and internal working models: bridging the transmission gap.

Empirical studies and meta-analytical reviews have shown security of attachment to be predicted by: (1) caregivers' current representations of their own childhood attachment experiences; and (2) caregivers' sensitive responsivity to their infants' cues during the first year of life. However, despite the wealth of data on these topics, the reasons for these connections remain poorly understood. The aim of this paper is to present a new theoretical approach that may enable us to identify the mechanisms involved in the evolution and transmission of attachment security. Specifically, it is suggested that the concept of parental mind-mindedness (Meins, 1997) may help to explain the links between parents' mental representations of attachment experiences and infant-parent attachment security. This approach may also contribute to our understanding of certain consequences of attachment relationships, such as recent evidence for security-related differences in children's mentalizing abilities.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

The nature of the mother's tie to her infant: maternal bonding under conditions of proximity, separation, and potential loss.

Attachment has generally been examined from the infant's perspective. We focused on mothers' post-partum thoughts and behaviors. Guided by an ethological approach, maternal bonding was examined under conditions of proximity, separation, and potential loss. Ninety-one mothers were interviewed: mothers of full-term infants who maintained continuous proximity to the infant, mothers of healthy premature infants who were separated from the infant, and mothers of very low birthweight infants who experienced potential loss and prolonged separation. Mothers of term infants reported medium-to-high levels of preoccupations with thoughts of infant safety and well-being. Preoccupations increased with separation (Group 2) and significantly decreased with impending loss (Group 3). Attachment behaviors and representations were the highest among mothers of term infants and declined linearly with the duration of mother-infant separation. Maternal trait anxiety and depression were related respectively to higher levels of preoccupations and reduced attachment behaviors and representations, independent of the infant medical condition and mother-child separation. Discussion focused on the comparability of maternal and infant attachment in relation to the neurobiological system underlying bond formation.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Mothers' representations of their relationships with their toddlers: links to adult attachment and observed mothering.

Mothers (N = 125) and their firstborn sons were studied over an 11-month period to examine relations between mothers' representations of their relationships with their children (measured at 15 months by using the Parent Development Interview [PDI]), adult representations of attachment (measured at 12 months by using the Adult Attachment Interview [AAI]), and observed mothering (measured at 15 and 21 months). Results indicate (a) that mothers classified as autonomous on the AAI scored highest on the joy-pleasure/coherence dimension of the PDI and mothers classified as dismissing on the AAI scored highest on the anger dimension of the PDI and (b) that mothers scoring higher on the joy-pleasure/coherence dimension of the PDI engaged in less negative and more positive mothering.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Attachment and core relationship themes: wishes for autonomy and closeness in the narratives of securely and insecurely attached adults.

This study examines links between attachment states of mind and relationship schemas in a sample of 40 young adults, half of whom were hospitalized as adolescents for psychiatric treatment. Participants were interviewed about their closest relationships, and, using the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme method, their narratives about these relationships were analyzed for the relative frequency with which they expressed wishes for closeness and for autonomy in relation to others. Participants were also administered the Adult Attachment Interview and were classified with respect to security of attachment. Security of attachment was associated with the relative frequency with which participants expressed wishes for autonomy in their narratives about close relationships, even after accounting for current levels of psychological functioning and history of serious psychopathology in adolescence. Security of attachment was not associated with the relative frequency with which participants expressed wishes for closeness. The study suggests that core relational wishes for autonomy are linked specifically with subtypes of insecure attachment. These findings extend what is known about connections between the representation of early attachment relationships and the wishes and needs expressed in current relationships with significant others.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1988

Attachment in late adolescence: working models, affect regulation, and representations of self and others.

The purpose of this study was to examine the coherence of attachment organization during late adolescence. In a sample of 53 first-year college students, 3 kinds of working models of attachment were assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview: Dismissing of Attachment, Secure, and Preoccupied with Attachment. Affect regulation was evaluated with peer Q-sort ratings of Ego-Resiliency, Ego-Undercontrol, Hostility, and Anxiety, and representations of self and others were assessed with self-report measures of distress, perceived competence, and social support. The Secure group was rated as more ego-resilient, less anxious, and less hostile by peers and reported little distress and high levels of social support. The Dismissing group was rated low on ego-resilience and higher on hostility by peers and reported more distant relationships in terms of more loneliness and low levels of social support from family. The Preoccupied group was viewed as less ego-resilient and more anxious by peers and reported high levels of personal distress, while viewing their family as more supportive than the Dismissing group. These findings are interpreted in terms of different styles of affect regulation and representational bias associated with particular working models of attachment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Attachment theory and brief psychotherapy: applying current research to clinical interventions.

Recent advances in attachment research provide a framework for defining the content and process of brief psychotherapy with adults. Attachment theory emphasizes a number of issues crucial to therapeutic work. Specifically, attachment relationships are enduring components of a individual's pattern of interpersonal behaviours. Functionally, attachment relationships address security needs. Insecure attachment arises from a representational model based on feared loss of the attachment figure, which predisposes the individual to have little confidence in the attachment figure's availability, responsiveness, and permanence. Behavioural responses to insecure attachment can lead to specific patterns of interpersonal relationships which, in turn, strengthen the representational model. Thus, a relatively stable, self-reinforcing system evolves and results in a consistent inability to experience security within attachment relationships. In this article, the authors describe the current framework for understanding adult attachment relationships and present clinical vignettes illustrating the saliency of attachment theory to common clinical presentations. The goal of the clinical intervention is defined as increasing the "permeability" of the individual's working model of attachment through affective and cognitive re-assessment of attachment experiences and expectations. Finally, the utility of this approach in evaluating the outcome and effectiveness of psychotherapy is highlighted.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

An interpersonal analysis of adult attachment style: circumplex descriptions, recoiled developmental experiences, self-representations, and interpersonal functioning in adulthood.

Previous research suggests that the structure of adult attachment is dimensional, but the specific dimensions remain unclear. Given its relational nature, studies should examine attachment structure in association with conceptually related interpersonal constructs. The interpersonal model (Kiesler, 1996) provides an integrative framework to examine this structure and associations between dimensions of attachment security (i.e., Anxiety and Avoidance) and: 1) the dimensions of the interpersonal circumplex, 2) the five-factor model of personality, 3) recollections of mothers and fathers, and 4) current self-processes and adult social functioning. In two samples of undergraduates, the Anxiety and Avoidance dimensions were associated with a hostile-submissive interpersonal style. Canonical correlation analyses revealed that dimensions representing combinations of Anxiety and Avoidance, and roughly corresponding to the dimensions from Secure (i.e., low Anxiety and Avoidance) to Fearful (i.e., high Anxiety and Avoidance) attachment and from Preoccupied (i.e., high Anxiety and low Avoidance) to Dismissive (i.e., low Anxiety and high Avoidance) attachment related to the interpersonal constructs. The Secure to Fearful dimension (i.e., overall attachment security) seemed to share relatively more variance with the interpersonal constructs. These dimensions were associated with theoretically consistent characteristics, recollections of early experiences with parents, self-representations, and social functioning.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

On the relation between maternal state of mind and sensitivity in the prediction of infant attachment security.

Attachment theorists assume that maternal mental representations influence responsivity, which influences infant attachment security. However, primary studies do not support this mediation model. The authors tested mediation using 2 mother-infant samples and found no evidence of mediation. Therefore, the authors explored sensitivity as a moderator, studying the (a) interaction of mental representation and sensitivity as it predicts infant attachment security and (b) level of sensitivity in mothers whose infants' attachment security is either concordant or discordant with their own. The interactional analyses were not significant. But the match-mismatch data showed that when mother-infant attachment strategies were discordant, maternal sensitivity was more consistent with infant than maternal attachment strategy. These findings are congruent with an interpretation of sensitivity as a moderator that can block transmission of attachment strategy.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Mothers' representations of their infants assessed prenatally: stability and association with infants' attachment classifications.

The stability and predictive validity of classifications of mothers' representations of their infants as determined by the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI) were examined. Concordance between mothers' representations of their infants assessed prenatally and again one year later and infant Strange Situation (SS) attachment classifications at 12 months was also examined. WMCI classifications were stable over 12 months in 80% of mothers, compared to 51% expected by chance alone. Pregnancy WMCIs predicted infant SS classifications in 74% of cases, compared to 54% expected by chance. Concordance between 11-month WMCI and 12-months SS classifications was 73% (vs. 55% expected by chance). Problems with the skewed distribution of the sample, the low concordance between pregnancy and 11 months for one of the three classifications, and future directions for research are discussed.

Female↗
PubMed2002

Adult attachment interview, thematic analysis, and communicative style in families with substance use disorder.

The paper examined the Adult Attachment Interview with special reference to thematic and semantic analysis in line with the discourse study (van Dijk, 1997). The hypothesis was that correspondence between the communicative organization of speech and the mental representations of the attachment experiences would be substantial. Eight Adult Attachment Interview transcripts of fathers with a heroin addicted young son were analyzed at two levels, (a) thematic analysis to individuate the topics of their talk applying the structural and semantic study of discourse and (b) enunciative analysis of speech to define their linguistic patterns utilizing a set of linguistic micro- and macro-units. Results showed nine main topics in the Adult Attachment Interview, each of which was characterized by a distinctive linguistic profile. In this perspective this device seems to be effective not only for discriminating attachment styles between subjects but also to identify differences within subjects belonging to the same attachment pattern.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

On the nature and consequences of early loss.

OBJECTIVE: To describe how an animal model system can be used to explore basic questions about the nature of loss and the effects of early loss on later vulnerability to disease. METHOD: The physiological and behavioral responses of infant rats to separation from their mothers are first described and then analyzed experimentally into component mechanisms. RESULTS: These studies have revealed an extensive layer of processes underlying the psychological constructs generally used to understand the response to loss. Hidden within the observable interactions of parent and offspring, we found a number of discrete sensorimotor, thermal, and nutrient-based events that have unexpected long-term regulatory effects on specific components of infant physiology and behavior. Release from all of these inhibitory and excitatory regulators together during maternal separation constitutes a novel mechanism by which the experience of loss can be translated into a complex patterned response. Evidence for early regulatory processes has also been found in monkey and human mother-infant interactions. Here they may well constitute the building blocks from which attachment and object representations develop. We and others have found long-term effects of loss, and of selective replacement of regulators, on behavioral development and on later vulnerability to disease. CONCLUSIONS: The results give us a new understanding of early attachment as a developmental force and of human grief as a risk to health.

Age Factors↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The legacy of early attachments.

The impact of early close relationships on psychological development is one of the enduring questions of developmental psychology that is addressed by attachment theory and research. This essay evaluates what has been learned, and offers ideas for future research, by examining the origins of continuity and change in the security of attachment early in life, and its prediction of later behavior. The discussion evaluates research on the impact of changing family circumstances and quality of care on changes in attachment security, and offers new hypotheses for future study. Considering the representations (or internal working models) associated with attachment security as developing representations, the discussion proposes that (1) attachment security may be developmentally most influential when the working models with which it is associated have sufficiently matured to influence other emerging features of psychosocial functioning; (2) changes in attachment security are more likely during periods of representational advance; and (3) parent-child discourse and other relational influences shape these developing representations after infancy. Finally, other features of early parent-child relationships that develop concurrently with attachment security, including negotiating conflict and establishing cooperation, also must be considered in understanding the legacy of early attachments.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1994

Preventive intervention groups for parentally bereaved children.

A model of time-limited intervention groups for parentally bereaved children is described, and common emergent themes are discussed. These suggest that youngsters continue to struggle with death-related stress well beyond the time of the loss. The need to maintain an emotional attachment to internal representations of the deceased parent appears to be an important component of the bereavement process.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

Proposal for a structured assessment of parenting based on attachment theory: theoretical background, description and initial clinical experience.

This paper proposes a structured clinical assessment of parenting and illustrates its use within child psychiatry practice. The aim was to develop a structured instrument based on current theoretical knowledge which was simple enough to be clinically viable while being precise and repeatable enough to enable quantification and research. Use is made of inpatient and daypatient resources but the assessment could be modified for outpatient practice. The assessment takes a "diagnostic" approach; concentrating on factors that have been shown in research to be good predictors of parenting dysfunction. These include parental personality, current mental state and degree of current social stress and support (including quality of marital relationship). Additionally, information regarding the adult's representation of early attachment relationships is elicited using the Adult Attachment Interview. Independent assessments of the child and the parent/child interaction are made. Initial clinical experience with this instrument is described and practical and theoretical issues raised by its use are explored.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Adult attachment style and the perception of others: the role of projective mechanisms.

In 3 reported studies the authors examined attachment-style differences in the perception of others and the hypothesis that projective mechanisms underlie these differences. In these studies, participants reported on their attachment style and generated actual-self-traits and unwanted-self-traits. Then, a 2nd session was conducted, in which impression formation about new persons (Study 1), the ease of retrieval of memories about known persons (Study 2), or memory inferences about learned features of fictional persons (Study 3) were assessed. Findings indicate that whereas anxious-ambivalent persons' impression formation, memory retrieval, and inferences about others reflected the projection of their actual-self-traits, avoidant persons' responses reflected the projection of their unwanted-self-traits. Findings are discussed in terms of the regulatory goals and strategies that characterize the mental representations of each attachment style.

Adult↗