The Adult Attachment Projective Picture System: Integrating Attachment Into Clinical Assessment

This article summarizes the development and validation of the Adult Attachment Projective System (AAP), a measure we developed from the Bowlby–Ainsworth developmental tradition to assess adult attachment status. The AAP has demonstrated excellent concurrent validity with the Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, &; Main, 1984/1985/1996 Finn, S. E. 2007. In our client's shoes: Theory and techniques of therapeutic assessment., New York, NY: Psychology Press.  [Google Scholar]; Main &; Goldwyn, 1985–1994 Lis, A., Mazzeschi, C., Di Riso, D. and Salcuni, S. 2011/this issue. Attachment, assessment, and psychological intervention: A case study of anorexia. Journal of Personality Assessment, 93: 434–444. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Main, Goldwyn, &; Hesse, 2003 Lyons-Ruth, K. and Jacobvitz, D. 2008. “Attachment disorganization: Unresolved loss, relational violence, and lapses in behavioral and attentional strategies”. In Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications , 2nd ed, Edited by: Cassidy, J. and Shaver, P. R. 666–697. New York, NY: Guilford.  [Google Scholar]), interjudge reliability, and test–retest reliability, with no effects of verbal intelligence or social desirability. The AAP coding and classification system and application in clinical and community samples are summarized. Finally, we introduce the 3 other articles that are part of this Special Section and discuss the use of the AAP in therapeutic assessment and treatment.     

成人依恋表征与婚恋依恋

近年来依恋研究已拓展到成人的依恋表征和婚恋依恋,依恋表征是成人对其早期依恋经验的回忆和重构,婚恋依恋是成人与情侣间构成的依恋情感联结。该文介绍了依恋表征和婚恋依恋研究的理论背景、测量方法及主要成果——依恋的代际传递性、依恋的临床应用、婚恋依恋对成人婚恋关系质量和工作的影响。最后探讨了成人依恋领域有待深入研究的问题,如依恋表征与婚恋依恋的关系问题、依恋的稳定性与变化问题以及依恋是个体差异还是关系变量等,并分析了今后的研究方向。     

The Adult Attachment Interview and psychoanalytic outcome studies

During the last two decades, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) has attracted growing interest from psychoanalysts concerned with empirical research. The paper discusses the application of Crittenden's Dynamic-Maturational AAI method for assessing the outcome of psychoanalysis. The aim is to demonstrate, through a case presentation, how therapeutic change can be expressed in the AAI. The pre- and post-treatment interviews of one patient, having completed a four-times-a-week psychoanalysis, are presented. It is demonstrated that the detailed discourse analysis of the AAI, based on transcribed tape-recorded interviews, focuses subtle formal elements of language and speech reflecting dominant patterns of affect regulation and object relating. The AAI text analysis provides possibility for coding procedural memory as conveyed by the handling of the relationship to the interviewer, incorporating the dynamic relationship between researcher and subject and thus complying with a methodological prerequisite regarded by many psychoanalysts as necessary for capturing data that are relevant to psychoanalysis. On this background, the method emerges as promising for psychoanalytic outcome studies.     

Adult Attachment and Exploration: Linking Attachment Style to Motivation and Perceptions of Support in Adult Exploration

Taking an attachment theory perspective, the present studies investigated partner-related motives for exploration and perceptions of romantic partners as persons who might provide support for exploration. We argue, from an attachment theory perspective, that more avoidant persons may use exploration as a way to distance themselves from their partners, whereas more anxious persons may use exploration as a means of getting closer to or depending on their partners. Attachment theory also suggests that more insecure individuals will tend to see their partners as providing less support and less effective support for exploration. Our research found support for both of these hypotheses. In this article we also investigate potential mediating models for linking attachment style to motives for exploration and perceptions of partner support.     

Adult Attachment and Dyadic Adjustment: The Mediating Role of Shame

Although it is widely recognized that adult attachment is associated with romantic relationship quality, the mechanisms involved remain poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of external and internal shame on the association between attachment and dyadic adjustment. A battery of self-report measures was completed by 228 Portuguese participants and a serial multiple mediation model was tested. Data showed that, in the population under study, attachment dimensions were associated with worse dyadic adjustment through high external and internal shame. Internal shame alone also mediated the association between attachment avoidance and dyadic adjustment. This study identifies a new putative mechanism linking adult attachment and intimate relationship functioning that may be targeted in couples therapy to promote a better dyadic adjustment and relationship functioning.     

Assessment of Adult Relatedness: A Review of Empirical Findings From Object Relations and Attachment Theories

Assessment techniques designed to measure adult behavior and mental representation that emphasize relatedness constructs are reviewed. These measures grow out of two traditions, object relations and attachment theories. Although these two paradigms are fairly well elucidated theoretically, the relevant assessment literature is only more recently expanding, especially that focusing directly on adult attachment as opposed to childhood attachment, in addition to a presentation of various projective and objective measures, this review highlights the clinical and research implications for integration of these two paradigms around the cognitive, affective, and behavioral vicissitudes of adult relatedness.     

老年人夫妻依恋的测量及与一般依恋的关系

通过对697名60岁以上、配偶健在的老年人进行调查, 对《老年人夫妻依恋问卷》进行修订及信效度的检验, 并应用该问卷对老年人的夫妻依恋风格进行划分, 考察夫妻依恋风格与一般依恋之间的吻合程度。结果显示修订后的《老年人夫妻依恋问卷》具有稳定的三维度结构以及良好的信效度; 聚类分析显示老年人夫妻依恋以安全型和专注型为主, 而一般依恋以安全型和冷漠型居多。在老年人中仅有39.9%的个体具有相同类型的夫妻依恋与一般依恋, 呈现出较低的一致性。     

社会人格取向的成人依恋研究

国外有关成人依恋的研究大致可以分为两大类：发展临床取向和社会人格取向,文章简要概述了两种取向的差异,并重点从社会人格取向的角度介绍了有关成人依恋的内部工作模型表征的社会认知研究和情绪调节策略的依恋类型差异的研究,以及成人依恋对亲密人际关系中目标信念、沟通和自我表露、归因和冲突解决、支持寻求和照顾行为等的影响研究。最后展望了该领域未来研究的趋势和方向。     

Structure and Measurement Invariance of Adult Romantic Attachment

Romantic attachment is a popular theory for explaining affect, cognition, and behavior in romantic contexts. This popularity has led to a surge of self-report measures assessing dimensions of attachment. In this study, we considered the ability of 2 common attachment measures, the Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ) and the Experience in Close Relationships–Revised (ECR–R), to replicate the avoidant and anxious attachment factors. We also determined the degree of measurement invariance across, and mean differences between, genders and single and nonsingle individuals. Both the AAQ (N = 650) and the ECR–R (N = 1,271) successfully distinguished avoidant and attachment factors. The AAQ showed evidence for partial strong measurement invariance, whereas the ECR-R showed strict factorial invariance for both gender and relationship status. Gender differences were detected on both measures in a direction consistent with previous research, with males exhibiting higher levels of avoidant attachment (relative to females) and females exhibiting higher levels of anxious attachment (relative to males). Furthermore, when compared to individuals who were currently single, those in romantic relationships exhibited lower levels of avoidant tendencies. This research aligns with the notion that the AAQ and ECR–R reliably assess similar constructs, across genders and single and nonsingle individuals.     

The Association between Parental Reports of Attachment Style and Family Dynamics, and Offspring''s Reports of Adult Attachment Style

This research assessed the association between parents' reports of attachment styles and their perceptions of family environment, on the one hand, and offspring's reports of adult attachment styles, on the other. The sample included 98 Israeli young adults who completed the adult attachment style scale, and their mothers and fathers who completed this scale, as well as FACES III, and the conflict and expressiveness subscales of the Family Environment Scale. Findings revealed associations between parents' and offspring's reports of attachment styles, which were qualified by gender matching. They also indicated independent and differential contributions of the examined dimensions of perceived family environment to offspring's attachment styles. The discussion attempts to integrate attachment theory with a family system perspective.     

Assessing Adolescent and Adult Attachment: An Update

This article provides an update on two significant contributions to the assessment of attachment in adolescents and adults. Two measures of adult attachment, both based on modifications of Hazan and Shaver's (1987) model of adult attachment, are reviewed. The conceptual bases for the development of each measure are discussed, current research involving each measure is presented, and implications of attachment assessment for counseling research and practice are offered.     

Narcissism and Adult Attachment: A Multivariate Approach

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between maladaptive narcissism, attachment anxiety, and attachment avoidance. The secondary objective of the present research was to explore further the differences between overt and covert forms of narcissistic vulnerability. Female participants (N = 171) completed measures of adult attachment, overt narcissism, and covert narcissism. Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) explored the multivariate relationship between overt and covert narcissism, on one hand, and adult attachment dimensions of anxiety and avoidance, on the other hand. CCA indicated the two linear combinations of variables overlapped significantly and shared about a quarter of their variance in common. The most important variable within the narcissism set was covert narcissism; and within the adult attachment set, both anxiety and avoidance were important, but the former more than the latter. The implications of the present findings are discussed in the context of past and future research on personality, attachment, and the experience of emotions.     

Personality Factors and Adult Attachment Affecting Job Mobility

Past research has revealed that individuals' job mobility is affected by factors such as job satisfaction, specific career enhancing attributes and job availability. This study examined personality factors predicting voluntary internal and external job mobility. Three types of voluntary job mobility measures were studied: dissatisfaction changes, job improvement changes and job rotations within companies. These mobility measures were related to the Big Five personality factors, sensation seeking and adult attachment. Results showed that demographic variables and sensation seeking contributed to the variance in external job changes. Internal job rotations were not related to any of the demographic and personality variables.     

The Association Between Adult Attachment Styles and Conflict Resolution in Romantic Relationships

This study examined whether adult attachment was predictive of conflict resolution behaviors and satisfaction in romantic relationships. It adopted a two-dimensional conceptualization for both adult attachment style (model of self, model of others) and conflict resolution behaviors (concern for self, concern for others). Both adult attachment dimensions, Avoidance and Anxiety, were predictive of conflict resolution behaviors and relationship satisfaction. Gender differences existed in conflict resolution behaviors, but they were not as strong a predictor as attachment characteristics of conflict resolution and relationship satisfaction. No gender differences were found in attachment styles.     

成人婚恋依恋研究回顾与展望

婚恋关系是成人依恋的主要形式。自上世纪80年代末，国外兴起了对成人婚恋依恋（Adult Romantic Attachment）的研究。该文介绍了成人婚恋依恋的理论背景、依恋型、内部工作模型研究及当前对婚恋依恋与成人社会功能发展的研究进展。文章最后讨论了当前研究存在的一些问题及未来研究的基本走向。     

The Adult Attachment Interview and self-reports of attachment style: an empirical rapprochement

Although 10 studies have been published on the empirical overlap of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and measures of self-reported attachment style, results in this literature have been inconsistently interpreted in narrative reviews. This report was designed as a rapprochement of the AAI and attachment style literatures and includes 3 studies. Study 1 (combined N = 961) is a meta-analytic review showing that by J. Cohen's (1992) criteria (mean r = .09), the association between AAI security and attachment style dimensions is trivial to small. Study 2 (N = 160) confirms meta-analytic results with state-of-the-art assessments of attachment security and also examines attachment dimensions in relation to the Big 5 personality traits. Finally, Study 3 is an investigation of 50 engaged couples that shows that developmental and social psychological measures of attachment security predict somewhat distinct--though theoretically anticipated--aspects of functioning in adult relationships.     

Use of the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System in an Assessment of an Adolescent in Foster Care

Child maltreatment has been associated with a host of negative outcomes including impaired social relationships (Rogosch, Cicchetti, &; Aber, 1995), depression (Toth, Manly, &; Cicchetti, 1992), poor self-concept and motivation (Vondra, Barnett, &; Cicchetti, 1990), and delinquency and conduct problems (Cook et al., 2005; Grotevant et al., 2006; McCabe, Lucchini, Hough, Yeh, &; Hazen, 2005; Ryan &; Testa, 2005). An assessment of the mental representation of attachment relationships could offer additional relevant and useful information to the evaluation of youth in foster care, and could inform treatment and placement considerations. The Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (AAP) is a relatively new measure of internal representations of attachment based on the analysis of a set of stimuli designed to systematically activate the attachment system (George, West, &; Pettem, 1997 George, C. and West, M. in press. The Adult Attachment Projective Picture System, New York, NY: Guilford.  [Google Scholar]). This article considers the use of the AAP with a maltreated adolescent in a clinical setting and uses a case study to illustrate the components of the AAP that are particularly relevant to case conceptualization and interventions.     

A taxometric study of the Adult Attachment Interview

This study is the first to examine the latent structure of individual differences reflected in the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; C. George, N. Kaplan, & M. Main, 1985), a commonly used and well-validated measure designed to assess an adult's current state of mind regarding childhood experiences with caregivers. P. E. Meehl's (1995) taxometric methods (i.e., MAXCOV-HITMAX) were applied to data from 504 AAIs. Analyses revealed that the variation underlying secure versus dismissing states of mind was more consistent with a dimensional than a taxonic model. (Taxometric analyses of preoccupation were indeterminate.) In addition, variation in secure adults' (n=278) reports about their early experiences revealed little evidence for qualitative groups of earned- and continuous-secures. Rather, the inferred life experiences of secure adults appeared to be distributed continuously. Findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications regarding the phenomenon of earned-security specifically and variation underlying secure and insecure states of mind more generally. The consequences of these analyses for AAI reliability training and coding are also explored.     

成人依恋风格的结构探索

为明确成人依恋风格的潜在结构,采用成人依恋问卷对203名大一新生进行测量,通过因子分析、潜在剖面分析以及潜类别因子分析分别对数据进行分析,并对分析结果进行对比。结果表明:2因子模型优于单因子模型,4类别模型优于其他类别模型,3类别2因子模型优于其他潜类别因子模型;以上3个最优模型中,2因子模型优于4类别模型,4类别模型优于3类别2因子模型。因此成人依恋的潜在结构是连续的。     

Adult Attachment and High-Risk Sexual Behavior Among HIV-Positive Patients

The present study investigated the relationship between adult attachment style and sexual behavior among HIV-positive patients. HIV-positive (HIV+) participants ( N = 48) completed questionnaires assessing number of sexual partners, adult attachment, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms. Results revealed that insecure attachment styles (particularly negative attachment representations of self and fearful attachment) were associated with having multiple sexual partners, including at-risk HIV-negative (HIV-) partners. These relationships remained significant after controlling for sexual orientation, self-esteem, and depressive symptomatology. These results suggest that interpersonal issues may play a key role in high-risk sexual behavior among HIV+ individuals.