A Comparative Analysis of Divergent Evolutionary Models of Attachment and a New Biobehavioral Conceptualization

The Psychological Record - Two theories of the attachment behavior system are reviewed in terms of the evolutionary and organismic mechanisms they propose. The life history theory of attachment...     

早期养育经验与母子依恋水平的相关研究

运用沃特期-迪因儿童依恋行为分类卡片的相关条目,评估81名寄宿制幼儿园幼儿与母亲的依恋水平,并用自编问卷回溯幼儿三岁前的养育经验及相关基本信息。结果显示：幼儿与母亲的依恋总体上都处于比较积极的状态;主要照料者非保姆的、母亲产后复工时间在三个月内的、母亲主观陪伴愿望强的、与母亲分离增多始于2岁半及以上的、母亲从未威胁抛弃的,母子依恋总分较高;女孩、主要照料者非保姆的、母亲主观陪伴愿望强的、与母亲分离增多始于2岁半及以上的、母亲从未威胁抛弃的,与母亲直接相关的依恋分数都较高;高年级及母亲从未威胁抛弃的,一般行为倾向上表现更为积极;断奶和母亲产后复工时间在三个月内的、母亲无暇或不能全心全意陪伴的、母亲从未威胁抛弃的,对陌生人的兴趣和接近性更强;而喂养方式、母亲实际陪伴孩子时间的多少、及早期与母亲的分离经验,未发现对各依恋指标的显著性影响。提示：早期养育中,母亲对孩子的主观感情倾向和相处质量,更有利于增进母子依恋及相关积极行为;了解孩子心理的阶段性发展特点也具重要意义。     

Client Accounts of Hope in Early Counseling Sessions: A Qualitative Study

Hope enables individuals to envision a future in which they wish to participate ( Jevne, 1994 ) and is foundational to counseling practice. However, there has been little research examining client accounts of hope in session. Using basic interpretive inquiry, this case study examines clients' accounts of hope during counseling using video‐assisted recall. Three categories emerged: hope‐fostering counseling relationship, supportive identity development, and perspective change. Implications for counseling are discussed.     

Home-Based Early Education for Refugee and Local Children via Mothers: A Model of Contextually Sensitive Early Intervention

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Contextually sensitive home-visiting programs can foster positive parenting and enhance child development and learning especially among vulnerable families...     

Affect Attunement and Maternal Attachment: A Pilot Study

The notion that individual differences in mothers' representations of their own early childhood attachment relationships impede or facilitate the recognition of an infant's experiences and needs was investigated. Women were classified as secure, dismissing, of preoccupied in relation to attachment on the basis of the Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985) and then videotaped in a laboratory setting with their 10- to 13-month-old babies. Maternal attunement behaviors and fantasies about the babies during the attunement moment were recorded and examined in light of individual differences in maternal attachment. The findings reveal that securely attached mothers are more attuned to their babies than are those mothers who are insecurely attached. Secure mothers attune to a range of infant affect, whereas insecure mothers attune to particular affects and not to others. Specifically, dismissing mothers tended not to attune to negative affect, whereas preoccupied mothers randomly attuned to both positive and negative affect states. Qualitative analyses suggest that insecure mothers misattune to infant affects that threaten their internalized attitudes toward attachment. The findings support the hypothesis that the nature of a mother's internal affective experience powerfully influences the affects she acknowledges and attunes to in her child.     

A Pilot Study Implementing Coping Power in Italian Community Hospitals: Effect of Therapist Attachment Style on Outcomes in Children

The study presented the initial report of a project regarding the implementation of the Coping Power Program in Italian community hospitals, and the program’s ability to reduce externalizing behavioral problems in children with a Disruptive Behavior Disorder diagnosis. Usually, interventions for children are implemented by a number of therapists with different personal characteristics, which therefore influence the implementation quality of an intervention. That said, the present study aimed to establish whether the insecure attachment styles of therapists predict unfavorable outcomes for children treated with the Coping Power Program. The sample included 80 children with a Disruptive Behavior Disorder diagnosis and 16 therapists. The results showed that the change in children’s aggressive behavioral problems was significantly related to the levels of the therapist’s preoccupation with relationships. Higher levels of change in aggression (where a higher value means that the aggression at the end of the treatment is higher than aggression at the baseline evaluation) are associated with higher levels of therapist’s preoccupied attachment style (anxious attachment style). This study provided some preliminary evidence that therapists need to be sensitive to their own attachment experiences when delivering therapy for children.     

Positive Psychology and Attachment: Positive Affect as a Mediator of Developmental Outcomes

Fredrickson’s (1998) broaden-and-build model and Bowlby’s (1969) attachment theory provide alternate explanations for positive cognitive, social, physical, and psychological outcomes, positive affect and secure attachments, respectively. This study examined whether affect mediates the relationship between attachment and positive outcomes. The sample consisted of 99 undergraduate students from a small, public liberal arts college in the mid-Atlantic region. For people high in attachment anxiety, but not those high in attachment avoidance, affect partially mediated social and psychological outcomes and fully mediated health outcomes. People who scored high in attachment anxiety reported less positive affect and more negative affect, which results in poorer social, physical, and psychological outcomes than those with lower levels of attachment anxiety. Perhaps children with caregivers who are more responsive to their needs experience more positive affect; and, it is the experience of positive affect that yields developmental advantages.     

Transmission of Family Values and Attachment: A French Three-Generation Study

Ce travail aborde la transmission de deux aspects de la solidarité familiale: l’accord sur les valeurs dans trois domaines (l’individualisme, l’esprit de groupe et les valeurs familiales) et les représentations de la relation à autrui (les modèles régissant les affinités). L’échantillon est composé de 95 triades englobant trois générations: des grands‐mères, des mères et des adolescentes. Les résultats mettent en évidence la spécificité des familles françaises modernes caractérisées pour toutes les générations par une certaine combinaison des valeurs d’autonomie et de solidarité basée sur un contrat social et le respect des hiérarchies. Les adolescents françaises montrent une forte adhésion aux valeurs familiales, mais aussi un individualisme affirmé. Les valeurs et les modèles régissant les affinités sont transmis de façon différenciée en fonction de leur contenu et selon des procédures variées. Cependant, les transmissions directe et indirecte débouchent rarement sur une copie parfaite. Des différences apparaissent avec les générations. Les données indiquent que les adolescentes sont plus proches de leurs mères que de leurs grands‐mères et que la transmission se fait clairement des mères vers les adolescentes. Les grands‐mères influencent les mères à travers leurs objectifs parentaux (obéissance et autonomie), la valeur attribuée aux enfants et les valeurs de groupe. This study addresses the question of transmission among 95 triads of three generations (grandmothers, mothers, and adolescents) regarding two aspects of family solidarity: agreement on values in three domains (individualism, collectivism, and family values), and representations with regard to self–other relationships (working models of attachment). The results underscore the specificity of modern French families which is characterised for all generations by a certain combination of autonomy values and solidarity based on social contract and respect for hierarchies. French adolescents show a high level of endorsement of family values but also a high level of individualism. Values and working models of attachment are transmitted unequally depending on their content and through a variety of patterns. However, direct and indirect transmissions are seldom an exact replication. Some differences are observed along generations. Data indicate more proximity between mothers and adolescents than grandmothers and a clear transmission from mothers to adolescents. Grandmothers influence mothers through their parental goals (obedience and autonomy), value of children, and collectivist values.     

Teaching oddity and insertion to Head Start children: An economical cognitive intervention

Two interventions were offered to Head Start preschoolers. Half of the children played numerous learning set games designed to teach the children (1) the oddity principle and (2) how to insert objects into a series. Mastery of these concepts is theoretically an important aspect of school readiness. The other half of the children engaged in the I Can Problem Solve (ICPS) exercises, a program designed to increase the children's competency in recognizing and responding to other people's feelings. The children who played the learning set games became superior at oddity and insertions with manipulable objects, and generalized these games to workbook-like formats resembling those encountered in kindergarten. They also scored higher on the numeracy and memory scales of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities, indicating that mastery of oddity and insertions may have served as foundations for further cognitive growth. The children who participated in the ICPS exercises became superior at creating solutions to interpersonal problems, as measured by the Preschoolers Interpersonal Problem Solving Scale. The differences in the outcomes indicate that both interventions were successful in their own domains. The advantage the cognitive intervention produced on the McCarthy Scales suggests that oddity and insertion abilities may be a foundation in fact as well as in theory for general cognitive growth at this age.     

A Qualitative Study of Punctuality

Summary

This prototype verbal interaction recording technique is for studying individuals in small groups and is represented by a circle with equal cells corresponding to the number in a group. The observer marks symbols on numbered arcs to record who performed the action, toward whom, the category of the act, and time of its occurrence.     

Adult Attachment Interview and Psychoanalytic Perspective: A Single Case Study

In this single case study we present a female patient diagnosed with a narcissistic personality disorder and a borderline organization. The interplay between attachment and psychoanalytic perspective will be focused. The analyst describes his impressions of the initial interview with the patient and essential steps during treatment. The patient was interviewed with the Adult Attachment Interview and classified as “insecure preoccupied” with an “unresolved state of mind” concerning loss and abuse. The analyst was asked to comment the AAI's essential characteristics of this patient. We discuss converging and diverging aspects of clinical and attachment interpretation in this single case.     

School readiness in children living in non-parental care: Impacts of Head Start

The current study examines the effects of Head Start on the development of school readiness outcomes for children living in non-parental care. Data were obtained from the Head Start Impact Study, a randomized controlled trial of Head Start conducted with a nationally representative sample of Head Start programs and families. The sample included 253 children living in non-parental care (defined as a primary caregiver who self-identified as someone other than a biological, adoptive, or step-parent), who experienced elevated rates of child and family risk factors. Results revealed modest direct short-term and indirect longer-term impacts of Head Start on school readiness outcomes (increased pre-academic skills, more positive teacher–child relationships, and reductions in behavior problems) for children living in non-parental care. Limitations of this study and directions for future research are discussed.     

A multidimensional, multilevel examination of mother and father involvement among culturally diverse Head Start families

In this study we examined the relationships between family demographics and level of satisfaction with school contact as possible determinants of multiple dimensions of family involvement in early childhood education. Participants included 171 urban, Head Start parents (108 mothers and 63 fathers). Results revealed that for mothers, having less than a high school education was negatively associated with levels of home-school conferencing. For fathers, primary language spoken in the home was associated with both levels of home-school conferencing and school-based involvement, with Polish- and Spanish-speaking fathers participating less compared with their English-speaking counterparts. In addition, fathers of boys reported higher levels of home-school conferencing. Involvement at school was significantly associated with level of satisfaction with school contact for both mothers and fathers. Multilevel analyses revealed parent gender and satisfaction as the most salient predictors of involvement at the level of the family. Implications for future research, as well as family involvement practice and policy, are discussed.     

Experiences and Perceived Effects of Rosary Praying: A Qualitative Study

Journal of Religion and Health - The aim of this study is to explore experiences and perceived effects of the Rosary on issues around health and well-being, as well as on spirituality and...     

Representations of Early Attachment Experiences and Personality in Adulthood

The present study aimed to explore the association between the representation of early attachment experiences and personality in a representative and non-clinical German adult sample. Adult attachment was assessed by means of the Adult Attachment Interview. One hundred and sixty-seven German adults completed the NEO-FFI and the TPQ. Three important findings emerged: (1) Adults with insecure attachment representation (dismissing versus preoccupied) differ from each other in Neuroticism and Harm Avoidance, (2) attachment security is independent of personality and (3) Adults with an unresolved attachment trauma do not differ from those without with respect to personality. Our results underline the interrelation between attachment experiences, the regulation of negative emotions and self-perceived personality traits in adulthood. Moreover, our findings support theoretical assumptions of attachment theory proposing that attachment security emerges within social relationships. We suggest that unresolved attachment, at least in non-clinical samples, occurs through attachment-related traumatic experiences rather than specific personality dispositions and invite researchers to further explore biological and environmental risk factors leading to an unresolved state-of-mind.     

National Attachment and Patriotism in a European Nation: A British Study

This study explores identification with one's national group using two distinct but interrelated concepts: identity content and relational orientation. Theoretical distinctions were drawn between two forms of identity content: traditional-cultural and civic, and between two forms of relational orientation: blind and constructive. The multidimensionality of both identity content and relational orientation and the relationships amongst these components were examined in a British sample: positive relationships were hypothesized between blind orientation and traditional-cultural content and between constructive orientation and civic content. Principal components analyses confirmed the hypothesized factor structures, and the resulting scales were highly reliable. Relationships amongst the resulting factors were explored using regression analyses. The overall results indicate support for the orthogonality of both the two orientation dimensions and the two content dimensions. Moreover, the hypothesized relationships between forms of orientation and content were largely supported. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of looking at the relationship between identity content and relational orientation. The implications of these observations for theory and research are discussed with reference to using categories to "group" participants in research, citizenship education, and more general attitudes towards social change.     

The Developmental Roots of Borderline Personality Disorder in Early Attachment Relationships: A Theory and Some Evidence

The paper suggests a way of understanding borderline personality disorder in terms of the failure of a secure base. We begin with an account of optimal self-development in a secure attachment context, highlighting the importance of the caregiver's ability to help the small child think about his own and others' minds. This optimal self-development is crucial in developing the child's capacity for mentalization, which can enhance his resilience in the face of later trauma. We discuss the impact of attachment trauma in later development, arguing that the extent of this impact depends on how well early attachment relationships facilitated the capacity for mentalization. We identify some of the consequences for the representations of the internal world of a failure of mentalization that may follow trauma in individuals made vulnerable by genetic predisposition or disorganized early attachment. We link these features to the clinical presentation associated with borderline personality organization. Finally, some of the necessary characteristics of successful psychotherapeutic treatment of borderline personality disorder are briefly considered.