The adult attachment interview and self‐reports of romantic attachment: Associations across domains and methods

Two lines of research on adult attachment have emerged; both are based on Bowlby and Ainsworth's attachment theory, which in turn relies on evolutionary theory. Investigators in one tradition use the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) to assess “state of mind with respect to attachment.” The AAI has been validated primarily by its ability to predict the attachment classification of an interviewee's child in Ainsworth's “strange situation.” Investigators in the second tradition use self‐report measures to assess romantic “attachment style.” The self‐report measures have been validated by their ability to predict features of romantic/marital relationships. Although the two constructs. state of mind and romantic attachment, are importantly different and so would not be expected to relate highly, some of their components, especially ability to depend on attachment figures, should be related if both stem from a person's attachment history. We report associations between components, or aspects, of the two measures. Overlap occurs mainly in the areas of comfort depending on attachment figures and comfort serving as an attachment figure for others. Implications of the findings for attachment theory and research, as well as for evolutionary psychology, are discussed.     

Attitude Toward Asian Americans: Theory and Measurement

A theoretical framework to account for Whites' attitudes toward Asian Americans was developed and tested in 3 studies. An Attitude Toward Asians (ATA) scale was developed and found to be valid and reliable. Consistent with the framework, a negative factor and a positive factor were found to underlie attitudes toward Asian Americans. As expected, negative attitudes were shown to stem from both negative and positive instrumental attributes, whereas positive attitudes stemmed from positive instrumental and noninstrumental attributes. Predictions regarding emotional reactions to Asian Americans and attitude ambivalence were supported. Attitudes toward Asian Americans were also shown to influence judgments of African Americans. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

The Integrative Revolution in Couple and Family Therapy

A quiet revolution has resulted in significant movement toward integrative practice in couple and family therapy. This article examines the present status of integrative methods, highlighting the factors that have led to their broad acceptance, issues surrounding the definition of integration and the nomenclature used, the content of recent approaches, and specific conceptual developments and directions.