One-person and two-person conceptions of attachment and their implications for psychoanalytic thought

There has been increasing interest among analysts in the possibilities of enriching psychoanalytic thought through fuller incorporation of attachment theory and research. This paper offers a clinical illustration of the ways in which attention to an attachment perspective can lead to novel and useful ways of addressing the patient’s issues. It also presents a number of cautions that it is necessary to be alert to if attachment thinking is to achieve its full potential in advancing psychoanalytic thought and practice. Conceptions of attachment and approaches to its study and clinical use actually vary quite substantially. Some are more one-person, static, and categorical. Others are more two-person, dynamic, and focused on the process whereby attachment patterns develop and are maintained over time. This paper explores the distinction between these two versions of attachment theory and research with two aims in mind – first, to refine our understanding of the potential role that attachment thinking can play in advancing the psychoanalytic paradigm; second, to utilize the insights achieved through examining the attachment paradigm to consider some broader issues in the construction of psychoanalytic theory more generally and its relational variant in particular.     

依恋对象回应方式对不同依恋类型幼儿支持提供预期修正的影响

依恋对象的敏感性回应是儿童安全依恋发展的重要前因。研究采用改编版依恋预期范式考察实时互动情境中依恋对象确定性和概率性回应对幼儿支持提供预期及预期修正的影响。结果发现：相对不安全型依恋幼儿,初始预期中安全型幼儿更多预期依恋对象会向依恋者提供支持;幼儿能够基于依恋对象的确定性和概率性回应一致地修正对该对象是否提供支持的预期。同时,低水平回应对幼儿预期修正的影响高于高水平回应。研究表明5岁左右幼儿能够基于实时互动中依恋对象的回应信息修正其对该依恋对象的预期,这对理解幼儿依恋表征的发展具有重要启示。     

亲子依恋与儿童抑郁症状的关系：儿童对环境的生物敏感性的作用及父母差异

不良的亲子依恋是导致儿童抑郁症状的风险因素,但其对儿童的影响会因儿童对环境的生物敏感性不同而存在差异。为探究家庭中母子、父子依恋对儿童抑郁症状的影响及儿童生物敏感性(本文中采用迷走神经抑制作为指标)在其中的作用,本研究结合行为任务、问卷报告、生理测量等多种研究手段,招募150名学龄儿童(平均年龄8.64岁,63名女孩)参与研究。结果表明：(1)学龄儿童的母子依恋水平高于父子依恋水平。(2)高水平的母子依恋与父子依恋会同等程度地降低儿童的抑郁症状。(3)儿童对环境的生物敏感性对母子依恋影响儿童抑郁症状路径的调节作用显著,生理上对环境更敏感(高迷走神经抑制)的儿童更易得益于高母子依恋,表现出较低的抑郁水平;但同时,这类儿童在母子依恋较低时也更易表现出较高的抑郁水平。(4)儿童的生物敏感性对父子依恋影响儿童抑郁症状路径的调节作用不显著,高父子依恋对生物敏感性水平不同的儿童均存在有利影响。(5)在不同情境中测量的迷走神经抑制对亲子依恋影响儿童抑郁症状的调节作用模式相似,表现出跨情境一致的特点。本研究率先揭示儿童迷走神经抑制与亲子依恋对儿童抑郁症状的联合作用机制及父母角色差异。     

Patterns of mother-infant interaction and attachment: A cluster-analytic approach

This study examined stability and change in patterns of mother-infant interaction between 5 and 10 months and their relation to attachment security at 18 months. Cluster analysis was used to identify patterns of dyadic interaction. There was significant, but not substantial, stability in cluster membership from 5 to 10 months. For females, being in the most optimal cluster at 5 months related to subsequent attachment security, regardless of the 10-month pattern of interaction. For males, who were significantly more likely to be insecure than females, insecure attachment was predicted by negative change from 5 to 10 months (moving from a more optimal to a less optimal cluster).     

Anxious attachment and psychological distress in cardiac rehabilitation patients

This study investigated the relevance of anxious attachment to the differentiation of psychologically distressed and non-psychologically distressed cardiac patients. Attachment is a biologically based behavioral system in which proximity to a special other is sought or maintained to achieve a sense of safety and security. Anxious attachment, as the name denotes, fails to achieve the function of attachment in the sense of individuals having little or no confidence in the availability of their attachment figures. Empirically, three scales (feared loss of the attachment figure, proximity seeking and separation protest) capture the features of anxious attachment as elaborated by Bowlby. These scales were administered to 178 cardiac rehabilitation patients drawn from the cardiac rehabilitation program of the Calgary General Hospital. The results indicate that feared loss and proximity seeking differentiated psychologically distressed from non-psychologically distressed patients. The implications of this finding for the understanding of psychologically distressed cardiac patients are discussed.     

Attachment,temperament, and ego development in young adulthood

Attachment and temperament have each been thought to contribute to personality development; however, few empirical studies have examined the relations between the two. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate, in young adulthood, the relations among attachment, temperament, and two aspects of ego development, namely,overall ego development and ego development with respect tointimacy. One hundred and seven college students served as participants. Sixty one percent classified themselves as securely attached and 39% as insecurely attached. A factor analysis of the Emotionality-Activity-Sociability (EAS) Temperament Survey for Adults yielded a primary factor (labeled negative emotionality) that accounted for 41% of the variance. A regression analysis then revealed that both attachment status and temperament predicted overall ego development; however, only attachment status predicted ego development with respect to intimacy. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

父母低头行为对儿童青少年心理发展的影响

父母低头行为是指父母照顾或与孩子交流时,过分关注与使用手机而忽视孩子的行为。梳理相关研究发现,父母低头行为会对孩子产生多种不良影响,如,降低亲子关系交流质量、增加意外伤害风险、损伤人际交往能力、导致问题行为增多。现有研究采用取代假说、多任务操作理论以及依恋理论对影响过程进行解释。未来研究的关键在于邻近概念的区分、测量方式和研究方法的改进、探讨儿童对父母手机使用行为的看法以及移动设备对亲子互动可能的积极影响。     

Excessive Object Attachment in Hoarding Disorder: Examining the Role of Interpersonal Functioning

Excessive attachment towards possessions can be maladaptive because it can lead individuals to excessively acquire and save objects. Little is known about how attachment to objects develops and changes over time; however, interpersonal factors have been theorized to play a role. The current study examined whether interpersonal factors, specifically interpersonal attachment style and empathy, moderate changes in object attachment over time. A total of 145 participants with excessive acquiring and discarding difficulties rated their level of attachment to a novel object just after receiving it, and 1 week later. Participants also completed measures of interpersonal anxious attachment and interpersonal functioning. We found that changes in object attachment over time were moderated by interpersonal anxious attachment. Also, our findings suggested that individuals with hoarding problems are likely not impaired in their ability to empathize with others, but rather have difficulty displaying empathy in tense social situations and also have more empathy for fictional characters. Further, greater discomfort in tense social situations and greater empathy for fictional characters interacted to predict greater object attachment. Taken together, these findings indicate that individuals with an interpersonal anxious attachment style may be those at risk of forming greater attachments to objects over time. A learning history that includes inconsistent support from caregivers may result in individuals experiencing more empathy for fictional characters and discomfort in tense social situations, which may produce a vulnerability for becoming excessively attached to objects. Our results are in line with theories of hoarding which propose that individuals use objects to compensate for unmet interpersonal needs and suggest that treatment may need to target interpersonal functioning to reduce hoarding symptoms.     

Psychometric Properties of Two Implicit Associations Tests measuring Adult Attachment

Adult attachment style has consequences for mental health, interpersonal functioning and emotion regulation. This occurs partly deliberately, also referred to as explicit, and partly on an automatic level outside of conscious awareness, also referred to as implicit. Whereas explicit adult attachment can be assessed with self-report instruments, measurement of implicit adult attachment requires indirect methods. This paper describes the psychometric properties of two Implicit Association Tests measuring general adult attachment in a population sample. The study evaluated the reliability and the validity of the Avoidant Attachment IAT (ANX-IAT) and the Anxious Attachment IAT (AVOID-IAT). Validity was evaluated against self-report measures of adult attachment style (RQ), psychopathology (SQ-48), and well-being (MHC-SF). The split-half reliabilities of both IATs were good; the test-retest reliability of the ANX-IAT was adequate; however the AVOID-IAT had low test-retest reliability. Both IATs did not explain variance in psychopathology additional to explicit measures. The AVOID-IAT showed added value over explicit measurement of avoidant attachment in explaining variance in well-being, particularly regarding emotional and psychological well-being. The ANX-IAT did not explain variance in any measure of well-being additional to the explicit measure of anxious attachment. Our findings provide a basis from which more valid IATs measuring general adult attachment can be developed. Furthermore, they suggest that implicit avoidant attachment might be related to well-being, particularly emotional and psychological well-being. However, further research is needed to investigate the role of implicit general adult attachment in mental health and to optimize the two IATs in terms of validity before clinical use is recommended.