Main et al. (1985) The Adult Attachment Interview

Question 1

Why was the adult attachment interview developed?

Answer 1

• In order to scientifically assess the relationship between early childhood attachments and later adult attachments.

Question 2

What idea is it based on?

Answer 2

• The idea that it doesn’t really matter exactly what the childhood attachment was, it is how it was remembered,
• Again, supports the internal working model.

Question 3

What does the interview involve?

Answer 3

• A series of questions about childhood attachment relationships, and how these were seen to influence later relationships,
• Interviewee asked to give five adjectives explaining their relationship with each of their parents,
• They are then asked to explain why they chose each adjective,
• Other questions are then asked about times they got upset, if they ever felt rejected, and how they believe their early experiences influenced their adult attachments,
• The results are then classified by trained coders into a category: secure, dismissing, preoccupied, or unresolved,
• Main et al. (1985) then went on to show that these categories of adult relationships could be predicted from people’s recall of their childhood attachments.