Role Of Early Attachment Flashcards
psychologists developed a way to scientifically assess
the relationship between early childhood attachment and later adult attachments
psychologists came up with the
adult attachment interview
it’s based on the idea that it doesn’t really matter what
the childhood attachment was - it’s how its remembered
this supports the
internal working model
Main et al (1985)
the adult attachment interview
Main et al date
1985
this semi-structured interview involves a
series of questions about childhood attachment relationships and how these were seen to influence later relationships
the interviewee was asked to give
five adjectives explaining their relationship with each of their parents
they’re then asked to explain why they chose
each adjectives
other questions were asked about times
they got upset
another question was if they ever felt
rejected
another question was how they believe their early experiences influenced
their adult attachments
the results were classified by
trained coders into a category
what were the categories?
secure
dismissing
preoccupied
unresolved/disorganised
Main et al (1985) went on to show that the categories of adult relationships could be
predicted from peoples recall of their childhood attachments