Class 15

Question 1

What is an Adult Attachment Interview?

Answer 1

Ask person = relationship with parents, choose adjectives that describe them,
justify choice, speculate about parents’ behaviour

Interest not just in content of answers, but how individual discusses these experiences—trying to infer state of mind relative to attachment
* Are answers (in)coherent? (In)consistent? Are there signs of emotional
disorganization?

Question 2

With adult attachment interviews, what patterns do we see with secure people?

Answer 2

Balanced, realistic view of early relationships
* See attachment experiences as valuable & influential
* Open, direct, & co-operative in their discourse

Question 3

With adult attachment interviews, what patterns do we see with dismissing people?

Answer 3

Overly idealized POV of parents

• Discomfort discussing childhood experiences
• Unsubstantiated attempts to idealize or put positive spin on negative
  experiences
• Deny influence of early attachment relationship

Question 4

With adult attachment interviews, what patterns do we see with preoccupied people?

Answer 4

• Seem anxious and/or angry
• Appear to still be enmeshed with these early relationship experiences
• Long-winded, signs of confusion & inconsistency

Question 5

How is attachment best characterized?

a. Dimensions

b. Types

c. Scales

d. Sections

Answer 5

Statistical analysis suggests that
attachment is best characterized in terms
of dimensions rather than types

We should look at variation within a category

Question 6

Anxiety subscale examples

Freebie ish

Answer 6

I worry about being rejected or abandoned

My desire to be very close sometimes scares people away

I resent it when my relationship partners spend time away from me

If I can’t get a relationship partner to show interest in me, I get upset or ang

Question 7

Avoidance subscale examples

Freebie ish

Answer 7

Avoidance subscale examples

I prefer not to show others how I feel deep down

Just when someone starts to get close to me, I find myself pulling away

I try to avoid getting too close to others
I don’t feel comfortable opening up to other

Question 8

What is the it model of normative attachment system function?

Answer 8

(Picture) = Study it svp

Question 9

Which attachment style often deploys Hyperactivating strategies?

Answer 9

Anxious

(They learned proximity seeking is unreliable, so they amp up seeking behaviours to get it)

Question 10

What are Hyperactivating strategies often dictated by attachment style?

Answer 10

➢ Heightened vigilance for possible threats
➢ More likely to make relationship-threatening attributions

*** Exaggerated appraisals of threats (catastrophizing) (negative perceptions aren’t because partner asked smth negatively, but because they INTERPRET it like that)

*** Contagion across memory (sadness / negative emotions can spread across memories)

➢ Rumination, difficulty disengaging from emotional hurt and negativity
➢ High accessibility of negative emotional memories

Question 11

What did the study find on:

negative affect and romantic partner communal behaviour

Answer 11

Have two partners interact
- And track their reactions to the others’ behaviour

When you feel your partner is less warm = upset

Anxious people = Much more reactive / upset
(And they didn’t feel better with positive experiences)

Question 12

How might anxious people have a bias for negative events?

Answer 12

Intensify vigilant monitoring of attachment figure’s behaviour

Assume your partner is unavailable (start carefully monitoring them)
- If you see kind things = you might interpret it as sarcasm / negative

(detect either real or imagined signs of distance or unavailability)

Question 13

Lab example with stressed couples:

How is Attachment anxiety related to negative appraisals of partner?

Answer 13

Couple:
A: Told they’ll need to do a surprise public speech

B: Write a supportive note to partner

Anxious people: See it less positively / more negatively even when coders rate it as positive
- Might see / interpret subtle critisism

Question 14

What is Excessive reassurance seeking?

Answer 14

inappropriately strong tendency to seek
assurances that one is valued & loved after such assurances have already been
provided

Question 15

What is discount assurance?

Answer 15

“Oh they only said that to make me feel better”

Think it’s forced and not sincere

→ vicious cycle of doubt & demoralization, potentially culminating in depression

Question 16

How do secure people handle positive feedback?

(this is to contrast with how anxious ppl read negatively on partners intentions)

Answer 16

They have a stable positive expectation (i.e. tend to confirm positive view of partner)
- Trust in own coping ability

Overlook or downplay temporary instances of unresponsiveness or unavailability

Question 17

How do these people handle self disclosure?

Anxious

Secure

Answer 17

Anxious
- Disclose to be soothed /reassured
- Own Unfulfilled needs
- Share too much too soon

Driven more by desire to merge with another person, garner support, assuage fear of rejection rather than focus on mutual enjoyment and reciprocity (like securely attached individuals)

Secure
- Share gradually
- Want to learn about another person

Question 18

Implications for responsiveness

Are anxious people more resonsive?

Answer 18

No
they do “compulsive caregiving” = getting overinvolved in partners distress
- Feel they have to solve it (think everything = crisis)
- Might make them feel worse
- So focused on own distress = hard to help others

Question 19

HOW DOES ATTACHMENT AVOIDANCE
MANIFEST IN ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS?

What is the goal of attachment avoidant people?

Answer 19

Goal is to keep the attachment system deactivated (deactivation strategy)

Minimize what might lead to the attachment system activation

Question 20

Two types of strategies avoidant people use to avoid activating the attachment system:

1. Postemptive
2. Preemptive

Answer 20

➢ Postemptive strategies: avoid retrieving, dwelling on, or elaborating on
extant memories, insecurities, fears, etc. (e.g., what you see on the AAI)

➢ Preemptive strategies: deflect attention away from distress provoking
material, fail to encode it into memory
- E.g., “tuning out” of potentially distressing conversation, not getting into
relationship in the first place

Question 21

Pre-emptive strategies: Example study

Ask people to listen to an interview and fill out answers

(SI_ _ R) (L_V) & test general memory on interview

What did they find?

Answer 21

• Ps listened to an interview touching on several attachment themes, including
  the death of a family member
• Completed two memory tests:

➢ Word fragment completion task (test of implicit memory)
➢ Cued-recall test (test of explicit memory)
* Avoidantly attached individuals: worse performance on both types of tests (even when monetary incentive)

(Will fail to encode relationship related stuff into memory)

Question 22

How sustainable are pre/post - emptive defensive strategies?

Answer 22

Can break down (espc under high stress)
- EX. Divorce / ill child (have poor coping / more distress)

• They also refuse to acknowledge distress (Cuz they can’t seek social comfort for it)

Defensive strategies appear to be cognitively & physiologically effortful

Question 23

How sustainable are pre/post - emptive defensive strategies

Study: What is the rebound effect?

Answer 23

Ask to think abt breakup

Normally, see a rebound effect = heightened intrusion of unwanted thoughts
following suppression (try not think of a white bear)
* Usually avoidants are good at avoiding the rebound effect
- Positive self traits = High
-Negative self traits = Low

Under cognitive load
- no longer able to avoid rebound of suppressed thoughts about separation
- Can also no longer maintain defensively positive self-image