Thesis (D.Phil (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Includes abstract in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2007. / Thesis directed by John G. Borkowski for the Department of Psychology. "April 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-51).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / Title from title screen. Julia L. Perilla, committee chair; Christopher C. Henrich, Rose A. Sevcik, Tracie L. Stewart, committee members. Electronic text (115 p. : charts, forms) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed May 10, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-96).

Thesis (doctoral)--La Salle University, 2001. / ProQuest dissertations and theses ; AAT 3108292. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-124).

The extensive amount of research conducted internationally in the field of John Bowlby's attachment theory indicates that an insecure attachment between a child and the primary caregiver has a detrimental effect on both social and emotional development in childhood, as well as having a profound effect on psychological development and functioning in adulthood. The present study aimed to explore and describe the therapeutic process of a nine year old with an insecure attachment style within a therapeutic framework, namely Theraplay. The therapeutic process was embedded within Ann Jernberg's Theraplay framework and the case was further contextualized within Bowlby's attachment theory. The case study method was utilized with a purposive sampling technique employed to select the participant. Irving Alexander's content-analytic framework in conjunction with Guba's model of trustworthiness was employed for data analysis. Two needs emerged during the therapeutic process namely the need for nurturance and affection as well as the need for power, control and safety.

The aim of this study was to investigate the attachment styles of children between the ages of six and twelve years of age who were admitted as inpatients in a children’s ward of a psychiatric hospital. Attachment theory (Bowlby, 1997, 1998) proposes that children develop certain attachment styles towards their primary caregivers from birth through to three years of age, after which the styles remain relatively constant as can be seen through attachment behaviours later on in life. These attachment styles can be secure, insecure-ambivalent / anxious or insecure-avoidant (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters&Wall, 1978). Green and Goldwyn (2002) also refer to a fourth category that was established through later research on attachment, named disorganised attachment. Psychiatric hospitalisation of a child implies the assumption of psychopathology and through institutionalisation, he or she is literally separated from the primary caregivers and inevitably placed in unfamiliar surroundings with strangers, making it an ideal setting to investigate attachment features. The researcher worked from the supposition that the mere fact of hospitalisation and implied pathology would thus point to insecure attachment styles in these children. A qualitative research design was implemented to gather information regarding the children’s attachment styles. Two projective techniques were used, namely the Children’s Apperception Test and the Picture Test of Separation and Individuation. Analysis of the information consisted of a first- and second-order process of thematic content analysis. The results yielded thirteen categories of experience. An extensive description of each category was provided, and the categories were then related to theory. The results obtained support previous research findings that found that institutionalised children tend to show more insecure attachment styles. The results from this study also indicated that these insecure attachment styles tend to be predominantly insecure-avoidant or insecure-disorganised. / Dissertation (MA(Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / unrestricted

Many women in prison are likely to have children, but for various reasons may not be playing the role of primary caregiver prior to incarceration, and may be unable to fulfill this role when released. This research was designed to investigate the interpersonal difficulties that may contribute to the parenting problems of this unique population. Female offenders have an increased likelihood of personality pathology and history of abuse, creating a set of circumstances that affect these women's ability to have satisfactory relationships. This may be manifested in an orientation towards relationships that could be classified as an insecure attachment style, although it is not the relationship per se that is classified as an insecure attachment style; rather, the insecure attachment style (or pattern) refers to the individual's view of themselves and others, and their attachment style may then influence their responses to others in intimate relationships (e.g., their warmth, caregiving, jealousy, ability to trust, etc). The female offender population provides a distinctive opportunity for investigating the relationships between attachment styles and incarcerated women's personality pathology, experiences with their primary caregivers, as well as their own experiences as mothers. The attachment styles of one hundred eleven incarcerated female inmates were assessed using the Relationship Questionnaire (RQ; Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991) and the Experience in Close Relationships Inventory (ECRI; Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998), and a sub-sample of these women were interviewed using the Peer Attachment Interview (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991). Offenders were also assessed for quality of relationships with parents using the Egna Minnen Betraffande Uppfostran (EMBU; Perris, Jacobsson, Lindstrom, von Knorring, & Perris, 1980), as well as with children using the Parental Stress Scale (PSS; Berry & Jones, 1995) and a Parental Bonding Interview (created specifically for this research to gather information about parent-child relationships, the level of caregiving provided to the child, and the mother's subjective account of her parenting experiences). The SCID-Il Clinical Interview (First, Gibbon, Spitzer, Williams, & Benjamin, 1997) was used to assess for personality disorder characteristics, which have been found in previous research to be prevalent in female offender populations. It was found that three-quarters of the women in the sample had given birth to children, however, 88.4% were no longer playing the role of primary caregiver upon incarceration. Nearly 61% of respondents claimed that social services had taken at least one child away, and 38.2% claimed that they had voluntarily given their children away. Reasons for no longer having custody varied, but the majority of women (70%) reported that drug and alcohol abuse was a major factor. Further, it was found that women in the sample were characterized by insecure attachment styles. Characteristics of personality disorders were present in over 73% of the sample. Results showed a high rate of abuse in childhood by primary caregivers, high levels of parental rejection, and low levels of parental warmth. In addition, participants reported unstable relationships with the fathers of their children. Further, the presence of an insecure attachment style was related to higher mean number of personality disorder characteristics, higher reported means of maternal and paternal rejection, and higher reported means of emotional and physical abuse by fathers. Impression management was found to be an issue with the respect to the majority of the measured utilized in the research. The goal of this research was to attain a greater understanding of the interpersonal difficulties of the female offender population, and how family, romantic, and peer relationships are related to parenting difficulties for these women. These issues, as well as limitations surrounding the use of current attachment measures, are discussed herein. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this preliminary and exploratory research project was to identify possible links between insecure male attachment patterns and wife assault. Attachment theory suggests that the quality of early interpersonal relationships has a profound effect on the psychological, emotional and social development of the individual. Insecure attachment has been found to be associated with a number of relationship problems and these interpersonal problems have also been identified with men who assault their wives. Based on this similarity, the insecure attachment paradigm may offer a useful theoretical orientation for understanding the conflict behaviours of men who assault their wives. The sample of fifty adult men who had assaulted their female partners was drawn from two therapy groups. In this preliminary and exploratory study, a number of measures were used to assess each man's mental representation of childhood attachment and his adult intimate attachment patterns, intimate conflict tactics and interpersonal jealousy and anger problems. The associations between insecure preoccupied, dismissing, and fearful attachment pattern ratings and male conflict tactic and relationship problems were then analyzed. The findings indicated that men who assault their wives had a high proportion of insecure adult intimate attachment patterns. These assaultive men were also found to be predominantly insecure in both their mental representations of childhood attachment and adult intimate attachment pattern ratings, with the greatest continuity occurring with the insecure preoccupied and fearful pattern ratings. Three patterns of relationship problems corresponding to the three insecure adult intimate attachment pattern rating were found. Preoccupied attachment pattern ratings were positively correlated with interpersonal jealousy scores and the reported use of the reasoning, verbal/symbolic abuse, physical abuse and severe physical abuse conflict tactics. Dismissing attachment pattern ratings were positively correlated with interpersonal anger scores and negatively correlated with the reasoning, verbal, physical and severe physical abuse conflict tactics. Fearful attachment pattern ratings were similar to the dismissing pattern in the positive correlation with interpersonal anger scores. The importance of considering insecure adult intimate attachment pattern ratings when providing group therapy to men who assault their wives was considered. Men with high insecure dismissing adult intimate attachment pattern ratings seem to require a distinctly different therapeutic approach than those with high insecure preoccupied adult intimate attachment pattern ratings and ideas in this regard are discussed. / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Graduate

There are a number of childhood factors reported to be associated with gay male sexual orientation including childhood gender non-conformity and socialization factors such as paternal and peer rejection. Attachment theory suggests that poor quality childhood relationships may be related to anxiety and avoidance attachment dimensions in adulthood. The purpose of this study was to explore the association between these childhood factors and anxiety and avoidance in gay men's close relationships. A community sample of 192 self-identified gay men completed questionnaires and a 2 hour attachment interview. No major findings related to the avoidance dimension were significant. In terms of attachment anxiety, results were partially consistent with attachment theory: paternal and peer, but not maternal, rejection independently predicted anxiety. Quality of peer relationships largely mediated the association between parental rejection and anxiety. In addition, quality of peer relationships mediated the association between gender nonconformity and anxiety. Good quality relationships in one domain did not compensate for poor quality relationships in another domain. The importance of fathers and peers to gay men's current relationship functioning is discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The process by which earned-secures achieve attachment security in adulthood, despite having insecure parent-child relationships in childhood, was the focus of the current study. As internal working models are thought to be formed within relationships, specifically primary attachment bonds (Bowlby, 1969), it was postulated that secondary attachment relationships, specifically those that were positive, had the capacity to revise insecure models of self and other. In the current study, the secondary attachment histories of undergraduates who were earned-secure and continuously-insecure, or insecurely attached since childhood, were compared. A new measure of secondary attachment quality was developed (Questionnaire About Secondary Attachment Figures (Q-SAF)), which was used to measure undergraduates' perceptions of their past and current secondary attachment figures. Findings indicated that in comparison to continuous-insecures, earned-secures perceived their negative secondary attachment figures in adolescence as less mean. Earned-secures also reported being less dependent upon these figures' approval of them for their self-worth and more secure within these relationships. In adulthood, earned-secures reported more trust and intimacy with their positive secondary attachment figures. Compared to continuous-insecures, earned-secures described their peers as being more empathic and altruistic during childhood and more warm during adolescence; earned-secures also reported less dependency and greater closeness with their peers throughout development. Grandparents were listed the most frequently by earned-secures as positive secondary attachment figures during childhood and this number was more than double that for continuous-insecures. Further, earned-secures described their grandparents in childhood as being more altruistic and they reported being less concerned with receiving their acceptance. Siblings from childhood were described by earned-secures as being more empathic than those of continuous-insecures, yet earned-secures also reported greater dismissing attachment to their siblings and cousins in childhood. Significant others from adolescence were rated by earned-secures as being less mean than those of continuous-insecures and earned-secures reported being more securely attached to these relationships in both adolescence and adulthood. Implications of the current study and directions for future research are presented.