Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-185). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Past research has indicated that masculine socialization norms contribute to avoidance of intimacy in close relationships, which has been proposed to inhibit men’s psychological adjustment. The goal of the current dissertation was to examine associations among parental bonding, gender role conflict, affect regulation capacity, and adult attachment avoidance to describe the dynamic interaction between psychological and societal influences impacting adult attachment style. The present investigation employed a developmental contextual framework used to examine attachment and psychoanalytic theories describing the evolution of characteristic male interpersonal strategies. In the current study, it was proposed that parental bonding would predict adult attachment avoidance, gender role conflict, and affect regulation capacity. It was also hypothesized that both gender role conflict and three distinct affect regulation variables would predict adult attachment avoidance. Finally, the study aimed to test a model proposing that gender role conflict and affect regulation variables mediate the relationship between parental bonding and avoidance of intimacy in romantic relationships. Two hundred and sixty-six undergraduate men completed a series of online surveys and 10 of these individuals participated in open-ended, follow-up interviews. The relationships between study variables were examined with linear regression and mediational analyses. Qualitative data regarding constructs of interest were elicited from interview respondents and interpreted for themes. Results demonstrated partial support for mediation effects, indicating that gender role conflict, emotion regulation suppression, and emotion regulation reappraisal helped to explain the association between maternal bonding care and adult attachment avoidance. In addition, interview themes related to five content areas were described and integrated with implications for future research directions and clinical applications. Results of this study identified significant mechanisms underlying the development of men’s maladaptive discomfort with intimacy in adulthood. Findings revealed through investigation of male interpersonal connections and the origins of specific emotion regulation strategies will assist researchers and clinicians to further elucidate the construct of masculinity from a developmental contextual perspective. Study outcomes indicated that masculine gender role socialization and capacity to regulate affect should be key points of intervention for therapists working with men presenting with relational difficulties linked to early parental attachments. / text

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Sammanfattning Inledning: Den psykiska ohälsan och suicid hos ungdomar mellan 15-24 år har ökat i Sverige. Att undersöka metoder som kan bidra i arbetet mot psykisk ohälsa känns angeläget, detta när traditionella metoder inte alltid är tillräckliga för att behandla psykisk ohälsa hos ungdomar. Anknytningsbaserad familjeterapi, ABFT används idag för behandling av depression, ångest och suicidal problematik hos unga inom Barn och ungdomspsykiatrin (BUP), inom socialtjänstens behandling för ungdomar samt inom vissa statliga institutioner för unga (SIS). Frågeställning: Vilka olika erfarenheter finns av ABFT behandling hos psykoterapeuter, patienter och föräldrar ? Metod: semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med fyra psykoterapeuter, två patienter och två föräldrar. Kvalitativ metod har använts och insamlad data har analyserats med tematisk analys med induktiv ansats. Resultat : Resultatet knyts till fem teman ; Anknytning, kommunikation, relation, affekter och förändring. Psykoterapeuterna ser återanknytningsarbetet som nödvändig för att återupprätta dialog och kommunikation mellan förälder och ungdom. Detta förbättrar på sikt relationen och anknytningen, men även det psykiska måendet hos ungdomarna enligt psykoterapeuterna. Ungdomarnas erfarenhet är att de blev mer förstådda och hörda av sina föräldrar. Dialogen återupptogs och känslor kunde uttryckas till den det gällde. När behov och känslor togs emot av förälder ökade tilliten till föräldern, relationen förbättrades och föräldern kunde ses som en resurs. Föräldrars erfarenheter är att de fick andra sätt för att kommunicera, stödja och möta sin ungdom på. Diskussion: Visar att återanknytning och relationell omformulering av problem görs i ABFT behandling. De relationella problemen är följder av tidigare anknytningsskador. Återupprättad dialog möjliggör återanknytning vilket förbättrar relationen. Utvidgning av ungdomens och förälderns kapacitet till känslomässig bearbetning är förutsättning för förändring. Uttryckandet av känslor förknippade med anknytningskadan verkar läkande för ungdomen samt förbättrar relation och anknytning till förälder. Förändring sker när ungdom får sätta ord på och dela svåra känslor med föräldern. Att bli mottagen i sina känslor skapar en förändring i de inre arbetsmodellerna hos ungdom och förälder. Förändringar sker i interaktionen mellan föräldrar och ungdom vilket gör att de inre arbetsmodellerna av sig själv och annan kan omprövas. Nyckelord: Anknytningsbaserad familjeterapi, anknytning, relationer, kommunikation, affekter och förändring / Introduction: Mental illness and suicide in young people from 15-24 years has increased in Sweden. To examine methods which can help in the fight against mental illness feels crucial, when traditional methods not always is sufficient for the target audience and for treatment of mental illness in youths. Attachment-based family therapy, ABFT is used for young people with mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and suicidality problems. ABFT is used today in child and youth psychiatry (BUP), in social services treatment for youth and in some state institutions for youth (SIS) in Sweden. Research questions: The study's purpose is to investigate psychotherapists, patients and parents different experiences of ABFT treatment. Interviews were conducted with four psychotherapists, two patients and two parents. Qualitative method was used and data collected have been analysed using thematic analysis of inductive approach. Results: The results are tied to five themes ; Attachment , relationships, communication, affects and change. Psychotherapists view re-attachment as necessary in order to re-establish dialogue and communication between parents and youth. This improves in the long run the relationship and affiliation, but also the mental state of youth according to psychotherapists. Young people's experience is that they became better understood and heard by their parents. The dialogue resumed and feelings could be expressed to the terms. When needs and feelings were received by the parent reliance grew on parents, the relationship improved and parents could be seen as a resource. Parents experience is that they got other ways to communicate, support and face his youth on. Discussion : Shows that reconnection and relational reformulation of the problems are made in the ABFT. The relational problems are consequences of the previous attachment injuries. Restored dialogue allows for reconnection, which improves the relationship. Extension of the fountain of youth and parent's capacity for emotional processing is the prerequisite for change. The expression of feelings associated with related injuries seems healing for young people as well as improves relationship and connection to the parent. Change occurs when youth put into words and share feelings with parents. To be received in their emotions creates a change in the internal working models of youth and parents. Changes occurs in the interaction between parents and youth which does that the internal working models of self and others can be reconsidered.

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Using an attachment theory perspective, variation in adult romantic attachment style outcomes were examined according to childhood experiences of parental divorce and residential instability. The sample was comprised of 172 individuals in the young adulthood developmental stage that were recruited using snowball sampling via online social networking. Participants completed an online survey containing the 36-item Experiences in Close Relationships scale and 28 author-developed items. The majority of the sample reported stable and predictable living arrangements as children. Those whose parents had divorced reported higher levels of parental conflict during their childhood than those whose parents had never divorced or separated. There was no statistical difference on adult romantic attachment style score between individuals who experience parental divorce or separation and those who did not. Parental conflict and stability of residence patterns did not have a statistically significant impact on attachment avoidance or anxiety. For participants whose parents had divorced or separated, conflict, residential stability, and time with nonresidential parent statistically improved the predictive ability of attachment anxiety. Specifically, time with nonresidential parent moderated adult romantic attachment anxiety.

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT; Johnson, 2004) addresses relationship distress by facilitating the development of new patterns of interaction between partners. These new patterns of interaction are based on partners' vulnerable acknowledgement and expression of attachment needs. Partners' engagement in these new patterns of interaction is thought to improve their relationship-specific attachment bond. Although previous studies have shown EFT to result in excellent relationship satisfaction outcomes (Johnson, Hunsley, Greenberg & Schindler, 1999), research had yet clearly to demonstrate if and how EFT facilitates increases in partners' relationship-specific models attachment security over the course of therapy. To address this research gap, the current study employed Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM; Singer & Willet, 2003) to investigate the pattern of change in couples' (n=32) self-reported relationship satisfaction and relationship-specific attachment over the course of EFT. Couples reported significant linear increases in their relationship satisfaction and significant linear decreases in their relationship-specific attachment avoidance over the course of therapy. Couples who completed the blamer-softening therapeutic change event (n=16) demonstrated significant linear decreases in their relationship-specific attachment anxiety after completing this event. Decreases in relationship-specific attachment anxiety predicted increases in couples' relationship satisfaction over the course of therapy. Couples also demonstrated significant increases in the security of their pre-post-therapy relationship-specific attachment behaviour, as coded Secure Base Scoring System (Crowell, Treboux, Gao, Fyffe, Pan & Waters, 2002). The current study also used HLM (Singer & Willet, 2003) to examine how the completion of blamer-softening impacted softened couples' relationship-specific attachment anxiety, and whether the completion of blamer-softening had a similar impact on softened couples' relationship-specific attachment avoidance and relationship satisfaction. Softened couples reported an immediate increase in relationship satisfaction and immediate decrease relationship-specific attachment avoidance at the softening session. Further, softened couples' post-softening decreases in relationship-specific attachment anxiety were initially preceded by an increase at the softening session. These results provided an understanding of how EFT leads to increases in couples' relationship-specific attachment security. These results provide support for the use of attachment theory in the treatment of relationship distress, and also provide an illustration of how attachment can shift over the course of a therapeutic intervention.

This dissertation identified key parallels between the theories of place attachment and interpersonal attachment, a comparison that then informed three objectives of the research program: (1) to explore the functions of place attachment and describe which are shared with interpersonal attachment; (2) to examine how these functions differ according to stable individual differences in place and person attachment; and (3) to assess whether these functions differ according to the geographical scale at which the attachment rests. An additional methodological goal was to bring a new approach to the study of place attachment, drawing on experimental paradigms used in interpersonal attachment research. Research objectives were achieved through the completion of three separate studies. Study 1 began the inquiry into the functions of place attachment with a content analysis of community members’ open-ended descriptions about places to which they consider themselves attached. Thirteen categories of benefits were revealed: memories, belonging, relaxation, positive emotions, activity support, comfort--security, self-growth, freedom--control, entertainment, connection to nature, practical benefits, privacy, and aesthetics. These functions were discussed with reference to the functions of interpersonal attachment previously identified in the literature. The next two studies used experimental methodologies to further evaluate, and expand upon, the functions of place attachment identified in Study 1. Study 2 evaluated whether a security function exists for place attachment by assessing the impact of threat exposure on the mental accessibility of place attachment words. Specifically, threat exposure was operationalized by mistakes made on a lexical decision task, and place attachment proximity was represented by participants’ subsequent reaction times to place attachment words in this task. Results showed that exposure to threats increased proximity-seeking to places of attachment, but not to other types of places. Study 3 evaluated the ability of place attachment to provide belongingness, control, meaningfulness, self-esteem, and improved affect, and this was done within the context of a commonly-used ostracism paradigm. Place attachment was manipulated using a visualization exercise, and ostracism was manipulated using a bogus rejection paradigm. The dependent variables included participants’ current moods and experienced levels of psychological need satisfaction (i.e., meaning, self-esteem, control, and belongingness). Although ostracism did not interact with the place attachment visualization, the latter was found to increase individuals’ current levels of self-esteem, meaning, belongingness, control and negative affect, but only among participants without an avoidant place attachment style. This comparison between interpersonal attachment and place attachment revealed some overlap between the two types of bonding, and most importantly, inspired new research questions and methodological approaches to advance the study of place attachment – a less mature theory, but one with much applied value and theoretical potential. / Graduate / 0451

Denna undersökning hade för avsikt att granska relationen mellan skam och vuxenanknytning. Både skam och anknytning har genom tidigare forskning visat sig vara arbetsmodeller som grundläggs tidigt i människors liv och som påverkar vår självuppfattning, självkänsla och hur vi relaterar och fungerar med andra människor. Dessa inre modeller förblir relativt stabila under vår livstid. Med hjälp av självskattningsformulär mättes deltagarnas anknytningstyp och deras upplevelse och hantering av skam. Resultaten visar på en signifikant skillnad mellan anknytningskategori och självrapporterad nivå av skamuppleverser. Trygg anknytning och otrygg/avvisande anknytning uppger lägre poäng på skamskattningsskalan ESS medan otrygg/ängslig och otrygg/upptagen uppger högre poäng på skamskattningsskalan ESS. Detta ger stöd åt tidigare forskning som gjorts om anknytning och skam. Ytterligare forskning behövs, kvantitativ och kvalitativ från olika vinklar, för att få en djupare förståelse för dessa komplexa mekanismer mer ingående och hur det dynamiska samspelet mellan dem. / This study examined the relationship between shame and adult attachment. Both shame and attachment has in previous studies shown to be working-models whitch are made early in peoples life and which effects our self-image, selfesteem and how we relate och function together with other people.These inner working-models are relativly stable across life-span. With use of self-report, mesures of adult attachment and shame was made and the results showed a significant difference between the type of adult attachment and self-reported shame level. Secure attachment and unsecure/dissmissive attachment reported lower levels of shame in the self-reported messure Experience of Shame Scale ESS while the unsecure/fearful and unsecure/preoccupied reported higer  levels of shame in the self-reported messure Experience of Shame Scale ESS. This supportes previous studies made in attachment and shame. More reaserch is needed to, in a profound way, understand these komplex mechanisms.