Assessing adult attachment : a dynamic-maturational approach to discourse analysis

419 Pages·2011·1.75 MB·English

by  Crittenden

Assessing Adult Attachment
A Norton Professional Book
ASSESSING ADULT ATTACHMENT
A Dynamic-Maturational Approach to Discourse Analysis
Patricia M. Crittenden, PhD
Andrea Landini, MD
W. W. Norton & Company
New York • London
“Tell All The Truth” reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees
of Amherst College from THE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON, Thomas H.
Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
Copyright (c) 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard
College.
Copyright © 2011 by Patricia McKinsey Crittenden and Andrea Landini
All rights reserved
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write
to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10110
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Crittenden, Patricia McKinsey.
Assessing adult attachment : a dynamic-maturational approach to discourse
analysis / Patricia McKinsey Crittenden, Andrea Landini.
p. cm.—(A Norton professional book)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-0-39370676-5
1. Attachment behavior. 2. Adulthood—Psychological aspects.3. Interpersonal
relations. I. Landini, Andrea. II. Title.
BF575.A86C75 2011155.6—dc22 2010044398
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
www.wwnorton.com
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London
W1T 3QT
This book is dedicated to our parents.
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind—
—E D
MILY ICKINSON
Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: “D’you Know What I Mean?”
The Root of the Problem
Why Do We Need a New Method?
Introduction and Orientation to the AAI
The Major Patterns of Attachment
What Does the AAI Assess?
For Whom Is An AAI Classification of Interest?
Plan for the Book
PART I: THE DYNAMIC-MATURATIONAL APPROACH TO
ATTACHMENT THEORY
2. Theoretical Background
Attachment and Patterns of Attachment
The Dynamic-Maturational Classificatory System
Conclusion
3. Information Processing
Transformations of Sensory Stimuli
Seven Transformations of Cognition and Affect
Memory Systems and Dispositional Representations
Integration and Reflective Integration
Encoding, Remembering/Forgetting, and Retrieval
Conclusion
4. Constructs Used in the Discourse Analysis of the Adult Attachment
Interview
History of Life Events/Experience
Discourse and Associated Memory Systems
Discourse Characteristics and Patterns of Attachment
Coherence of Discourse
PART II: THE CLASSIFICATORY SYSTEM
Introduction to the Classificatory Chapters
5. Overview of the Type B (Balanced) Strategies
General Characteristics Applying to All Type B (Balanced)
Classifications
B3 (Comfortably Balanced)
B1 (Distanced From Past)
B2 (Accepting)
B4 (Sentimental)
B5 (Complaining Acceptance)
BO (Balanced Other)
6. Overview of the Type A Strategies and A1–2
General Characteristics Applying to All Type A Classifications
A1 (Idealizing)
A2 (Distancing)
7. Compulsive Type A Strategies (A3–8): Coping With Danger
A3 (Compulsive Caregiving and Compulsive Attention)
A4 (Compulsive Compliance and Compulsive Performance)
A5 (Compulsively Promiscuous, Socially or Sexually)
A6 (Compulsively Self-Reliant, Social or Isolated)
A7 (Delusional Idealization)
A8 (Externally Assembled Self)
8. Overview of the Type C Strategies and C1–2
General Characteristics Applying to All Type C Classifications
C1 (Threateningly Angry)
C2 (Disarmingly Desirous of Comfort)
9. Obsessive Type C Strategies (C3–8): Coping With Uncertainty,
Ambiguity, and Threat
C3 (Aggressively Angry)
C4 (Feigned Helpless)
C5 (Punitively Angry and Obsessed With Revenge)
C6 (Seductive and Obsessed With Rescue)
Gradations Within C5–6
C7 (Menacing)
C8 (Paranoid)
10. Combination Patterns: A/C and AC
Types A/C and AC
Insecure Other (IO)
11. Conditions That Reflect the Disruption of Interpersonal Self-
Protective Strategies: Unresolved Trauma (Utr) or Loss (Ul)
Overview
Advantages of DMM Conceptualization of Lack of Resolution
12. Conditions That Reflect the Failure of Interpersonal Self-Protective
Strategies: A Move to the Intrapersonal and Extrafamilial Levels
Overview
Depressed
Disoriented
Intrusions of Forbidden Negative Affect
Expressed Somatic Symptoms
Reorganizing
PART III: FROM THEORY TO APPLICATION
13. The Classificatory Process and Classificatory Guidelines
General Issues Regarding Classification
Interpreting and Using the History in the Process of Classification
Comparing Dispositional Representations in Different Memory
Systems
Reaching a Classification
Reliability
Patterning and Process
14. But What Shall I Do? Transforming an AAI Classification Into a Plan
for Treatment
Adaptive and Nonadaptive States of Strategies
Functional Formulation
Making Sense of Strategic Functioning
Applications of the AAI to Assessment and Treatment
15. Validity and Clinical Implications of the DMM-AAI
Differences Between DMM and M&G
Validation of the DMM-AAI
Studies Using the DMM-AAI
Future Directions for the Testing of DMM-AAI Validity