Adult Attachment 2

Nathan Loynes

Attachment Style Questionnaire

• Undertake the ‘Revised Adult Attachment Scale’ (Collins, 1996) on page 4 of excerpt 5 in todays pack.

• Do not worry about the final ‘scoring’ of this.1. Do questionnaire such as this (and the final

SPSS type analysis) mean that ‘attachment’ is scientifically provable?

What is ‘attachment’? (from Page, 2011: cited in Turner in today’s pack)

• 1950’s John Bowlby• Influenced by Freud and ‘drive’ based

understandings of motivation.• Systemic theory: Individual behaviours

mediated by feedback within the ecological context (system).

• Although focused on infancy; attachment continues to play a part throughout the life course.

The role of ‘fear’

• ‘Dependent’ childhood behaviours are often rooted in internal responses to fear inducing stimuli/contexts (see Ainsworth in the article for more on this).

• (Secure) Personality devolopment neccessitate s that the child overcome these fears and develop ‘mastery’ and ‘autonomy’.

See Bifulco & Thomas (2013)in today’s pack for a detailed explanation

Secure

Dismissive

Preoccupied

Fearful

What starts in childhood..

Applying ‘attachment’ theory to a cartoon video clip/comic strip (This type of thing is what is being

asked of you in the assignment!)

Conclusion

• We might observe that some people appear to adopt ‘rigid’ life positions which influences their interactions with others and broader ‘outcomes’.

• These ‘life positions’ might be explained in terms of ‘attachment styles’.

• NB: Does ‘attachment theory’ have a scientific basis or does it have a purely heuristic value?