11: An Attachment perspective on psychopathology

Question 1

What is the attachment behavioural system according to Bowlby?

Answer 1

• innate psychobiological system that motivates people to seek proximity to significant others in times of need

Question 2

What type of interaction with significant others results in a secure attachment + a positive mental representation of self + others?

Answer 2

• attachment figures being available in times of need
• who are sensitive + responsive to bid for proximity + support
  = positive mental representation of self + other

Question 3

What are the suggested consequences of not forming a secure attachment?

Answer 3

• negative model of self + others

- likelihood of later emotional problems + maladjustment increases

Question 4

What do the different dimensions of attachment style, as suggested by Hazan + Shaver, mean?

Answer 4

1. Attachment-related anxiety
   - worrying that attachment figure will not be available and responsive in times of need
2. Attachment- related avoidance
   - shows the extent to which they distrust attachment figure and focuses more on independence + emotional distance

Question 5

According to Mikulincer + Shaver, what does their two-dimensional conseptual space relfect the ability of what?

Answer 5

• ways in which they deal with threats + distress

Question 6

How did Cassidy + Kobak explain how those who scored high in the two-dimensions coped with threats?

Answer 6

relied on secondary attachment strategies

- either deactivating or hyper-activating attachment system

Question 7

According to Mikulincer + shaver, What secondary attachment strategy do people who score high on avoidant attachment use to cope with threat?

Answer 7

Deactivating strategies

• try not to seek proximity
• denying attachment needs
• avoiding closeness + interdependence in relationships
  since. ..
• AF disapproves + punished closeness + expression of need/ vulnerability

Question 8

According to Mikulincer + shaver, What secondary attachment strategy do people who score high on anxiety attachment use to cope with threat?

Answer 8

Hyper activating strategies
- energetic attempts to achieve proximity, support
- combined w/ lack of self-confidence and when needs not met = resentment
since…
- AF unreliably respond
= always on a partial reinforcement schedule that rewards persistence in proximity-seeking attempts since they succeed sometimes

Question 9

Is attachment style permanent from the interaction with parents during infancy?

Answer 9

NO
- meaningful relations interaction during adolescence + adulthood can move people between the two-dimensional conceptal space

Bowlby

Question 10

Why can attachment insecurity be viewed as a general vulnerability to mental disorders?

Answer 10

since attachment style can interfere with the development of secure stable foundation

• reduces resilience in coping with stressful life events
• pre-dispose person to break down psychologically in times of crisis

Question 11

What did Mikulincer + Shaver find when they reviewed attachment style + mental disorder?

Answer 11

• attachment insecurity common among people with a wide variety of mental disorder
• Mild distress, SZ, depression, OCD

Question 12

What type of PD are the different insecuirty attachment style associated with?

Answer 12

Anxious attachment
= dependent, histrionic + borderline disorders

Avoidant attachment -= schizoid + avoidant disorders

Question 13

What component of PD did Crawford et al find attachment anxiety is associated with?

Answer 13

Emotional dyregulation (Livesley)

includes. ..
- identity confusion
- anxiety
- emotional lability
- cognitive distortions

Question 14

What component of PD did Crawford et al find attachment avoidant is associated with?

Answer 14

inhibitedness (livesley)

includes. ..
- restricted emotions
- problems with intimacy
- social avoidance

Question 15

What are some reasons for why attachment style is unlikely to be sufficient causes of mental disorder other than for attachment injuries like separation anxiety?

-

Answer 15

1. Likely to just converge with other factors or amplify their effects
2. Mixed relation between attachment style avoidance + psychological distress
3. The role of life history factors
4. causal links complicated
   - psychological problems can change attachment insecurity

Question 16

What did Davila et al find challenging the cause link between attachment style and psychopatholoy?

Answer 16

late adolescent
women who became less securely attached over periods of 6
to 24 months were more likely than their peers to have a history of psychopathology

Question 17

What evidence is there showing the mixed relation between attachment style avoidance + psychological distress?

Answer 17

• no association between avoidant attachment + self-report measures of global distress VS focus on highly stressful events, such as exposure to missile attacks, living in a dangerous neighborhoods, or giving birth to a handicapped infant, have indicated that avoidance is related to greater distress
  and poorer long-term adjustment

Question 18

What evidence is there showing the importance of considering life history factors when considering the relation between attachment style + psychopathology?

Answer 18

• association between attachment insecurity + depression
  higher among adults with a childhood history of physical,
  psychological, or sexual abuse
• later stressful life events,
  poverty, physical health problems, during adolescence also strengthen the link between attachment insecurity + psychopathology

Question 19

What did Cozzarelli et al find challenging the cause link between attachment style and psychopatholoy?

Answer 19

women who moved in the direction of insecure attachment
over a 2-year period following abortion were more likely
than other women who had an abortion to have a prior history of depression or abuse

Question 20

What did Solomon et al find challenging the cause link between attachment style and psychopatholoy?

Answer 20

Attachment anxiety and avoidance increased over time
among the ex-prisoners, and the increases were predicted by
the severity of PTSD symptoms at the first wave of measurement

Question 21

How has the mixed relationship between attachment style and psychopathology helped to develop a potential treatment?

Answer 21

creation, maintenance or restoration of sense of attachment should increase resilience + improve mental health
= Security priming

Question 22

What is security priming and how is it conducted?

Answer 22

• is the experimental activation of mental representations of supportive attachment figures
  = subliminal pictures suggesting AF available
  = guided imagery highlighting availability + supportiveness of AF
  = visualising of faces of security-enhancing AF

Question 23

What did Mikulincer et al find when they used subliminal priming with security-related words on PTSD patients?

Answer 23

mitigated cognitive symptoms of PTSD - heightened accessibility of trauma-related words

Question 24

What did Admoni find when priming the names of each participant’s security providers in a sample of women hospitalised for eating disorder?

Answer 24

mitigated 2 cognitive symptoms of eatings disorders

1. distorted body perception
2. Heightened accessibility of food-related words

Question 25

What did Zuroff + Blatt find client's positive appraisals of their therapist's sensitivity + supportiveness predicted which suggests what about the sense of security provided by a psychotherapist?

Answer 25

- predicted relief from depression + maintenance of therapeutic benefits over 18 months - results not attributed to patient characteristics. severity of depression = sense of security provided by a psychotherapist improve client's well-being?

Question 26

What did Gru find in a one-year prospective study of the effectiveness of residential treatment of high-risk adolescents?

Answer 26

staff members’ provision of a sense of attachment security in the adolescents resulted in lower rates of anger, depression, and behavioral problems

Question 27

What are thought to be the most important mediating pathways between attachment insecurities and psychopathology according to the attachment theory?

Answer 27

1. Self-representation 2. Emotion regulation 3. Problems in interpersonal relations

Question 28

How does self-representation act as a mediating factor between attachment insecurities and psychopathology?

Answer 28

lack of parental sensitivity = lack of self-cohesion + disorder of self = insecure ppl - overly self-critical - use defences like destructive perfectionism to counteract feelings of hopelessness/ worthlessness = increases risk of developing mental disorders

Question 29

What type of narcissism are avoidant + anxiety attachment associated with?

Answer 29

1. Avoidant = overt narcissism/ grandiosity - self-praise - denial of weakness 2. Anxiety = covert narcissism - self-focused attention - hypersensitivity to other's evaluation

Question 30

How does emotion regulation act as a mediating factor between attachment insecurities and psychopathology?

Answer 30

Avoidant - cordon off emotions from thoughts - leave distress suppressed = impairment in dealing with life adversities Anxiety - emotional regulation = emotion amplification + exaggeration = associated with socially destructive outbursts of anger/ violence/ demands

Question 31

What is meant to the importance of interacting with available AF + the resulting sense of attachment security provide?

Answer 31

- actual and symbolic supports for learning constructive emotion-regulation strategies - learning that display of emotions important step to restoring balance

Question 32

What does failure to obtain support from attachment figures and to sustain a sense of security, and the resulting reliance on secondary attachment strategies (hyperactivation and deactivation) interfere with?

Answer 32

acquisition of social skills and create serious problems in interpersonal relations

Question 33

How does problems in interpersonal relations mediate between attachment style + psychopathology?

Answer 33

Bartholomew + Horowitz - Anxiety attachment = more interpersonal problems in general ``` Anxious = - emotionality eg being overly emotional Avoidant = - problems with nurturance eg being cold/ introverted ``` = problems underly self-reported loneliness + social isolation

Question 34

What is the social baseline theory - Coan?

Answer 34

- human brain evolved in a highly social environment + many of its basic functions rely on social co-regulation of emotions + physiological states. = rather than conceptualizing human beings as separate entities whose interactions with each other need to be understood, it makes more sense to consider social relatedness and its mental correlates as the normal “baseline” condition.

Question 35

What does the social baseline theory (Coan) help us potentially explain?

Answer 35

why experiences of separation, isolation, rejection, abuse, + neglect are so psychologically painful + why dysfunctional relationships are often the causes or amplifiers of mental disorders