L4 - Attachment, mentalization and epistemic trust

Question 1

what is the lecture about?

Answer 1

how we become socially and psychologically complex beings

from moving baby bodies to trusting fellow citizens

Question 2

The story of Manon and Julia show that

Answer 2

• outcomes for each child are markedly different even though they are twins
• absence of parental support -> children learn to take care of themselves, each other and parents (parentification)
• in terms of emotion regulation, an absence of well-regulated reflected, mentalized emotions seem to occur in both twins
  
  • in one of them underregulated, overwhelming emotions dominate (Julia) and in the other, overregulation (Manon)

–> this is more than a story of a person with a disorder, it is a system that has been built up & determines the way someone interacts and exists in the world –> it shows that personality exists in a context

Question 3

The interpersonal approach to personality

Answer 3

personality is contextualized and part of the interpersonal situation we are in
- Manon and Julia very much show this

Question 4

Definitions of personality ()

Answer 4

• Sullivan: enduring pattern of recurrent interpersonal situations
• Allport: dynamic organization within an individual - psychophysical systems that determine characteristic
• Cattell: personality is that which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a given situation
  
  • Arjen doesn’t subscribe to this because there are many other things that predict behaviors other than personality
• McAdams: encompasses key individual traits and values that are situated in the diverse layers of dispositional traits etc.

Question 5

Arjen’s pragmatic definition of personality

Answer 5

is two-fold:

1. Ideas and stories about personality are concerned with the question: who are you and hwhat makes you different from others?
2. Personality science is concerned with:
   * Observing and explaining
   * patterns in experiencing of and interacting with self, world and others
   * that show pervasiveness over situations
   * and persistence over time
   * and distinguish one from others

Question 6

what is to be noted about Arjen’s definition?

Answer 6

offers a way to observe and explain patterns but takes no stance on whether we these patterns are part of a single person dynamic or a contextual group dynamic
- Both are important

Question 7

pervasiveness/persistence vs individual differences: traits

Answer 7

PP: stability over time & aggregation over situations

ID: variation in OCEAN traits, etc.

Question 8

pervasiveness/persistence vs individual differences: narratives

Answer 8

PP: Memory structures and authorship by the person

ID: Codeable differences in themes, structure, plotlines, etc.

Question 9

pervasiveness/persistence vs individual differences: basic emotional systems

Answer 9

PP: Inborn systems that persist and develop over life

ID: Inborn genetic differences in sensitvity of systems, learned differences in activation pattern, etc.

Question 10

pervasiveness/persistence vs individual differences: Forms of vitality and repeated patterns of self-with-other

Answer 10

PP: Repeated patterns of being with an other are stored in bodily memory and can be reactivated

ID: Typical types of repeated interactions and self-other-experiences will provide a person-specific dynamic profile

Question 11

pervasiveness/persistence vs individual differences: self as agent

Answer 11

PP: The person will develop certain goals and values that persist through life and guide action

ID: Values and goals appears as consistent and stable individual differences

Question 12

by looking at different concepts of personality theories in terms of pervasiveness/persistence and individual differences, we see that

Answer 12

developmental psych and personality are co-related

Question 13

how have we evolved to see personality theories to seeing how it appears in the clinical realm

Answer 13

1. Personality problems as categorical syndromes (DSM-5 section 2)
2. Personality problems as traits (e.g., AMPD alternative model of personality disorders, section 3)
3. Personality problems as dynamics (e.g., networks)

4. An interpersonal model of personality dynamics

Question 14

An interpersonal model of personality dynamics: core idea

Answer 14

Stable patterns or schemata of thinking about the world and knowing how to act in certain situations is the basis of how we develop stable ways in the world

Question 15

The interpersonal model focuses on something called the interpersonal field

Answer 15

We always have these 2 systems occurring at the same time in any kind of interpersonal interaction

1. the self system that is complex and interacts with
2. the affect system

–> the same two systems are in the other person in the interaction as well

between the self and the other there are perceptions and behaviors that become guiding signals to both parties which then are interpreted -> forming a dynamic interaction

notes for picture

Question 16

what is the connection with the interpersonal model and therapy

Answer 16

in therapy we focus on persistent, pervasive and problematic patterns of interactions (visualized by the interpersonal field: which is the focus of interpersonal model)

Question 17

how do persistent, pervasive and problematic patterns show in therapy

Answer 17

• Persistency shown in red arrows = same interaction pattern from one situation to another (e.g., a vulnerable narcissist getting easily defensive)
• Brought into therapy sessions as well (seen from session 1 already)
• At the same level of the self system and the affect system

Question 18

how do persistent, pervasive and problematic patterns improve in therapy

Answer 18

• Some change will happen from session to session
  
  • E.g., learning to understand yourself better may result into being less defensive over time (green arrows)
  • This change is not quick or super apparent because of the pervasiveness and persistence of the patterns
    Normal situations outside therapy: change does not happen readily
    When we deal with patterns encoded for a long time, we cannot expect quick change and we need therapy for years
    
    • Many situations needed to reinforce change
    • Sometimes therapy needed for years

Question 19

give an example of an early maladaptive schema and the interpersonal field & how this influences your interactions

Answer 19

The belief that one is defective, bad, unwanted, inferior, or unworthy. This includes the fear of being exposed to significant others, accompanied by hypersensitivity to criticism, rejection, and blame.

Question 20

why do we have to talk about intentionality and mentalization?

Answer 20

intentionality: we still have to have an account for the part of the self as an agent
- McAdams posits that humans do not consciously & reflectively understand themselves as motivated agents in a full sense until much later

mentalization is essentially an unfinished version of intentionality: allows us to understand agency from an earlier age already

Question 21

Step 1 of Tomasello’s two-step model: joint intentionality

Answer 21

humans are from birth particularly attuned to sharing mental states with other humans
- intentionality is not yet a fully developed goal, but it shows that behavior is not just simply behavior, it is caused by something
- it is a building block for understanding other’s mental states (mentalization)

Question 22

mentalization is about intentionality/aboutness

Answer 22

• Franz Brentano: mental phenomena are always about something (i.e., intended at something)
• Intentionality recognizes that behavior is about something

Question 23

Mentalization involves moving from dualities to triadics explain

Answer 23

dualities: immediate non-reflexive action-reaction sequence

triadics: We go from an action to a reaction/response via certain intentions or meanings

visualization from picture

Question 24

give an example of how we move from dualities to triadics

Answer 24

dualities:
1. action: one partner sits at dinner with an angry face

2. reaction: the other eats quick and silent and leaves the house
   • extreme form of action & reaction
   • no reasoning process involved

triadics:
1. one partner sits at dinner with an angry face

2. intention: what is (s)he angry about?
3. reaction determined by one’s answer to the perceived intention of the other partner

–> you start thinking about what the mental state of your partner behind an angry face is. You interpret different signals to try and understand this –> mentalization

Question 25

why is mentalization an important feature of clinical practice with personality disordera?

Answer 25

Mental disorders are associated with different imbalances in dimensions of mentalization

Question 26

mentalization is an umbrella concept referring to | kind of a summary of what has been said before

Answer 26

* the move from a dualistic to a triadic perspective * introduction of 'the intentional stance' * The process of learning and applying a 'theory of mind' - start of understanding that the pointing action of a parent means something and isn't just a funny action you can copy --> this develops already before you learn to speak

Question 27

why are psychologists cosidered professional mentalizers?

Answer 27

- They mentalize all the time = try to accurately understand the mental states of others an themselves - Finding new ways of understanding who you are E.g., you are angry all the time but I see a vulnerable and scared person --> professionally mentalizing about what's going on with the other person

Question 28

basic model of the initial mentalizing approach to psychological development: what are the concepts in this model

Answer 28

1. parental attachment that is there all the time 2. Early parental attachment will influence infant attachment 3. Mentalizing is affected by own attachment style --> all of these go into the child's mentalization development

Question 29

parental attachment

Answer 29

- We feel panic if we do not feel close to our parents - Parents are also mentalizing: they react to our crying but also try to understand what our crying means for example * Mentalizing treatment: repeated learning of mentalization Child learns what mentalizing is a about as well

Question 30

Early parental attachment will influence infant's attachment

Answer 30

- An insecurely attached parent may face difficulties giving their infant a secure attachment - Also difficult to give the necessary skills for cognitive and socioemotional development

Question 31

the model does not make a claim about the persistence of attachment styles, elaborate

Answer 31

- First years important in shaping basic parameters of interaction - Later it becomes harder to change ingrained patterns - But Therapy + new relationships can influence how safe you feel - In a 2-parent household there's higher chance for compensation --> cycle of transferring attachment styles to children can then be broken --> this means that mentalization can get better over time and a skill that you CAN learn over time

Question 32

the model also shows transference of what from generation to generation

Answer 32

transference of attachment styles, and other patterns of interactions - e.g., Manon & Julia's repeated family patterns, parents had issues mentalizing + depression that prevented parent's mentalizing --> could not transfer this to their children and so on

Question 33

from attachment to mentalizing steps (4)

Answer 33

1. In mammals and avians offspring strongly attach to caregivers. 2. Human babies are particularly sensitive and attuned to the forms of vitality they can share with others 3. In secure attachment parents use **‘parental reflective functioning’ (i.e. mentalizing capacity)** to interact with their child giving rise to joint intentionality.  4. Via this process the child learns to distinguish the (joint) intention from the particular acts of the participants. And from the distinction between self and other (marking) it learns about difference in intentions between self and other.   

Question 34

Step 2 of Tomasello's two-step model: group-mindedness &

Answer 34

* Given the strong possibility of shared intentionality, humans also develop a capability for conventions. * Thus children from then on are born in a world full of pre-existing conventional structures that they grow into and only later and partially become aware of.  * In this they are introduced into a pre-existing ‘symbolic order’: the universe of signs and meanings typical for human societies.

Question 35

conventions + what important implication they have on our formation of identity

Answer 35

socially shared rules, norms, or practices that shape how we communicate, relate and behave within a group or societ - e.g., Arbitrary words are given meaning from others in society - you do not know that "woof woof" means dog, until those around you repeatedly let you know Implication: Our identitites are not fixed into something natural in the world - E.g., Arjen being a Dutch person can only make sense if he knows about the history, what he has learnt and the stories around dutchness - Because 'Dutchness' has no natural meaning - it comes from history and stories

Question 36

theory of natural pedagogy

Answer 36

= method and practice of teaching * Humans possess a species-specific capacity for the fast intergenerational transmission of cultural knowledge. * **Instead of having to work out cultural knowledge oneself, one can rely on the authority and perceived trustworthiness of the person communicating that information.** * Epistemic trust thus enables a particular kind of species-specific learning

Question 37

epistemic trust

Answer 37

* It is simply ‘trust’, but then in particular the trust we need to learn from others and to give them a certain authority.  * We are not inclined to just trust anyone to provide us with valid information.  * A situation of epistemic trust enables a particular kind of species-specific learning.  * Thus the absence of epistemic trust makes learning (about the world, the self, etc.) really problematic.

Question 38

why is epistemic trust important?

Answer 38

as humans we cannot alone learn everything about the world - With some things, we may DIE if we try them out so we need to learn them from others

Question 39

what is meant by species-specific learning?

Answer 39

We don't just learn from our environments like rocks and trees, we learn from other humans (species-specific)

Question 40

epistemic (hyper)vigilance

Answer 40

when we are not in epistemic trust we are in epistemic (hyper)vigilance * Hypervigilance becomes likely if we have repeatedly experienced the untrustworthiness of trusted authorities – e.g. parents.  * As such vigilance is an important default trait in many contexts: do not trust anyone.  * In this situation we tend to dismiss information about the world and ourselves from these sources.  * **If this becomes a central trait it impedes development**

Question 41

how can long lasting hypervigilance become problematic?

Answer 41

you not being able to learn more about yourself because you are unable to integrate information that seems dangerous to the system that you've built (inflexible- you're stuck in a certain way of looking at yourself and others --> in schema terms you are stuck in an early maladaptive schema

Question 42

from this lecture it is made clear that epistemic trust is the next step after mentalization. Describe the journey from attachment to epistemic trust

Answer 42

1. We started with differing attachment styles 2. Differing experiences with attunement 3. Within that context of attachment and attunement we develop a capacity of joint intentionality 4. This develops our mentalizing capacities that we are able to use in the broder social cultural context 5. finally we develop a sense of species-specific trust - epistemic trust for some people + epistemic vigilance

Question 43

when looking at the Baldwin case, what does it reveal

Answer 43

the role of parents in shaping one's own experiences and perceptions AND still how we can become the agents of our own life - Not in the sense that we can control our life - But that we still have a say in what cards we are dealt in life