Adult Attachment
This book provides an excellent overview of the state of research into adult attachment as it existed in 1996. Although published as part of a series on aimed at a mass readership, it is fully referenced and written in an academic, though accessible, way. The authors are mainly involved with the self-report, 'trait' school of attachment research (as opposed to the clinical, interview based research) and this is reflected in this work.
| Section |
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| 1 |
Attachment in Infancy and Beyond |
| 2 |
Early Empirical studies of Adult Attachment |
| 3 |
Conceptualizing and Measuring Adult Attachment
This section is mainly concerned with self-report measures, rather than the clinical interview type measures such as the Adult Attachment Questionnaire(AAQ)
The authors note that the question of persistence of attachment style is a current issue within attachment research and no clear answer has yet emerged. The consensus appears to be that early attachment experience does, indeed, exert a powerful and trait-like influence over later life and that instability of attachment style results largely from confounding with current relationship functioning. However, it is also acknowledged that 'At the same time, there is no doubt that some instability reflects actual change in attachment patterns over time' (p. 59). |
| 4 |
Refining the Theory: Functions and Elicitors of Adult Attachment |
| 5 |
Attachment Style, Working Models, and Communication |
| 6 |
Adult Attachment: Broadening the Picture |
| 7 |
Applications and Future Directions |