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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attachment measures | 4/7 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_measures | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T15:31:30.330759+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Attachment Interview for Childhood and Adolescence (AICA) === This is a version of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) rendered age appropriate for adolescents. The classifications of dismissing, secure, preoccupied and unresolved are the same as under the AAI described below.
== Measures in adults ==
The three main ways of measuring attachment in adults include the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (AAP), and self-report questionnaires. The AAI and AAP are based on a developmental perspective, while the self-report questionnaires are based on a social psychology perspective. Each assessment was created with somewhat different aims in mind. Shaver and Fraley, coming from the social psychology perspective, note:
"If you are a novice in this research area, what is most important for you to know is that self-report measures of romantic attachment and the AAI were initially developed completely independently and for quite different purposes. One asks about a person's feelings and behaviors in the context of romantic or other close relationships; the other is used to make inferences about the defenses associated with an adult's current state of mind regarding childhood relationships with parents. In principle, these might have been substantially associated, but in fact they seem to be only moderately related--at least as currently assessed. One kind of measure receives its construct validity mostly from studies of romantic relationships, the other from prediction of a person's child's behavior in Ainsworth's Strange Situation. Correlations of the two kinds of measures with other variables are likely to differ, although a few studies have found the AAI to be related to marital relationship quality and a few have found self-report romantic attachment measures to be related to parenting." (Shaver & Fraley, 2004)
The AAI, the AAP, and the self-report questionnaires offer distinct, but equally useful, perspectives on adult attachment.
=== Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) ===
Developed by Carol George, Nancy Kaplan, and Mary Main in 1984, the AAI is a semi-structured interview which takes about one hour to administer. The ABC+D (or Berkeley) or DMM model are used for discourse analysis. It has had extensive research validation to support it.
The AAI-Berkeley model is discussed in Chapter 25 of Attachment Theory, Research and Clinical Applications (2nd ed.), edited by J. Cassidy and P. R. Shaver, Guilford Press, NY, 2008. The chapter title is "The Adult Attachment Interview: Historical and Current Perspectives," and is written by E. Hesse. The interview taps into adult representation of attachment (i.e. internal working models) by assessing general and specific recollections from their childhood. The interview is coded based on quality of discourse (especially coherence) and content. Categories are designed to predict parental stances on Berkeley infant data.
AAI Attachment status, using the Berkeley (or ABC+D) model, originally utilized Ainsworth's patterns, A1 and A2, B1-5, and C1 and C2, and also disorganization. (Disorganization was initially considered a pattern, then seen as a status, and then determined to be not usable as a concept for adults or children over 20 months.) The Berkeley model developed to include over 20 patterns. Four broad categories have included:
Autonomous: They value attachment relationships, describe them in a balanced way and as influential. Their discourse is coherent, internally consistent, and non-defensive in nature. Dismissing: They show memory lapses. Minimize negative aspects and deny personal impact on relationships. Their positive descriptions are often contradicted or unsupported. The discourse is defensive. Preoccupied: Experience continuing preoccupation with their own parents. Incoherent discourse. Have angry or ambivalent representations of the past. Unresolved/Disorganized: Show trauma resulting from unresolved loss or abuse.
The AAI-ABC+D method has been shown to have some overlap with attachment constructs of the social psychology, or peer/romantic, attachment tradition (Hazan & Shaver, Bartholomew), as reported by Shaver, P. R., Belsky, J., & Brennan, K. A. (2000). For several reasons it is difficult to tease out the similarities and differences in what the two approaches are able to identify. This is in part because of the form of assessment. The AAI process involves an interview which is analyzed with various time-consuming methodologies, whereas the social psychology model uses a relatively short and quick self-report. Additionally, the two assessments look at different issues. The DMM-AAI uses a slightly modified set of interview questions, and uses principles and analysis techniques from attachment theory as described by Patricia Crittenden and the Dynamic-Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation (DMM). It also looks at additional issues such as analyzing a person’s attachment-based information processing in the context of danger. The DMM method is more comprehensive, assessing more self-protective attachment strategies, more types of trauma, and more types of memory systems. Both the DMM-AAI and Berkeley-AAI methods assess information processing, memory system use, reflective integration, and are able to identify issues such as unresolved trauma and depression. The DMM-AAI method can identify additional issues such as intrusions of negative affect, disorientation, and reorganizing or reorganized attachment strategies. Assessing adult attachment: A dynamic-maturational approach to discourse analysis (2011) is the coding manual for the DMM-AAI. This manual is published and available at any bookseller. It provides a comprehensive and detailed description of the AAI process, DMM-attachment theory, and the attachment system's impact on aspects of humanity such as patterns of information processing, memory system function, and the effect of trauma. It also offers a brief comparison of the two attachment models using the AAI. The Berkeley/ABC+D model has never published a coding manual or comprehensive model of attachment. The DMM model of attachment also expands the range of non-B patterns beyond Ainsworth's original patterns of A1-A2, B1-5, and C1-C2 patterns. It identifies the additional patterns of A3-8 and C3-8. It also describes how A and C patterns can be combined by individuals, such as A4-C5/6. It replaces the disorganized category with finer descriptions of the A and C attachment patterns. The DMM also uses a different naming scheme for the general and specific patterns.