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ATTACHMENT AND THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

ATTACHMENT AND THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY. An information-processing approach. Or… how we get from this:. … to this:. The overarching argument.

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ATTACHMENT AND THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

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  1. ATTACHMENT AND THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY An information-processing approach Or… how we get from this: … to this:

  2. The overarching argument • A distinct model of adult psychopathology sees relationships playing and important role in adult mental health, as influenced by early experiences and current perceptions (e.g. Gotlib & Hammen,1992). • Recently, this model has found strong support in adult attachment research. Attachment styles, usually distinguished in the secure, anxious and avoidant (fearful and dismissing) subcategories, have been shown to influence levels of stress and mental health in adulthood.

  3. Quality of attachment • Brain evolution • Prediction of danger • Mental maturation • Integration of information • Shift to the level of representation (Main et al. 1985) • Experience • Predictive information • Process of integration

  4. How people organise their relationships with important others • Anxious-preoccupied : • Affective • Avoidant-defended : • Cognitive- false positive affect • SECURE : Balanced

  5. Triune Brain • Reptilian brain S-R learning • Paleomamalian - affect (limbic system) • Neomamalian - cortical integration [Brain self-reflexes (brain stem)]

  6. Brain attends to protection or reproduction • Cognitive is the S-R chain causality • TRUE causal/cognitive info • FALSE causal/cognitive info • Affect information • Elicit feeling states on the basis of external sensory information. Hardwired-arousal • Fight-flight. Adds functionality to mammals • Ignore information, try to respond quickly

  7. AFFECT can be ‘accurate’ or in error • Diffuse anxiety • anger • fear of abandonment • desire for contact

  8. Cognitive-affective integration • When the cortex receives contradictory info the brain remains alert, does not comfort • Organises info around the issue of protection

  9. 3-ways of caregiver responses • SECURE- Attend-reduce anxiety • this creates predictable relationships between infant affective messages and caregiver’s responses • The child learns to affectively reciprocate events • AVOIDANT- Predictable increase of infant’s discomfort • Caregivers type Avoidant falsify their affect faking a positive affect • ANXIOUS - Inconsistent behaviour

  10. Crittenden (1996)

  11. Conclusions • Importance of interaction in later development • Attachments with caregivers has some cognitive and affective consequences • Psychopathology should be seen from a developmental perspective • There is a continuum between the functional and the non-functional: Cognitive and affective continua

  12. Action inhibition Compulsion Withdrawal Isolation Depression Over-achievement Abusive child Suicide Promiscuity Denial Psychosomatic illnesses Thought disorders Anxiety disorder Obsessions Hyperactivity Learning disorders Attention disorders Risk-taking Suicide threats Aggression

  13. Unipolar Depressive (5-10%, 45% Inheritance) Dysthymic (2-5%) Internalising symptoms(self-blame): Preoccupied Externalising sympt.(blaming): dismissings Bipolar Manic Depression (.5%, 80% Inheritance) No clear picture with regards to attachment involvement primarily due to the high inheritance rate of the illness Axis I: Affective Disorders

  14. Death of parent puts the child at risk for later depression Harris, Brown and Bifulco, 1990: of those children whose mother died before age 11, 42% later diagnosed as depressed in comparison to only 14% of those whose mother died after they were 11. Unable to form secure attachment (similar to actually losing a parent) What causes depression according to attachment?

  15. Adult Attachment and Well-Beingin Greece and the UK Kafetsios, K. (2000). Adult attachment, coping with stress and social support as predictors of mental health: Comparative results from Greece and the UK., International Conference in Personal Relationships. Brisbane, Univ. of Queensland, Australia

  16. N=97 64% Females Mean Age: 27 (21-59) Employed: 63% Married/living as: 51% 57% a Univ. Degree (20% P/G) N=110 72% Females Mean Age: 34 (22-57) Employed: 68% Married/living as: 46% All mature students @ Open & Anglia Universities Sample Characteristics UK GREECE

  17. Secure 50% Fearful 20% Preoccupied 17% Dismissing 11% More females in the Fearful and Preoccupied prototypes (chi sq=9) Secure 55.5% Fearful 13.6% Preoccupied 22% Dismissing 12% A tendency of more females endorsing the Preoccupied Distribution of the four prototypes

  18. TRAIT AVOIDANCE .28** ANXIETY .48*** Secure 36.2 Fearful 47.2*** Anxious 41.6** Dismiss 38.6 Mean Trait Anx 39.2 No sex diffs F(1,103)=1.32 ns TRAIT AVOIDANCE .33** ANXIETY .37*** Secure 40.7 Fearful 50.2*** Anxious 48** Dismiss 45.2 Mean Trait Anx 44.4! Males 39.7 Females 46.7 *** Attachment and Trait Anxiety

  19. TRAIT AVOIDANCE .21** ANXIETY .35*** Secure 17.22 Fearful 23.7 Anxious 19.2 Dismiss 18.54 Mean Trait Anx 18.72 No gender differences TRAIT AVOIDANCE .10ns ANXIETY .34*** Secure 12.8 Fearful 15.8 Anxious 17.8*** Dismiss 15.3 Mean Trait Anx 14.5 Males 12 Females 15 *** Attachment and perceived stress

  20. GHQ AVOIDANCE .01 ANXIETY .25* Secure 28.21 ns. Fearful 29.73 Anxious 29.95 Dismiss 28.25 Mean GHQ 28.8 No sex differences F(1,102)=.01 ns GHQ AVOIDANCE .13 ANXIETY .08 Secure ?23.4ns Fearful 18.1 Anxious 19.4 Dismiss 16.9 Mean GHQ 23.6 Males 20.9 Females 24.9 ** Attachment and GHQ

  21. References Key readings -Crittenden, P. M. (1996). The effect of early relationship experiences on relationships in adulthood. S. Duck (Ed.), Handbook of Personal Relations (2nd edition). Chichester: Wiley. - Dozier, M. Stovall, K.C. and Albus, K.E. (1999). Attachment and Psychopathology in Adulthood. In J.Cassidy and P.Shaver (eds.) Handbook of Attachment. (pp 497-519). NY: Guilford Mickelson, K.D., Kessler, R.C. and Shaver, P.R (1997). Adult attachment in a nationally representative sample. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1092-1106. -Harris, Brown and Bifulco, (1990). Depression and situational helplessness/mastery in a sample selected to study childhood parental loss. J. of Affective Disorders, 20, 27-41

  22. Attachment Web Links http://www.attachmentexperts.com/adult.htm http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/Shaver/lab.html http://www.attach-bond.com/ http://mgt2.umassp.edu/~moon/AAL.html http://psyche.tvu.ac.uk/attachment/

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