Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T00:49:16.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Interpersonal Processes and Attachment in Voice-Hearers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2014

George Robson  and
Oliver Mason
George Robson
Affiliation:
Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
Oliver Mason*
Affiliation:
University College London, UK
*
Reprint requests to Oliver Mason, Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 6BT, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: Studies of both clinical and non-clinical voice hearers suggest that distress is rather inconsistently associated with the perceived relationship between voice and hearer. It is also not clear if their beliefs about voices are relevant. Aims: This study investigated the links between attachment anxiety/avoidance, interpersonal aspects of the voice relationship, and distress whilst considering the impact of beliefs about voices and paranoia. Method: Forty-four voice-hearing participants completed a number of self-report measures tapping attachment, interpersonal processes in the voice relationship, beliefs about voices, paranoia, distress and depression. Results: Attachment avoidance was related to voice intrusiveness, hearer distance and distress. Attachment anxiety was related to voice intrusiveness, hearer dependence and distress. A series of simple mediation analyses were conducted that suggest that the relationship between attachment and voice related distress may be mediated by interpersonal dynamics in the voice-hearer relationship, beliefs about voices and paranoia. Conclusions: Beliefs about voices, the hearer's relationship with their voices, and the distress voices sometimes engender appear to be meaningfully related to their attachment style. This may be important to consider in therapeutic work.

Keywords

Voice-hearinginterpersonal beliefsparanoia
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 43 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 655 - 668
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartholomew, K. (1990). Avoidance of intimacy: an attachment perspective. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 7, 147–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartholomew, K. and Horowitz, L. M. (1991). Attachment styles among young adults: a test of a four-category model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 226–244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baron, R. M. and Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173–1182.Google Scholar
Beaven, V., Read, J. and Cartwright, C. (2011). The prevalence of voice-hearers in the general population: a literature review. Journal of Mental Health, 20, 281–292.Google Scholar
Beck, A., Steer, R. and Brown, G. (1996). Beck Depression Inventory Manual (2nd ed.). San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Berry, K., Wearden, A., Barrowclough, C. and Liversidge, T. (2006). Attachment styles, interpersonal relationships and psychotic phenomena in a non-clinical student sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 41, 707–718.Google Scholar
Berry, K., Barrowclough, C. and Wearden, A. (2008). Attachment theory: a framework for understanding symptoms and interpersonal relationships in psychosis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46, 1275–1282.Google Scholar
Berry, K., Wearden, A., Barrowclough, C., Oakland, L. and Bradley, J. (2012). An investigation of adult attachment and the nature of relationships with voices. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 51, 280–291.Google Scholar
Bentall, R. P., Corcoran, R., Howard, R., Blackwood, R. and Kinderman, P. (2001). Persecutory delusions: a review and theoretical integration. Clinical Psychology Review, 21, 1143–1192.Google Scholar
Birchwood, M. and Chadwick, P. (1997). The omnipotence of voices: testing the validity of a cognitive model. Psychological Medicine, 27, 1345–1353.Google Scholar
Birchwood, M., Meaden, A., Trower, P., Gilbert, P. and Plaistow, J. (2000). The power and omnipotence of voices: subordination and entrapment by voices and significant others. Psychological Medicine, 30, 337–334.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birchwood, M., Gilbert, P., Gilbert, J., Trower, P., Meaden, A., Hay, J., et al. (2004). Interpersonal and role-related schema influence the relationship with the dominant “voice” in schizophrenia: a comparison of three models. Psychological Medicine, 34, 1571–1580.Google Scholar
Birtchnell, J. (1994). In S. Vaughan and D. Fowler, D. (2004). The distress experienced by voice hearers is associated with the perceived relationship between the voice hearer and the voice. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 43, 143–153.Google Scholar
Birtchnell, J. (1996). How Humans Relate: a new interpersonal theory. Hove: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Birtchnell, J. (2002). Psychotherapy and the interpersonal octagon. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory Research and Practice, 75, 349–363.Google Scholar
Chadwick, P. (2006). Person-Based Cognitive Therapy for Distressing Psychosis. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Chadwick, P., Lees, S. and Birchwood, M. (2000). The revised beliefs about voices questionnaire (BAVQ-R). British Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 190–201.Google Scholar
Chin, J. T., Hayward, M. and Drinnan, A. (2009). “Relating” to voices: exploring the relevance of this concept to people who hear voices. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 82, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dozier, M. (1990). Attachment organisation and treatment use for adults with serious psychopathological disorders. Development and Psychotherapy, 2, 47–60.Google Scholar
Gumley, A. I., Taylor, H. E. F., Schwannauer, M. and MacBeth, A. (2013). A systematic review of attachment and psychosis: measurement, construct validity and outcomes. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. doi: 10.1111/acps.12172. [Epub ahead of print]Google Scholar
Hayward, M. (2003). Interpersonal relating and voice hearing: to what extent does relating to the voice reflect social relating? Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, 76, 369–383. doi: 10.1348/147608303770584737Google Scholar
Hayward, M., Denney, J., Vaughan, S. and Fowler, D. (2008). The voice and you: development and psychometric evaluation of a measure of relationships with voices. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 15, 45–52.Google Scholar
Hayward, M., Overton, J., Doney, T. and Denney, J. (2009). Relating therapy for people who hear voices: a case series. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 16, 216–227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hayward, M., Berry, K., McCarthy-Jones, S., Strauss, C. and Thomas, N. (2013). Beyond the omnipotence of voices: further developing a relational approach to auditory hallucinations. Psychosis, (ahead of print), 1–11.Google Scholar
Johns, L. C. and van Os, J. (2001). The continuity of psychotic experiences in the general population. Clinical Psychology Review, 21, 1125–1141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Landmark, J., Merksey, H., Cernovsky, Z. and Helmes, E. (1990). The positive triad of schizophrenic symptoms: its statistical properties and its relationship to 13 traditional diagnostic systems. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 388–394.Google Scholar
Melo, S., Corcoran, R., Shyrane, N. and Bentall, R. P. (2009). The persecution and deservedness scale. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 82, 247–260.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Melo, S. S., Taylor, J. L. and Bentall, R. (2006). “Poor me” versus “bad me” paranoia and the instability of persecutory ideation. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 79, 271–287.Google Scholar
Mawson, A., Cohen, K. and Berry, K. (2010). Reviewing evidence for the cognitive model of auditory hallucinations: the relationship between cognitive voice appraisals and distress during psychosis. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 248–258.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nayani, T. H. and David, A. S. (1996). The auditory hallucination: a phenomenological survey. Psychological Medicine, 26, 177–189.Google Scholar
Paulik, G. (2011). The role of social schema in the experience of auditory hallucinations: a systematic review and a proposal for the inclusion of social schema in a cognitive behavioural model of voice hearing. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 19, 459–472. doi:10.1002/cpp.768Google Scholar
Pickering, L., Simpson, J. and Bentall, R. P. (2008). Insecure attachment predicts proneness to paranoia but not to hallucinations. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 1212–1224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Platts, H., Tyson, M. and Mason, O. (2002). Adult attachment style and core beliefs: are they linked? Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 9, 332–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preacher, K. J. and Hayes, A. F. (2004). SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 36, 717–731.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sorrell, E., Hayward, M. and Meddings, S. (2010). Interpersonal processes and hearing voices: a study of the association between relating to voices and distress in clinical and non-clinical hearers. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 38, 127–140.Google Scholar
Stip, E. and Letourneau, G. (2009). Psychotic symptoms as a continuum between normality and pathology. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 54, 140–151.Google Scholar
Trower, P. and Chadwick, P. (1995). Pathways to defense of the self: a theory of two types of paranoia. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 2, 263–278.Google Scholar
Vaughan, S. and Fowler, D. (2004). The distress experienced by voice hearers is associated with the perceived relationship between the voice hearer and the voice. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 43, 143–153.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.