Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T22:24:42.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Discrepancies between self- and other-report of psychiatric symptomatology: Effects of dismissing attachment strategies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2009

Mary Dozier  and
Spring W. Lee
Mary Dozier*
Affiliation:
University of Delaware
Spring W. Lee
Affiliation:
University of Delaware
*
Mary Dozier, Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between psychiatric symptomatology and the representations of attachment relationships held by adults with serious psychopathological disorders. Psychiatric symtomatology was assessed by self-report and three sets of expert ratings. Seventy-six persons with serious psychopathological disorders were included as participants. As expected, persons relying on hyperactivating strategies of attachment reported generally more psychiatric symptoms than did those relying on deactivating strategies of attachment. However, the three sets of experts rated persons relying on deactivating strategies as more symptomatic than others. More specifically, interviewers who conducted Quality of Life Interviews rated dismissing subjects as exhibiting looser thinking than others. Interviewers who conducted Attachment Interviews rated dismissing subjects as experiencing more delusions, hallucinations, and suspiciousness, and case managers rated dismissing subjects as generally more psychotic. These findings suggest that, although greater preoccupation with attachment issues is associated with more acknowledgment of distress generally and symptoms specifically, greater reliance on deactivating strategies may be associated with greater symptomatology observed by others.

Type
Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 7 , Issue 1: Emotions in Developmental Psychopathology , Winter 1995 , pp. 217 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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

Achenbach, T. M., McConaughy, S. H., & Howell, C. T. (1987). Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: Implications of cross-information correlations for situational specificity. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 213–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. (1987). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed., rev.). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561–571.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bell, S., & Ainsworth, M. D. (1972). Infant crying and maternal responsiveness. Child Development, 43, 1171–1190.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cassidy, J., & Kobak, R. R. (1988). Avoidance and its relation to other defensive processes. In Belsky, J. & Nezworski, T. (Eds.), Clinical implications of attachment (pp. 300–323). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Aber, J. L. (1986). Early precursors of later depression: An organizational perspective. In Lipsitt, L. P. & Rovee-Collier, C. (Eds.), Advances in infancy research (Vol. 4). Norwood, Ablex.Google Scholar
Denham, S. A., McKinley, M., Couchoud, E. A., & Holt, R. (1990). Emotional and behavioral predictors of preschool peer ratings. Child Development, 61, 1145–1152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Derogatis, L. R. (1977). SCL-90 administration, scoring and procedures manual-I. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University.Google Scholar
Derogatis, L. R., & Spencer, P. M. (1982). Administration and procedures: BSI Manual I. Baltimore, MD: Clinical Psychometrics Research.Google Scholar
Dozier, M. (1990). Attachment organization and treatment use for adults with serious psychopathological disorders. Development and Psychopathology, 2, 47–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dozier, M. (1992, 04). When is intervention coercive for adults with serious psychopathological disorders? Presented at the meetings of the Society Life History Research, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Dozier, M., Cue, K., & Barnett, L. (1994). Clinicians as caregivers: Role of attachment organization treatment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62, 793–800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dozier, M., & Kobak, R. R. (1992). Psychophysiology in adolescent attachment interviews: Converging evidence for dismissing strategies. Child Development, 63, 1473–1480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dozier, M., & Lomax, L. (1994). Interpersonal problem solving and attachment organization for persons with serious psychopathological disorders. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Elicker, J., Englund, M., & Sroufe, L. A. (1992). Predicting peer competence and peer relationships childhood from early parent-child relationships. Parke, R. D. & Ladd, G. W. (Eds.), Family-peer relationships: Modes of linkage (pp. 77–106). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Erickson, M., Sroufe, L. A., & Egeland, B. (1985). The relationship between quality of attachment and behavior problems in preschool in a high sample. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points in attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Development, 50, 147–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garner, P. W., Jones, D. C., & Miner, J. L. (1994). Social competence among low-income preschoolers: Emotion socialization practices and social cognitive correlates. Child Development, 65, 622–637.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
George, C., Kaplan, N., & Main, M. (1985). Attachment interview for adults. Unpublished manuscript, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Izard, C. E., & Malatesta, C. Z. (1987). Perspectives on emotional development: I. Differential emotions theory of early emotional development. In Osofsky, J. D. (Ed.), Handbook of infant development (2nd ed., pp. 494–554). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Kobak, R. R. (1989). The attachment interview Q-set. Unpublished document, University of Delaware.Google Scholar
Kobak, R. R., Cole, H. E., Ferenz-Gillies, R., Fleming, W., & Gamble, W. (1993). Attachment and emotion regulation during mother-teen problemsolving: A control theory analysis. Child Development, 64, 231–245.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kobak, R. R., & Sceery, A. (1988). Attachment in late adolescence: Working models, affect regulation, and representation of self and others. Child Development, 59, 135–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamb, H. R. (1982). Young adult chronic patients: The new drifters. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 33, 464–468.Google Scholar
Lehman, A. F. (in press). A quality of life interview for the chronically mentally ill. Evaluation and Program Planning.Google Scholar
Madsen, J. (1992). Mental health assessment of children in foster care. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University.Google Scholar
Main, M. (1990). Cross-cultural studies of attachment organization: Recent studies, changing methodologies, and the concept of conditional strategies. Human Development, 33, 48–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Main, M., & Goldwyn, R. (in press). Adult attachment classification system. In Main, M. (Ed.), Assessing attachment through discourse, drawings and reunion situations. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Patrick, M., Hobson, R. P., Castle, D., Howard, R., & Maughan, B. (1994). Personality disorder and the mental representation of early social experience. Development and Psychopathology, 6, 375–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pianta, R. C., Egeland, B., & Adams, E. (in press). MMPI profiles of dismissing and preoccupied firsttime mothers. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.Google Scholar
Rosenstein, D. S., & Horowitz, H. A. (1993, 03). Working models of attachment in psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents: Relation to psychopathology and personality. Paper presented at the biennial meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development. New Orlenas, LA.Google Scholar
Shedler, J., Mayman, M., & Manis, M. (1993). The illusion of mental health. American Psychologist, 48, 1117–1131.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sroufe, L. A., & Waters, E. (1977). Heart rate as a convergent measure in clinical and developmental research. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 23, 3–27.Google Scholar
Taylor, J. A. (1953). A personality scale of manifest anxiety. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 48, 285–290.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed