4. Still Face Experiment

8. Graduated Cambridge 1928
School for maladjusted children ->
child psychiatrist
Trained at British Psychoanalytic
Institute (Klein)
Published 44 Juvenile Thieves in
1944

9. Tavistock after the war (1946)
Children -> Children and Parents
First published family therapy paper
1949
“A 2 year old goes to the hospital”
in 1952 (Robertson)
Mary Ainsworth worked with him
from 1950 – 1954
Attachment published in 1969

10. Nanny leaving family
Boarding school when 7 or 8

11. Attachment relationship
Seek proximity and contact
Especially when
Frightened
Tired
Sick
Concepts from ethology and
cybernetics
Departure from drive theory

12. Five tasks
Provide a secure base
Help client to explore relationships
Examine working models between
client and therapist
Explore links between current
expectations beliefs etc. and early
relationships
Explore current models of self and
other

13. Deeply influenced by 2 analytically
oriented social workers
Link between parent’s childhood and
children’s problems
Including family members in
therapeutic process
“Owed social workers a great deal
of gratitude”
“Learned everything from social
workers”

16. Security Theory with Blatz in Toronto
Bowlby’s research group in 1950
Mothers in Uganda - 1953
Paper on relationship patterns with
Bowlby - 1956
Baltimore study - 1963
Strange situation - 1971

17. Mother as secure base
Mother child interaction patterns
Parental responsiveness to infant
signals
Three categories
Secure
Avoidant
Resistant / Ambivalent

19. Dynamic Maturation Model
Strategies not styles
All strategies are adaptive and
protective
Affect and Cognition
New strategies available when
older
A/C not disorganization

21. Fonagy – 1997
Reflective function
Mind Mindedness
Ability to interpret actions – others’ and own
Awareness of mental states / willingness to
think about them
Difficulty knowing what another is thinking
Link to secure attachment

23. Observation
Verbal analysis
Projective
(Self report)

24. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Disorganized
Resistant
Avoidant
Secure

25. Waters – 1985
Based on Strange Situation
For home observation by observer
12 – 48 months
90 items (depends on version)
Child readily shares with mother
When child returns to mother, sometimes fussy
for no reason
Child will accept comforting from adults other
than mother

26. Observed semi-structured play (5 mins)
Measures fit / attunement of dyad
Coded based on
Facial expression
Vocal expression
Position and body contact
Expression of affection
Pacing of turns
Control
Choice of activity

27. 0 – 15 Months 15 – 30 Months Adults
Cooperativeness Cooperativeness Sensitivity
Compulsiveness Compulsiveness Control
Difficultness Threateningly
coercive
Unresponsiveness
Passivity Disarmingly coercive

29. Intervention Rationale
Parent Education Parent can reflect & integrate
Needs new information
Short-term counseling Parent can integrate and has information
Needs dialogue for problem-solving
Parent-child intervention Parent needs help focusing on conflicting
information
Adult psychotherapy Parent’s behavior not consciously
generated, triggered, maladaptive

30. 8 or 20 weeks
Psychoeducation
Attachment focus – parent as
secure base and safe haven
Parental self-care

32. Initial work with parents – trust, shame
Usually parents and one child
Speaking on behalf of the child
PACE
Playfulness
Acceptance
Curiosity
Empathy

33. 1.6 million adoptees in US living with
adoptive parents
2-4% of families have an adopted child
20,000 children adopted from abroad / yr
50,000 domestically adopted
510,000 children in foster care in 2006

34. Separation from parents
Possible multiple placements
Possible maltreatment / neglect /
poor conditions
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
Institutionalized Adopted Norm
% Disorganized

35. First listed in DSM III
Failure to thrive removed in DMS III-TR
Requires hx of “pathogenic care”
2 subtypes
Withdrawn / Inhibited
Indiscriminate / Disinhibited
Questions about diagnosis / prevalence

36. Turning away from parents
Role of peers
Attachment to significant other
Capacity for emotion regulation in
social interactions

38. Feel safe when the other is nearby and responsive
Engage in close, intimate, bodily contact
Feel insecure when the other is inaccessible
Share discoveries with one another
Play with one another's facial features and exhibit a
mutual fascination and preoccupation with one
another
Engage in "baby talk"

39. Strange Situation AAI Synonyms
Secure Autonomous B
Avoidant Dismissing A
Resistant Preoccupied C
Anxious
Angry resistant
Ambivalent
Disorganized Unresolved Fearful Avoidant
Cannot classify

40. Avoidant /
Dismissing
Disorganized
Secure
Anxious /
Preoccupied
Low
anxiety
High
anxiety
High avoidance
Low avoidance
Basic
attachment
theory

41. Avoidant /
Dismissing
Secure
Disorganized
Anxious /
Preoccupied
- Other + Other
+ Self
- Self
Alternative
axes

42. If I encounter an obstacle / become distressed
Approach relationship partner for help
Likely to be available and supportive
Relief and comfort
Can return to other activities

43. Conflicting research
Strategic (whatever works)
Secure => Secure
Some transposing (A/C/A; C/A/C)
Grandmother may be better
predictor

45. Main 1985 – AAI
Hazan and Shaver 1987 – 3 paragraphs
Bartholomew and Horowitz 1991 –
Relationship Questionnaire, 4 styles
Brennan, Clarke, Shaver 1998 – ECR
Crittenden 1999 – DMM
Fraley, Waller, Brennan 2001 – ECR-R

46. 5 Words for each attachment
figure
Give Examples
20 questions, increasing pressure
Narrative coherence more than
content

47. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
NonClin
M
NonClin F Ado Euro At Risk Clinical
Disorg / CC
Preoccupied
Avoidant
Secure

48. Experience in Close Relationships –
Revised
Derived from 323 items in 60 self-
report measures
Revised using item response
analysis
2 scales (anxious, avoidant)

49. Expect they can rely on the availability and
sensitivity of the people they love
Able to become emotionally close and express
affection
Feel comfortable depending on and being
depended on
Feel calmed and comforted by contact and
support when distressed
Generally sensitive to others’ signals
Coherent narratives about life events

50. Tend to minimize or dismiss importance of
close relationships
Uncomfortable with emotional intimacy,
physical contact
Derive sense of self-worth from independence
Disparage sentimentality, tenderness,
discussion or expression of feelings
Tend to withdraw or attempt to cope alone
Sparse narratives, unable or unwilling to
describe specific examples

51. Seek intense emotional intimacy but feel
ambivalent toward others
Experience others as not accessible enough
Leading to distress, frustration, anger, anxiety,
passive helplessness
May feel smothered while not quite getting
enough
Turn to others for support but disappointed
Tend to have trouble staying on topic,
excessively long descriptions, crying
continuously, vague words (dadadadada)

52. Have had trouble getting beyond / making
meaning of traumatic events
Appear inconsistent, contradictory,
dissociative in intimate relationships
Have difficulty trusting significant others
Contradictory responses when distressed
Controlling through hostile, critical, punitive
responses or over-involved smothering care-
giving
Talking about traumatic events show
disorientation, disorganization, dissociation

54. Individuals Accelerated Experiential
Dynamic Psychotherapy
(AEDP)
Couples Emotionally Focused
Therapy for Couples
(EFT)
Psychobiological
Approach to Couples
Therapy (PACT)
Families / Children Dyadic Developmental
Psychotherapy

55. Accelerated Experiential Dynamic
Psychotherapy
Non-pathologizing
Dyadic regulation of affect
Creating safety for core / primary
affect
Meta-processing

56. Attachment behaviors in intimate
relationships make sense
Couples recognize their cycles /
dance
Couples build new patterns
through experiential practice

57. Therapists and attachment strategies
/ styles
Attachment and therapeutic alliances
Attachment in and out of the office
Supervisory relationships

59. Factors impacting grief
Attachment to person who died
Attachment history
Concept of compulsive self-
reliance

60. Emotional dysregulation
Possible similar roots
(temperament)
Possible issues of fit
Prenatal stress?

61. Insecure attachment
DMM compulsive caregiving,
compulsive compliance
Mothers possibly dealing with
unresolved losses
Need more data on fathers

62. Attachment neglected in
organizational behavior
literature
Secure attachment and leadership
Secure leaders more likely to
delegate
Secure attachment and trust

63. Nature, nurture, or both?
Parent / child fit
Epigenetics

64. LGBT
Culture?
Across caregivers?
Age / Lifespan?

65. Secure attachment and coming out
LGBT relationships similar
Perceived discrimination and
attachment

66. Conflicting research
Questions about Western bias
Asian Americans, Hispanic
Americans – more anxious
attachment than Caucasian
African Americans, Asian
Americans – more avoidant
attachment than Caucasian

67. More research needed
Primary or secondary attachment
figure?
Different roles and potential
impact?
Multiple caregivers?

68. Earned secure attachment
Some evidence of change over
lifespan
Adolescence
More avoidance in later years

69. What is being measured?
What is most useful to clinicians
Categorical / Dimensional?
Styles / Strategies?
Insecure styles adaptive?

70. js@jonathansibley.net
www.jonathansibley.net