Marriage and Family Therapy and Counseling Commons^™

The Role Of Attachment, Affect And Integrative Complexity In Couple Discussions, Fiona Jill Currie

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of the present investigation was to explore the possible associations between marital affect and cognitive complexity of discourse within an attachment context. Attachment theorists (e.g., Bowlby, 1982) have proposed that bonds formed between infants and their parents are internalized as working models of self and others and continue to influence the infant in relationships even into adulthood. In particular, possible longitudinal influences of variations in early attachment experiences may be seen in the discussions of couples about relationship issues. It was hypothesized that childhood attachment relationships with parents would be associated with the level of cognitive complexity of …