Psychology Commons^™

Attachment Relationships Across Siblings And Their Common Mother: Patterns And Predictors, Kathleen Anne O'Connor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Traditional attachment theory suggests that because maternal state of mind regarding attachment is generally stable by adulthood, mothers should interact similarly with their children and, consequently, should share a similar quality of attachment with each. Early empirical work, however, suggests that the quality of siblings’ relationships is frequently different. Using varied theoretical and methodological approaches, this dissertation expanded upon the existing literature to further explore the nature and underpinnings of variability in the quality of mother-infant attachment across siblings.

Study 1 comprehensively described patterns of attachment within the family, investigating the extent to which the quality of siblings’ relationships with …

Attachment And Attention: An Investigation Of Biases In Attention As They Relate To Attachment Security In Infancy And Adulthood, Paul J. Meinz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

At the advent of attachment theory, John Bowlby hypothesized that cognition and emotion are shaped by early experiences with primary caregivers (Bowlby, 1980). This idea – that aspects of cognition may be organized within early relationships – still plays a prominent role in contemporary attachment theory. The studies described within this dissertation provide support for the idea that attachment security in infancy and adulthood are associated with differences in cognition – particularly with differences in the way that people attend to certain forms of stimuli. Mothers and children in the studies described here were first assessed for individual differences in …