The Developmental Antecedents and Cognitive Correlates of Script-like Attachment

描述（由申请人提供）：成人依恋的个体差异具有显著的临床和社会意义。例如，成人依恋相关的变异与（a）更高质量的同伴关系，（B）与浪漫伴侣更有效的冲突解决方案，以及（c）更敏感和响应的父母。本研究的目的是探讨成人依恋的前因在早期的成长经验。最近的理论争论表明，高质量和支持性的养育方式发展成为依恋关系的脚本式表征，这些脚本式的依恋表征会影响成年后的行为。然而，若干问题仍未得到解决。具体来说，目前还没有大样本的实证证明，脚本式依恋表征是从早期经验发展而来的，或者这些脚本式依恋表征与更成熟的成人依恋测量（如成人依恋访谈（AAI））有关，这是一种对成人依恋表征的间接评估。我们建议通过两种方式来解决这些差距：（1）通过检查脚本式依恋表征的发展前因，以及安全的基础脚本知识是否可以解释早期经验和AAI之间的关联;（2）探索与脚本式依恋表征相关的几个潜在认知相关因素。 AAI性能，特别是内存可访问性和组织。第一个目的（SA 1）是检查脚本式依恋表征的发展前因，利用一个大的前瞻性，纵向样本，NICHD研究早期儿童保育和青年发展（SECCYD），其中包括857名参与者从婴儿期到青春期后期。将通过使用新开发的编码方案对现有数据进行重新编码来评估脚本式附件表示。然后，我们将检查脚本式依恋表征的发展前因与早期经验的质量（例如，父母的敏感性）的措施收集整个发展，特别是探索是否安全的基础脚本知识的变化介导的早期advertiving经验和成人之间的关联关于附件的心理状态评估的AAI。第二组研究（SA 2）将试图探索脚本式依恋表征的认知相关性。我们将进行两项实验室研究，检验脚本式依恋表征对记忆可及性和组织的影响。这些研究将使用认知心理学文献中公认的范式，测试脚本式依恋表征在多大程度上促进记忆回忆和组织良好/完整的依恋叙述的产生。从这些特定目标中获得的知识有可能（1）告知我们早期经验对后来发展的影响，（2）提供一个操作机制，以针对依恋关系的干预措施。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Individual differences in adult attachment have significant clinical and societal implications. For example, adult attachment-related variation is associated with (a) higher quality peer relationships, (b) more effective conflict resolution with romantic partners, and (c) more sensitive and responsive parenting. The goal of this proposal is to examine the antecedents of adult attachment in early caregiving experiences. Recent theoretical arguments suggest that high quality and supportive parenting develops into a script-like representation of the attachment relationship, and that these script-like representations of attachment come to influence behavior in adulthood. However, several issues remain unaddressed. Specifically, there has been no large sample empirical demonstration that script-like attachment representations develop from early experience or that these scripts- like attachment representations are associated with more established measures of adult attachment like the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), an indirect assessment of adult attachment representations. We propose to address these gaps in two ways: (1) by examining the developmental antecedents of script-like attachment representations and whether secure base script knowledge accounts for associations between early experience and the AAI and (2) exploring several potential cognitive correlates of script-like attachment representations relevant to AAI performance, specifically memory accessibility and organization. The first aim (SA1) is to examine the developmental antecedents of script-like attachment representations by taking advantage of a large prospective, longitudinal sample, the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD), which followed 857 participants from infancy to late adolescence. Script-like attachment representations will be assessed by re-coding existing data with a newly developed coding scheme. We will then examine the developmental antecedents of script-like attachment representation with measures of the quality of early experience (e.g. parental sensitivity) collected across development, exploring in particular whether variation in secure base script knowledge mediates associations between early caregiving experiences and adults states of mind regarding attachment as assessed by the AAI. A second set of studies (SA2) will seek to explore the cognitive correlates of script-like attachment representations. We will conduct two laboratory- based studies examining the influence of script-like attachment representations on memory accessibility and organization. These studies will test the extent to which script-like attachment representations facilitate memory recall and the production of well organized/complete attachment narratives using well-established paradigms from the cognitive psychology literature. The knowledge gained from these specific aims has the potential to (1) inform our understanding of the influence early experience can have on later development, (2) provide an operative mechanism to target in interventions focused on attachment relationships.