Adult Attachment Interview

The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) is a semi-standardized interview for the retrospective recording of attachment experiences and current attitudes towards attachment in adults. It is a research method of attachment theory . Carol George, Nancy Kaplan and especially Mary Main developed this test procedure. It examines attachment experiences and their effects on the current psychological (mental as well as emotional) attitude towards attachment to other significant people.

The AAI should record the cognitive and emotional processing as well as the linguistic representation of the early attachment experiences . The AAI is based on the theories of attachment theory, which state that early attachment experiences have an impact on later attitudes towards attachment and relationships. The patterns that make new attachment situations predictable based on previous attachment experiences are referred to as “attachment representations” or “inner working models”.

In order to be able to draw conclusions about these psychological processes, which are difficult to grasp, the AAI has a special innovation. The results of the survey are not evaluated for their exact content, but the coherence of the statements made is assessed. Above all, the brief, coherent and logical description of past experiences and today's attitudes is considered to be coherent.

The authors Main, Kaplan, Cassidy describe these mental attachment representations as: “A number of conscious and unconscious rules for the organization of information about attachment-related experiences, feelings and ideas, including a memory organization, which can make access to this information easier or more difficult. "

The results are largely independent of intelligence, memory performance and social desirability.

In order to achieve adequate results, it is necessary for very experienced interviewers to assess the test situation: This makes the test very time-consuming compared to standardized interviews, which are only evaluated based on the quantity of the measured data. The implementation also takes a long time, around one to three hours. For this reason it is used almost exclusively for research and not for diagnostics in psychotherapeutic practice.

The questions in the Adult Attachment Interview

The pattern of attachment behavior is based on various strategies the child uses to try to regulate his or her emotional needs, which are often directed towards the caregiver. A clear connection between the “type of attachment” of the child and the “attachment attitude” of the caregiver can be demonstrated. Furthermore, these attachment representations can have a cross-generational continuity.

The AAI consists of a fixed catalog of questions, whereby the interviewer has the opportunity to respond to any special features or inaccuracies by asking questions.

The questions asked outline the experience of early childhood, for example through questions about

a brief description of the external living conditions,
the relationship with the parents
the relationship to the mother, whereby 5 of her characteristics should be named with concrete explanations
the relationship to the father, whereby 5 of his characteristics should also be explained
comparing relationships with mother and father.

The question continues

from whom attention and support was sought in stressful situations, with sadness and illness
what separation experiences exist
whether there are experiences of rejection
whether experiences of threat or abuse are present
what today's relationship with parents looks like and how it is assessed.

Questions about the influence of childhood experiences on today's personality and the extent to which the respondents show understanding for parental behavior are important. In addition, questions are asked about additional important attachment figures in (early) childhood and whether there were losses of parents and / or other attachment figures during childhood. It is also meaningful whether there is a change in the relationship with the parents compared to before and what this looks like.

Finally, the interviewers ask questions about their own child. Here, for example, questions are asked about the reaction to a separation from their own child and what worries parents are about the child. The adults should formulate three wishes for the future of their child in the AAI. Finally, the respondents should provide a summary of their own childhood experiences and the childhood of their own children.

A copy of the interview is made ( transcript ) and evaluated according to linguistic criteria ( discourse analysis ). The general attitude towards ties should be assessed. When categorizing the interviews, coherence is the key feature. On the other hand, it does not matter whether the interviewees experienced separation or trauma in their past, but rather whether they are able to report logically and coherently about their then and present situation in the interview situation. From this, the researchers conclude that they were able to process these experiences.

In the evaluation, incoherent statements are seen as an indication of unprocessed, negative attachment experiences. Incomplete reports or discrepancies, for example, are considered incoherent. Some respondents reported the death of a parent and their relationship with them, but suddenly stopped talking and reported incoherent incidents instead. Or they reported about the particular kindness of a caregiver, but as an example they can only remember a situation of abuse.

Classification of binding attitudes

The attachment representations or attachment schemes of the adults could be assigned to certain attachment types of their children, which were also examined in the "strange situation":

The autonomous attachment attitude (F; free-autonomous)

These attachment figures are described as having self-confidence , frustration tolerance , respect, and empathy . They are aware of the negative and positive affects and attitudes towards their own attachment figures and reflect on them in an appropriate manner and at a distance. There is hardly any unconscious identification with their parents - one's own parent-child relationship is viewed realistically and not idealized. Most of the mothers themselves had mothers with an autonomous attitude towards attachment or they have maintained their secure attachment in the course of their biography through the possibility of alternative relationship experiences with other, non-primary attachment figures, through a partner or, for example, with the help of psychotherapeutic support.

In the AAI, such adults stand out for their relatively precise memories and present their childhood and the relationship events in their life in a balanced, factual and coherent manner. Negative experiences are also allowed and can be described with a healthy distance. An integration of cognitive and affective aspects becomes clear in the narration .

Typically, these parents respond to their children in a predictable and appropriate manner. Attachment needs are not rejected or ignored. For the most part, your children will develop securely. They can turn to their parents with confidence when the attachment system is activated. In return, they can use this secure base as a starting point for exploratory behavior .

The distanced and dismissive attachment attitude (D; dismissing)

Adults with the attachment representation can barely remember their own childhood, which means they have pushed a lot out of the way. They tend to idealize their parents and their educational methods - although no specific situations can be enumerated that justify this idealization . However, there are reports of a lack of parental support and rejection (openly or covertly) of the child's needs. The adults with a distanced-relational attitude towards attachment deny the importance of their own experiences with their parents and their consequences for the coloring of their affective core. They show a very great desire for independence and prefer to rely on their own strengths. They say that they have not missed the lack of help and that they do not feel anger or sadness in this regard . Children of such adults are more likely to expect affective support and attitudes towards their needs when trying to accomplish a task. The children are put under pressure to perform at an early age. According to the results of George, Kaplan and Main (1985), who systematically explored these attachment representations of the parents through the "Adult Attachment Interview for the recording of parental attachment representations", such mothers like it when the children show attachment. However, they tend to ignore the child when they need reassurance and support.

In the AAI, such adults stand out due to their poor memory. Parents are idealized, or attachment figures and attachment in general are devalued. The statements are incoherent and mainly based on cognitive aspects.

The preoccupied, entangled attachment setting (E; entangled-enmeshed)

This attitude is often found in people who are flooded with memories of their own childhood and permanently burdened. They could not deal with the problems and difficulties within the relationship with their own attachment figure; they overestimate them and oscillate between feelings of anger and idealization. Ultimately, they are still in a dependent relationship with their own attachment figures and long for their attention and reparation. The mothers of people with such an attachment representation were "weak" and "incompetent" in the most frequent cases and could accordingly offer neither protection nor reassurance in threatening situations in which their children activated the attachment system. If the mother (or the corresponding attachment figure) cannot remove her child's fear, there is increased clinging. The detachment processes in the child are also seen as particularly difficult because the “weak” mother often parentifies the child and it therefore feels that it has to look after the mother. Children of such parents are prevented from behaving exploratively and showing anger, aggression , defiance and the desire for independence through pampering and / or inducing feelings of guilt . If they get into conflict situations with the attachment figure, such emerging feelings are switched off or the child is distracted. The development of an independent identity is made more difficult because the child cannot orientate himself to his own emotional and motivational situation, but has to permanently grasp the emotional situation of the attachment person. The children often belong to the insecure, ambivalent type. In turn, they often become the overestimating but insecure attachment figures for their own children, who then encounter a lack of attention and empathy. On the initiatives to go with the baby's parents relationship through evaluative binding setting is not appropriate and often react only sensitive when the child great fear shows and terror. The child can then react by reinforcing this behavior in order to get the attention of the attachment figure.

In the AAI, adults in this category stand out due to the unbalanced presentation and assessment of the relationship with their parents. The statements are incoherent and driven by affective aspects such as helplessness and anger.

The binding setting influenced by unprocessed object loss (U; unresolved)

Attachment individuals who are suffering from an unprocessed grieving process or who have had unprocessed experiences of abuse or sexual abuse very often have children of the disorganized attachment type. The explanation is based on the assumption that attachment figures who suffer from trauma cannot offer protection, but relatively often activate attachment behavior in their children, as they show pronounced fear of a horror which the child cannot grasp. If the traumatized attachment figure maltreats, abuses, permanently embarrasses the child, etc., they do not become an authority protecting the child from danger, but a source of fear and danger themselves. Here, too, the children are often parented by their parents. Mothers with an attachment representation of this type allow their children to lead the relationship to an unusual extent. Generation boundaries are exceeded and the children feel it is their duty to look after their parents and to ensure their psychological and physical well-being.

In the AAI, the adults surveyed with this classification react confused and describe their often traumatic experiences and their effects in a disoriented, incoherent way. They oscillate between positive and negative points of view and their answers are irrational. In general, they find it difficult to get involved in the interview and its topics.

Unclassifiable Bond Type (CC)

Within the studies on the AAI, it is discussed to create a further category for adults who cannot be assigned. These are characterized by:

In the AAI, the test person switched between distant and preoccupied attachment type without a clear strategy being discernible.
Most of the subjects examined represented serious traumatic experiences.
They often exhibited deeply negative attitudes towards attachment.
They had incompatible thinking and processing strategies.

Relationship between adult and child attachment types

As expected, the examination of both the parents and the children revealed statistical relationships which have the significance of the attachment representations in the parents for the development of certain attachment types in the children.

Mothers classified as autonomous were more likely to have securely attached children (F → B).
Relationship-rejecting (distanced) children who tend to be avoidantly bound (D → A).
Entangled mothers tend to have ambivalent children (E → C).
Parents who suffer from an unresolved trauma have more disorganized, attached children (U → D).

The agreement of the results is particularly high for the safe group (F → B). Autonomous parents have securely attached children with 75 to 82%. The other groups are slightly lower.

Other uses of the Adult Attachment Interview

The AAI can also be used for the preparation of court opinions in which it is intended to assess the extent to which adults are able to take on a parenting role towards children.

Peter Fonagy evaluated adult attachment interviews with a questionnaire based on his concept of mentalization .

literature

G. Gloger-Tippelt (Ed.): Attachment in adulthood. Huber, Bern 2001.
G. Gloger-Tippelt, V. Hofmann: The Adult Attachment Interview: Concept, method and experiences in the German-speaking area. In: Childhood and Upbringing. 3, 1997, pp. 161-172.
H. Hesse: The Adult Attachment Interview: Historical and Current Perspectives. In: J. Cassidy, PR Shaver (Ed.): Handbook of Attachment. The Guilford Press, New York 1999, pp. 395-433.

Web links

Adult Attachment Interview with Mary Main

Individual evidence

^ Mary Main, Nancy Kaplan, Jude Cassidy: Security in Infancy, Childhood, and Adulthood: A Move to the Level of Representation. In: Growing Points of Attachment Theory and Research. (= Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. Vol. 50, No. 1/2). 1985, pp. 66-104.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d M. Dornes: The early childhood. Developmental Psychology of the First Years of Life. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1997.
↑ ^a ^b FU Berlin: seminar material. Archived from the original on September 22, 2011 ; Retrieved April 5, 2014 .
↑ GJ Suess, H. Scheurer-Englisch, W.-KP Pfeifer (Ed.): Attachment theory and family dynamics - application of attachment theory in counseling and therapy. Psychosozial Verlag, Giessen 2001.

[1] Mary Main, Nancy Kaplan, Jude Cassidy: Security in Infancy, Childhood, and Adulthood: A Move to the Level of Representation. In: Growing Points of Attachment Theory and Research. (= Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. Vol. 50, No. 1/2). 1985, pp. 66-104.

[Dornes-2] M. Dornes: The early childhood. Developmental Psychology of the First Years of Life. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1997.

[FU_Berlin-3] FU Berlin: seminar material. Archived from the original on September 22, 2011 ; Retrieved April 5, 2014 .

[Bindung_u._Fam-4] GJ Suess, H. Scheurer-Englisch, W.-KP Pfeifer (Ed.): Attachment theory and family dynamics - application of attachment theory in counseling and therapy. Psychosozial Verlag, Giessen 2001.