Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)

• The Handbook of Attachment, Second Edition, explores the theory, research, and clinical applications of attachment
• It is edited by Jude Cassidy and Phillip R. Shaver

Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)

• In 1985, Main, Kaplan, and Cassidy reported findings from a sixth-year follow-up study on 40 Bay Area children, linking early attachment experiences to later representations
• The AAI was developed to assess and gather texts regarding development and current functioning
• Transcribed responses are placed into three adult attachment classification categories: secure-autonomous, dismissing, and preoccupied
• Secure-autonomous speakers value attachment relationships and experiences, and are objective
• Dismissing speakers devalue or cut off from attachment relationships and experiences
• Preoccupied speakers have early attachment or attachment-related experiences
• Infant Strange Situation security is associated with the secure-autonomous category
• Infant strange situation insecure-avoidant is associated with the dismissing category
• Infant strange situation insecure-resistant/ambivalent is associated with the preoccupied category
• The AAI has been increasingly used in clinical and developmental research
• Analyzing the overall coherence of text by focusing on contradictions and inconsistencies has been the focus from the outset
• Short, long, irrelevant, or difficult to follow passages are taken into account
• Differences in the use of language relative to attachment have consistently been the basis of analysis and source of predictive power
• Five major classifications are derived from studying the full text, including secure, dismissing, preoccupied, unresolved/disorganized, and cannot classify
• Each major AAI classification (except cannot classify) has repeatedly been associated with offspring attachment, responsiveness, and emotional/clinical status
• Recent examples include estimation of parental involvement in intervention, determination of insecurity rates in disadvantaged groups, search for anomalous interaction patterns, and study the relationship between variables.
• There are three major sections in the chapter: description of the AAI protocol and individual differences, analysis of the AAI, and review of selected studies
• One section provides a description of AAI protocol and identifies differences in organized response patterns in terms of attentional and linguistic mechanisms
• The ways in which organized classifications can be understood are looked at in terms of attentional mechanisms, using Main's thinking on flexibility vs inflexibility of attention under stress
• Linguistic/conversational mechanism analyses use the work of H. P. Grice
• Prototypes of responses to AAI queries are presented related to attentional and Gricean conversational mechanisms
• One section describes how trained coders approach the analysis of an AAI transcript, emphasizing text analysis
• Beyond the five major classifications, two approaches to analyzing the AAI are described: twelve subclassifications and continuous rating scales
• The initial three organized categories are divided into 12 subclassifications
• The AAI scoring system includes continuous rating scales that assess the speaker's current state of mind with respect to attachment
• Use of these scales releases restriction of range imposed by classifications and increases statistical power
• A section reviews selected studies based on the AAI, including those related to psychometric propertie
• The review includes best-replicated findings and a select group of newer studies
• The AAI uses a prespecified format with specific follow-up probes arranged to bring forward structural variations
• Interviewers must make certain their conversation serves only to highlight, and not alter, participant tendencies to respond in particular ways
• The AAI normally takes about an hour to administer and consists of 20 questions
• Transcriptions include the interviewer and interviewee, as well as timed pauses, dysfluencies, and restarts.
• The interview opens with a request for a general description of relationships with parents during the speaker's childhood, followed by adjectives that describe the relationship
• The speaker is probed for specific episodic memories that illustrate why each descriptor was chosen
• The speaker is queried regarding the effects of these experiences on his or her adult personality
• An important feature of the AAI protocol is the section addressing experiences of loss of significant persons through death
• Participants are asked about the nature of the current with parents and as to how they feel about being separated from their child
• Examples of questions from the AAI are provided, such as describing relationships with parents, specific incidents, and separations
• The central task the interview presents to participants is producing and reflecting on memories related to attachment, while maintaining coherent, collaborative discourse
• For example, the interview requires the speaker to reflect on and answer complex questions regarding his or her life history, the majority of which the speaker will never have been asked before
• Participants should not stray into overly lengthy digressions
• The AAI is structured to bring into relief individual differences in internalized strategies for regulating emotion and attention when discussing attachment
• The AAI is able to elicit a particular state of mind with respect to attachment based on the assumption that by adulthood, independent attachments to the mother and to the father will have coalesced

Further details regarding secure, dismissing, and preoccupied speakers

• Two ways to conceptualize the underlying mechanisms responsible for individual differences in discourse are described
• Attentional flexibility vs inflexibility, and adherence to Grice's maxims for maintenance of coherence and collaboration in conversation are noted
• AAI scoring and classification system was initially grounded in the relation between parent and infant responses in the Strange Situation, with flexibility of attention being key
• Infants in the categories differ in flexibility versus inflexibility of attention to the parent and the inanimate environment
• Secure babies readily alternate between attachment and exploratory behavior
• Insecure-avoidant infants focus away from the parent onto toys or surroundings
• Insecure-ambivalent/resistant infants focus persistently on the parent at the expense of toys and surroundings
• Main proposed that AAI categories are in terms of attentional flexibility, in which secure-autonomous parents shift between attachment-related experiences and influences.
• Attentional inflexibility is found in dismissing texts, in which the focus is away from relationships, and preoccupied texts, in which the focus is strongly oriented toward relationships
• The aim here is to facilitate an understanding of organized language usages within the AAI, and thus assess coherence
• The AAI interviewer adheres to the conversation (as well as adhering to the need to gather the autobiography) to permit analysis in terms of the extent to which the participant's responses approach the "Gricean" cooperative conversation
• Those requirements involve that speakers adhere to four specific "maxims" or principles

Quality maxim

• Be truthful, and have evidence for what you say
• This maxim is violated when a parent is described in positive terms, yet the biographical episodes contradict the adjective choices
• Passages are called internally inconsistent if there are contradictions

Quantity maxim

• Be succinct, and yet complete, relating to length of sentence.
• This requires conversational turns of reasonable length such that Grice was saying that incomplete, excessively short answers are not acceptable
• This occurs when 'I don't remember' or 'I don't know' becomes the response
• Grice also requires that complete responses are reasonably succinct, such that the maxim of appropriate quantity can also be violated when a speaker takes excessively long conversational turns

Relatability maxim

• Be relevant to the topic as presented
• This maxim is violated when questions regarding the speaker's mother irrelevantly refer to current interactions, etc

Manner maxim

• Be clear and orderly
• This maxim is violated when speech becomes grammatically entangled, with vague terms and unfinished sentences

Examples where Grice maxims apply

• Interviewees are asked what five adjectives best describe their relationship with each parent
• Here, this question includes two parts that operate at different 'mental levels': semantic and episodic with a rationale for the adjectival choice as appropriate with supportive accounts
• In essence, the adjectival constellation that the speaker is asked to provide for his or her relationship with a given parent during childhood requires the person produce "on the spot" a fairly complex and incisive synopsis.
• The constellation can vary from extremely negative to extremely positive
• Those that don't answer the question about adjectives, that fail to provide examples, that are unable to stay with a question all violate the Grice and other Maxims

• Interviewers are charged with considering whether or not the speaker has had a positive or meaningful experience in this process, before moving on
• Interviewers are required to probe "Okay, the first word you gave to describe your relationship with your mother during childhood was "loving." Can you think of a memory or incident that would illustrate for me why you chose that word?"
• The range of potential responses yields information that can be approached with a view to assigning scores and a state-of-mind classification
• Consider, too, the degree of his or her own self-awareness, and the motivation to convey a particular impression to the interviewer
• The speaker seemingly cannot remember or makes other statements that show they aren't providing examples of positive statements or examples regarding attachment
• Those who give a lengthy example and describe the parent in loving, detailed and specific detail show a higher degree of "organization" relative to expressing attachment

Unresolved and other items

• They cannot easily answer questions and their responses may seem formulaic or otherwise lacking in detail or context
• In this case, interview prompts are given because it may be difficult to get them to reflect on their experiences
• Those who "violate" manner offer descriptions and more may be classified as having difficulty with clear and coherent statements-they don't wind down and their statements don't lead to anything meaningful
• This gives the interviewer clear sense into the inner work of the interviewee and how their conversation should proceed from here
• "What effects do you think your experiences with your parents have had on you?: a key question for the entire exam process
• People that are unable to really dig into or describe their experiences may show that they have difficulty or have some sort of a inflexible means of expressing the information.

Notes about Coherence

• As such, with these types of people it may indicate an active and inflexible focus away from any problems or difficulties
• Many secure-autonomous transcripts exhibit a response to question 10, even if the parent was earlier described as loving. impression is that the speaker may have thought of questions before. speaker should review some points-key parts
• This type of individual provides an example after a longer pause, suggesting a difficult life and rejecting/neglecting people- key factor/characteristic
• Other secure autonomous speakers have a hard time telling the listener about some items-and may try to indicate and or express their sentiments;

Regarding Unresolved

• They don't fully and realistically tell the listener about their experiences
• Thus they may have an over or understated set of feelings toward a topic, which makes things less than helpful
• It all goes down to a persons capacity to tell the listener about all factors involved, with a clear demonstration
• The interviewee may not be able to answer the questions due to factors within, with a potential major cause being emotional and cognitive barriers
• If so, their responses may suggest a high degree of difficulty due to a range of factors including and not limited to potential emotional factors

Organized v. Unorganized

• What is going on the person's head- or what are they like relative to their experiences, their history- this impacts the level of understanding relative to key topic sentences

What the person is saying matters to various other people close to the subject

• They do not readily and consistently share what matters

Summary

• One of the main reasons of unorganized is they don't relate to certain types of topic related issues relative to the listener
• It also impacts how some topics may go in a listener relative to some people, showing a difficulty to relate and or present it in relation to their listener. It isn't going right relative to the other as far as what happened in the past/etc

• Organized language involves a certain set of items related to Grice
• You describe something before moving on for an objective or similar view
• In other notes too, there are many things that may occur, like trauma and the resulting events of a childhood as they relate to both what happened and how the person has the sense of what went on

Organized v. NOT Organized

• The organized categories of the AAI is those in which the speaker shows a definitive, essentially singular "strategy" for getting through the interview
• So long as a single one of these strategies seems to be at work throughout the interview,the transcript is considered organized.
• The organized states of mind with respect to attachment stand -albeit at the discourse level-in attentional parallel to secure, avoidant, and resistant forms seen in the Strange Situation with infants
• Parents tend to have infants who avoid interaction in Strange Situation
• They also tend to display issues of attention to suroundlings, as such they tend to do with AAI
• That all goes relative to the degree of coherance of AAI versus other stuff which creates a interesting factor
• All in one the AAI coder begins work with the "experience scales" by assigning scores for central aspects of loving versus unloving behavior

"The organized categories of the AAI are those in which speakers show singular for singular strategy" and there are certain elements that can factor into this

• They could get high and low ratings, but are essentially unable to create something useful as it goes
• But these aren't exactly key as time goes on, for their potential power That then brings us to various items that we don't consider - for the disorganized that could result in them being highly negative
• In that case what is thought isn't what results
• That said, we must focus on how this all goes

Factors

• All these facts go in after certain items have been created based on the continuous scale, with other items to further classify

All in, there may be lots

• Most has been linked together- so a lot is needed
• Then it becomes clear what will happen- based upon how the person interacts, or where some of the issues might come from
• This type has now been known for a good while now- all in its own Here, in more detail what the topic involves/consists of

More

• Then the system used which is now well defined for the three and most people Then what the items used show from that system It helps clear up the many aspects All in this is so helpful

AAI

• An AAI doesn't take much time Some of these things do add together, when done right As new things came to pass When done so, and a lot had been taken into account, everything worked then!

• The 3rd set has been given something to study, with some aspects being the key items It is helpful then when they are all set It leads things to be of a great and specific nature then: with a level

From the 50s and beyond...

At this time all these people were tested You can get that as time is done from here To do the best now requires those items Then this becomes good and well organized- in its way

To get and put out the needed items to really find meaning/data. A long and very complex item.

1. Qualitatively new stuff

With all that's involved what does it need to create an outcome and what it need. You go deep and a code.

2. 34 items

For it to do great work you need these elements Then it works fully and great and has been created!

So they all mix and all get together all through it To what is really what, which requires 4 steps.

Having ended all that, and after much

So then the convo.

Well and now, where to go

It has a lot of parts together and well defined

Here a new element can factor in also

It has one of the main things in place

For example

So a lot is thought of now and then!

With others as a helper it has the facts-which do, make it the 4 which really do all of it!

• Which helps it all, with it! (Hesse the second) is really good on what there is as help Both in a level, 1996 now to keep up with all and help at all- 1184- 799! Good/right. This way here, a large type is kept now

This will in hand tell them all

He and such- that means that- it relates to some new things which were well to go from So he makes note too as with others with what to help

And the process is much

To follow where and a plan to help, there and a time

It takes all- with it (Steele). The work and the maxims

The key stuff what one can know, that relates so

Also what others does this help

Show all helps- in a good mix These get a few results there

To best take these steps

That is so to create what would be had with all this All in, that the set that goes, works out

The work by the number or by all parts

This can show about time so the thing to have and know Then here what this 2 had kept about it in mind

More that that this can let on on all it with it

If a new item is not set, where one can now well that it takes ( Main et and) has really done what with set is it that gets about

It in set to has what one and key- if a help is what

At the top-which makes what can know all and more, what for the day to have

After they are all in place then is the set really known to tell in all how help! These are that that this show in on to a top what has to help