The Adult Attachment Projective Picture System : Attachment Theory and Assessment in Adults

This book presents cutting-edge research on adult attachment together with a complete overview of the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (AAP), the authors' validated developmental assessment. In addition to identifying attachment classification groups, the AAP yields important information about dimensions--including defensive processes--not evaluated by other available measures. Detailed case illustrations show what the AAP looks like "in action" and what it reveals about individuals' early experiences, sense of self, and capacity to engage in close, protective relationships. The AAP can be used in clinical or research settings; the concluding chapter discusses promising applications to studying the neurobiology of attachment.

This book presents cutting-edge research on adult attachment together with a complete overview of the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (AAP), the authors' validated developmental assessment. In addition to research applications, the AAP can be of great use for clinicians seeking to understand the attachment strengths and challenges that clients bring to therapy. The book describes how the AAP identifies attachment classification groups and yields important information about dimensions—including defensive processes—not evaluated by other available measures.

 

Part I examines the theoretical underpinnings of the AAP and compares it to other adult attachment assessments. The authors explain how autobiographical narrative, as elicited and analyzed by the AAP, can offer strong insights into essential features of attachment. Part II reviews the nuts and bolts of the AAP: its development and validation, how it is administered, and how the coding and classification system works. Chapters in Part III contain detailed case illustrations that show what the AAP looks like "in action" and what it reveals about individuals' early experiences, sense of self, and capacity to engage in close, protective relationships. Cases, which include childhood history and verbatim AAP transcripts, represent the four major adult attachment classification groups: secure, dismissing, preoccupied, and unresolved. The concluding chapter discusses promising uses of the AAP in neurobiological research.

 

A unique and timely contribution to the field, this authoritative book belongs on the desks of all developmental and clinical researchers interested in attachment, as well as clinical psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and other clinicians who want to integrate attachment into their practices.

Narrative versus non-narrative assessment of adult attachment Defining attachment stories as representational precipitates The development and validation of the AAP The attachment self: the AAP attachment content coding dimensions Defensive processes in the AAP Secure attachment Dismissing attachment Preoccupied attachment Dysregulated segregated systems: unresolved attachment, failed mourning, and preoccupation with suffering Using the AAP in neurobiology research.