The relationship specificity of the Reflective Function: An empirical investigation
Item
-
Title
-
The relationship specificity of the Reflective Function: An empirical investigation
-
Identifier
-
d_2009_2013:096796670ce0:10157
-
identifier
-
10319
-
Creator
-
Crumbley, Alexander H.,
-
Contributor
-
Arietta Slade
-
Date
-
2009
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Clinical psychology | Individual & family studies | attachment | mentalization | metacognitive monitoring | parenthood | psychoanalysis | reflective functioning
-
Abstract
-
The present study examines the stability of the Reflective Function (RF) across relationship contexts by testing the correlation between mothers' RF in discussing their children/parenthood and their RF in discussing their parents/childhood. It was hypothesized that RF would be stable across these contexts as evidenced by a positive, significant correlation between RF scores on separate interviews that focus on parenthood and childhood in detail.;Subjects were 40 first-time mothers between the ages of 25 and 40, all of whom were middle-class and in stable, cohabiting relationships at the time of the study. They were interviewed using the Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1996) while in the third trimester of pregnancy, and with the Parent Development Interview (Slade, Aber, Bresgi, Berger & Kaplan, 2003) when their children were 10 months old. The Reflective Function Manual for Application to Adult Attachment Interviews (Fonagy, Steele, Steele, & Target, 1998) was used to determine the level of RF regarding childhood, and the Addendum to the Reflective Function Manual for use with the Parent Development Interview (Slade, Bernbach, Grienenberger, Levy, & Locker, 1999) was used to determine the level of RF regarding parenthood.;Results supported the study's hypothesis: There was a highly significant, positive correlation between RF scores across the two interviews. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for attachment theory, the theory of mentalization and affect regulation, psychoanalysis, and clinical treatment. In order to form hypotheses about the potential sources of unstable RF, qualitative analyses are performed on two subjects with significantly discrepant scores across interviews.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
2009_2013.csv
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
-
Program
-
Psychology
