Representations of the adoptive mother, the birth mother, and the self in adult adoptees.
Item
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Title
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Representations of the adoptive mother, the birth mother, and the self in adult adoptees.
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Identifier
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AAI3074653
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identifier
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3074653
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Creator
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Gertner, Lisabeth Weinstein.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Steven B. Tuber
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Date
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2003
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Clinical
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Abstract
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Twenty-seven American-born adults adopted in infancy who had had no contact with their birth families completed the Object Representation Inventory (ORI) by describing their adoptive mothers (AM), their birth mothers (BM) as imagined, and themselves. These descriptions/representations were evaluated in terms of conceptual level (CL), personal attributes, and articulation level (SA). The degree of discrepancy (splitting) between AM and BM representations in terms of their personal attributes was also measured. Subjects also completed the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI).;Subjects with higher conceptual levels for their AM representations showed significantly higher conceptual levels for their self-representations, but not for their BM representations. Subjects with more highly articulated AM representations did not show more highly articulated BM representations. The study expected negative attributes in the AM representation to be associated with positive attributes in the BM representation, but two analyses yielded mixed results: one supported that expectation and the other did not. The study also compared CL and SA of the AM representations to the degree of discrepancy between AM and BM representations. It found that subjects whose AM representations were at a higher CL tended to have significantly less discrepancy between AM and BM representations. However, no significant correlation between discrepancy and the articulation level of the AM representation was found.;A post hoc test grouped subjects according to degree of negativity in their AM representations. These groups were then compared by the articulation levels of their BM representations. Subjects whose AM representations contained many negative attributes (group I) tended to have BM representations significantly better articulated than subjects whose AM representations contained few or no negative attributes (groups II and III). A second post hoc test compared subjects' symptomatology to the degree of discrepancy between their AM and BM representations, indicating significant positive correlations between discrepancy and the three global indices of the BSI.;Findings strongly suggested that adoptees' perceptions of their AM relate to aspects of their BM fantasies and self-perceptions. Furthermore, adoptees' symptomatology and AM CL related to the degree of splitting between AM and BM representations. Suggestions for future research and clinical implications are discussed.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
