Exploring the conscious and unconscious fit between husband and wife: An examination of mental representations, attachment status, and intimacy within the marital system.
Item
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Title
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Exploring the conscious and unconscious fit between husband and wife: An examination of mental representations, attachment status, and intimacy within the marital system.
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Identifier
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AAI3144092
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identifier
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3144092
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Creator
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Ebenstein, Yael Rebecca.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Diana Diamond
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Date
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2004
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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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This dissertation combined projective and objective measures to assess the relationship between married individuals' mental representations, attachment status, and satisfaction with marital intimacy. This study also assessed the fit within couples by comparing married partners' levels of mental representations and attachment status. Data was collected from 51 heterosexual couples married at least 10 years. Participants were administered the Object Representation Inventory (ORI), a projective measure, and asked to describe their mother, father, spouse, and self. These narratives were rated for their degree of self-other differentiation using the Differentiation-Relatedness Scale of Self and Object Representations. Participants completed the Experiences in Close Relationships Measure (ECR), an objective self-report attachment measure in order to identify their attachment status. In addition, participants reported their satisfaction with marital intimacy by completing the Personal Assessment of Intimacy in Relationships Inventory (PAIR), an objective self-report measure. The results showed that husbands and wives within each couple demonstrated a similar level of differentiation-relatedness. In addition, participants' differentiation-relatedness scores vis-a-vis their parents were significantly related to their differentiation-relatedness scores vis-a-vis spouse. No relationship was found between mental representations and attachment status; securely attached individuals as measured by the ECR were not significantly better differentiated and related than insecurely attached individuals as measured by the ECR. Within most couples, partners were either both identified as being securely attached or both identified as being insecurely attached according to the ECR. However, there was no specific pattern found between the attachment statuses of husbands and wives classified as insecurely attached. Furthermore, no significant relationship was found between satisfaction with intimacy and the capacity for differentiation and relatedness. Among male participants, there was a significant relationship between satisfaction with marital intimacy and attachment status. For female participants, this was not the case. The lack of overlap between self-other differentiation and attachment measures in this sample suggests that these two dimensions may tap somewhat different aspects of relatedness, a finding which warrants further research. Results were discussed in terms of the differences between attachment status and the capacity for differentiation and relatedness and the implications of these two constructs for marital therapy.
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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.
