Biomedical subjects

M B Sperling

Publications and source records attributed to M B Sperling.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1996

Measuring adult attachment: are self-report instruments congruent?

To assess the association between several recently generated measures of adult attachment, a sample of 160 college students were administered the following 6 scales: Hazan-Shaver attachment self-report (Hazan & Shaver, 1987), Attachment Style Measure (Simpson, 1990), Adult Attachment Scale (Collins & Read, 1990), Attachment Style Inventory (Sperling & Berman, 1991), Reciprocal Attachment Questionnaire (West, Sheldon, & Reiffer, 1987), and Anxious Romantic Attachment Scale (Hindy, Schwarz, & Brodsky, 1989). Findings indicated that scale and subscale reliability and intercorrelations generally show sufficient evidence of expected consistencies. There is also indication for a primary distinction between the omnibus spheres of positive-affiliative attachment versus negative-conflictual attachment, with secondary distinctions among the attachment styles within each sphere. Notwithstanding the overall consistencies, suggestions are offered for context-specific utilization of each of the measures reviewed.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Five scales in search of a construct: exploring continued attachment to parents in college students.

The multitude of measures and differences across self-report indices of continued parental attachment raise questions regarding the validity and meaning of these scales. The purpose of this study was to examine the convergent and construct validity of 5 measures of continued parental attachment. Five attachment scales and 6 personality scales were administered to 216 undergraduate students. Factor analyses and correlational analyses indicate that the 5 attachment measures differentiate healthy from pathological bonding with parents, the construct being assessed has multiple dimensions, and scores on these attachment measures are correlated with personify variables as would be expected. These attachment scales appear to assess a construct that is related to attachment, although they may be more illustrative of the general affective quality of relationships. Subsequent assessment efforts should employ more specific ratings and measure concrete behavioral manifestations of attachment to most effectively examine the construct.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1995

Attachment anxiety and reciprocity as moderators of interpersonal attraction.

In integrating the interpersonal domains of attraction, perceived reciprocity, and attachment security, the prediction was made that positive interpersonal feedback (reciprocity) would lead to a greater increase in attraction ratings for anxiously versus securely attached individuals and, correspondingly, negative interpersonal feedback would cause a greater diminution in attraction ratings for anxiously versus securely attached individuals, with neutral feedback having no differential effect. For a sample of 154 college students, these predictions as well as an unanticipated gender finding were supported. The findings and clinical implications concerning the susceptibility of anxiously attached individuals to positive interpersonal cues are discussed in terms of a compromised sense of the availability and responsiveness of attachment figures.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

Classification of adult attachment: an integrative taxonomy from attachment and psychoanalytic theories.

Developmental and psychoanalytic theorists have focused increasingly on empirically determined early childhood antecedents of adult attachments, with several resulting taxonomic models. This article suggests a theoretically based and clinically based model of attachment consistent with both psychoanalytic and attachment theories, resulting in an integrative taxonomy of four adult attachment styles: dependent, avoidant, hostile, and resistant-ambivalent. These styles reflect behavioral manifestations of dependence and anger, as derived from the interaction of primitive relational drives, defenses, and interpersonal experience. In addition to theoretical construction, brief clinical examples are presented to facilitate discussion of the model.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

An attachment classification of desperate love.

The assessment utility of attachment theory constructs for research and diagnostic purposes is being increasingly explored and demonstrated. This study focuses on the association between desperate love and a modification of Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, and Wall's (1978) taxonomy of attachment styles, hypothesizing that the experience of desperate love will be positively associated with the dependent and resistant/ambivalent attachment styles with no gender differences. The findings based on multivariate regression analyses generally corroborate the attachment style hypotheses, although with significant gender differences. Discussion focuses on the possible contrasts in the intrapsychic experience of desperate love for men and women as well as indications of causal trends for future research.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1991

On the nature of attachment in a borderline population: a preliminary investigation.

Analyses of interpersonal behavior within a borderline population usually focus on object relations variables. In contrast, this preliminary research focuses on the nature of attachment styles and its relation to behavioral pathology. 24 hospitalized borderline patients were administered an Attachment Style Inventory and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory. Analysis confirms predicted differences in attachment style between the borderline and normal control samples as well as indicates that a dependent style of attachment within this borderline sample is associated with less pathology than an avoidant, hostile, or resistant/ambivalent style. The implications of this preliminary work for full-scale research are addressed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Amelioration of transference resistance: substitute therapists in milieu group psychotherapy.

Building upon Wolf's (1949) notion of the use of an alternate session in group psychotherapy, this paper suggests that an alternate therapist substituting for an absent regular therapist in milieu group psychotherapy can facilitate similar therapeutic benefits. The mechanism of this process of overcoming transference resistance is seen as twofold: (1) sessions with a substitute therapist allow patients to confront the infantilization often present in a milieu setting and experiment with more autonomous ego functioning. (2) Sessions with a substitute therapist create conditions which are apart from the ongoing process of the therapy group, thereby allowing for a therapeutic splitting process to develop wherein transference feelings about the regular therapist can be expressed to his or her "alter ego." Several case vignettes are presented in order to illustrate the clinical utility of a substitute therapist.

Defense Mechanisms↗

PubMed1990

Assessment of adult relatedness: a review of empirical findings from object relations and attachment theories.

Assessment techniques designed to measure adult behavior and mental representation that emphasize relatedness constructs are reviewed. These measures grow out of two traditions, object relations and attachment theories. Although these two paradigms are fairly well elucidated theoretically, the relevant assessment literature is only more recently expanding, especially that focusing directly on adult attachment as opposed to childhood attachment. In addition to a presentation of various projective and objective measures, this review highlights the clinical and research implications for integration of these two paradigms around the cognitive, affective, and behavioral vicissitudes of adult relatedness.

Adult↗

PubMed1987

Ego identity and desperate love.

The relationships between ego-identity consolidation, a romantic attitude toward love, and a desperate style of fusional love relations were examined using several questionnaire measures: Tan, Kendis, Fine, and Porac's (1977) Ego Identity Scale, Sperling's (1985) Desperate Love Scale, and Knox and Sporakowski's (1968) Attitude Toward Love Scale. Results based on an initial undergraduate sample of 84 men and 87 women, and a follow-up sample of 116 men, supported the primary hypothesis of a negative correlation between ego-identity consolidation and desperate love, as well as the secondary hypotheses.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1985

Discriminant measures for desperate love.

Viewing desperate love as marked by urgency, neediness, dependence, a great need for reciprocation, indealization, and affective extremes, personality traits leading to desperate love were examined. A sample of 251 undergraduates, in desperate love, nondesperate love, and random groups, completed several questionnaires examining characteristic qualities of self and important others and attitudes toward love (Desperate Love Scale, Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, Knox-Sporakowski Attitudes Toward Love Scale, Characteristic Qualities Questionnaire). Findings support both the primary hypothesis that people can be differentiated in their experience of desperate love based upon significantly different responses when describing characteristic qualities of self and important others and the secondary hypothesis that those tending toward desperate love have a more romantic attitude toward love. The study can be taken as an indication that latent qualities, as well as manifest behavior, differentiate someone who experiences desperate love.

Journal Article↗