The Relationship Among Attachment Representation, Emotion-Abstraction Patterns, and Narrative Style: A Computer-Based Text Analysis of the Adult Attachment Interview

Abstract

The main aim of this research was to test the discriminant capacity of computer-based, linguistic text measures which are economically compilable (Emotion-Abstraction Patterns, Mergenthaler, 1996; Computerized Referential Activity, Mergenthaler & Bucci, 1999) in differentiating between complex attachment representations in the Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1994). The study of N = 40 healthy controls produced the consistent result that, of the two insecure attachment categories, the group ‘dismissing’ (n = 10) showed the lowest means on all text measures, whereas the group ‘preoccupied’ (n = 10) showed the highest means. The mean of the attachment group ‘secure’ (n = 20) lay between these groups. This ranking is consistent with the results of studies which had another research focus, showing deactivation or hyperactivation of attachment-relevant information in both insecure attachment groups, as well as flexibility in the ‘secure’ group. We also discuss whether the coincidence of language markers for emotion and abstraction, as well as Computerized Referential Activity, is adequate to operationalize the construct of coherence in narrative style.