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Contents
- Abstract
- Attachment and Social Information Processing: A Theoretical Perspective
- The Core Concept of Internal Working Models
- A Model of Attachment and Social Information Processing
- An information processing approach to defense
- Information processing strategies evident in the Adult Attachment Interview
- Schema-driven social information processing
- A note about generalization
- Summary
- Review of the Empirical Literature
- Attachment and the Processing of Social Information in Childhood
- Attachment and children's attention to social information
- Attachment and children's memory for social information
- Attachment and children's perceptions and attributions
- Attachment and children's secure base scripts
- Attachment, children's theory of mind, and emotional understanding
- Attachment and the Processing of Social Information in Adolescence
- Attachment and adolescents' attention to social information
- Attachment and adolescents' memory for social information
- Attachment and adolescents' perceptions, expectations, and attributions
- Attachment and adolescents' secure base scripts
- Attachment and the Processing of Social Information in Adulthood
- Attachment and adults' attention to social information
- Attachment and adults' memory for social information
- Attachment and adults' perceptions, expectations, and attributions
- Attachment and adults' secure base scripts
- Attachment and the Processing of Social Information Across Generations
- Parents' attachment and children's social information processing
- Parents' attachment and children's memory
- Mothers' attachment and children's emotional understanding
- Children's attachment and parents' social information processing
- Children's attachment and parents' attention
- Adolescents' attachment and parents' memory
- Children's attachment and mothers' secure base scripts
- Infants' attachment and parental mind-mindedness, insightfulness, and reflective functioning
- Conclusions and Future Research Directions
- Social Information Processing as a Function of Information Type and Attachment Quality
- Future Directions
Abstract
Researchers have used J. Bowlby's (1969/1982, 1973, 1980, 1988) attachment theory frequently as a basis for examining whether experiences in close personal relationships relate to the processing of social information across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. We present an integrative life-span–encompassing theoretical model to explain the patterns of results that have emerged from these studies. The central proposition is that individuals who possess secure experience-based internal working models of attachment will process—in a relatively open manner—a broad range of positive and negative attachment-relevant social information. Moreover, secure individuals will draw on their positive attachment-related knowledge to process this information in a positively biased schematic way. In contrast, individuals who possess insecure internal working models of attachment will process attachment-relevant social information...