Adult Attachment 101
According to the book, what is the most common adult attachment style, making up just over 50% of the population?
What is the secure attachment style?
What is the term for the biological mechanism in the brain that compels us to seek and maintain closeness with a partner?
What is the attachment system?
This attachment style is described by a person who craves intimacy, is often preoccupied with their relationships, and tends to worry about their partner's feelings for them.
What is the anxious attachment style?
According to the dependency paradox, the more effectively we can depend on our partner, the more we feel this.
What is independent and daring?
The book suggests that understanding one's own and one's partner's attachment style can lead to what two relationship outcomes?
What is Less conflict and more harmony?
What is the belief, debunked by modern attachment theory, that Levine and Heller state many people have been taught about love conquering all?
What is the notion that a love for one's partner can overcome all issues, including a partner's fear of commitment?
This concept is defined as a partner who provides a supportive, reliable presence that allows another to go out and explore the world with confidence.
What is a secure base?
A person with this attachment style is likely to equate intimacy with a loss of independence and will constantly try to minimize closeness in a relationship.
What is the avoidant attachment style?
For therapists, understanding the dependency paradox is key to reframing a client's clinging or demanding behavior not as codependent, but as a healthy, albeit dysregulated, manifestation of this.
What is an attachment need?
This therapeutic approach was used by Dr. Levine in a therapeutic nursery to reinforce bonds between mothers and children.
What is Attachment-guided therapy?
What are the three primary adult attachment styles discussed in the book?
What are secure, anxious, and avoidant?
What did Levine observe while working in a therapeutic nursery at Columbia University that led him to draw parallels between child and adult attachment?
What is that adults show patterns of attachment to their romantic partners similar to the patterns of attachment of children with their parents.
Instead of blaming Tamara for her relationship's troubles, Levine and Heller viewed her behavior as the manifestation of her what?
What is Attachment style.
The strange situation test found that...?
What is the effect of a child's exploration being supported by their parent's presence?
Unlike other relationship interventions that focus on singles or on existing couples, adult attachment is an overarching theory... That allows for the development of useful applications for people in
What is in all stages of their romantic life?
What is the fourth, less common attachment style, making up about 3–5% of the population?
What is the disorganized attachment style?
For which attachment type does the attachment system become most easily and intensely activated, even by minor threats to a relationship?
What is Anxious attachment style.
Avoidant people equate intimacy with this?
What is a loss of independence and constantly try minimize closeness?
What are the negative effects on an individual's well-being when their attachment needs are not met by their partner?
What are emotional distress, thwarted goals, and even negative health effects?
By using the attachment framework, therapists can help partners identify these, which are often created by the interaction of different attachment styles.
What are maladaptive or dysfunctional cycles?
What pioneers of early attachment theory with infants are referenced by Levine and Heller to demonstrate how attachment bonds formed in childhood parallel those in adult relationships?
Who are John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth?
What happens to the nervous system, as evidenced by studies on physical contact, when a person has a supportive attachment figure nearby during a stressful event?
What is the calming of the nervous system?
The book contrasts the coping strategies of anxious and avoidant types by stating that while anxious and secure types embrace their need for connection, avoidants tend to do this.
What is suppress their attachment needs?
What do Levine and Heller suggest is the first step toward true independence and happiness, based on the dependency paradox?
What is finding the right person to depend on?
According to the book, what benefit can identifying a client's attachment style have for both the therapist and the client?
What is providing a framework for understanding and addressing the client's relationship dynamics in a clear, non-pathologizing way?