Bowlby (1973) stated that the attachment relationship between a child and parents might help the child learn many skills important for survival, with a lifelong effect. However, there is a scarcity of research into attachment and intelligence in adulthood. This study examines the relationship between attachment status and cognitive skills in an Italian non-clinical sample of 101 young adults (M age = 22.6 yr.; SD = 1.8). The Adult Attachment Projective Picture Stimuli and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Revised were administered to participants and four-way attachment classifications were analyzed regarding participants' IQ. Statistically significant differences were found for Full Scale IQ and Verbal IQ, with Dismissing participants scoring higher than Unresolved participants. Similar results were obtained for two-way attachment patterns with Resolved participants scoring higher than Unresolved. Implications regarding different attachment patterns and the concept of trauma are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AikinsJ. W.HowesC.HamiltonC. (2009) Attachment stability and the emergence of unresolved representations during adolescence. Attachment and Human Development, 11, 491–512.
2.
AinsworthM. D.BleharM. C.WatersE.WallS. (1978) Patterns of attachment. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
3.
American Psychological Association. (2003) Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American Psychologist, 57, 1060–1073.
4.
Bakermans-KranenburgM. J.Van IJzendoornM. H. (1993) A psychometric study of the Adult Attachment Interview: reliability and discriminant validity. Developmental Psychology, 29, 870–879.
5.
BayleyN. (1993) Bayley Scales of Infant Development. (2nd ed.) San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
6.
BowlbyJ. (1969) Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment. New York, NY: Basic Books.
7.
BowlbyJ. (1973) Attachment and loss: Vol. 2. Separation: anxiety and anger. New York, NY: Basic Books.
8.
BowlbyJ. (1980) Attachment and loss: Vol. 3. Loss, sadness and depression. New York, NY: Basic Books.
9.
BowlbyJ. (1988) A secure base: clinical applications of attachment theory. London, England: Routledge.
10.
BrethertonI. (1985) Attachment theory: retrospect and prospect. In BrethertonI.WatersE. (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50. Pp. 3–37.
11.
BrethertonI.MunhollandK. A. (1999) Internal working models in attachment relationships: a construct revisited. In CassidyJ.ShaverR. S. (Eds.), Handbook of attachment. New York, NY: Guilford. Pp. 89–114.
12.
BrethertonI.MunhollandK. A. (2008) Internal working models in attachment relationships: elaborating a central construct in attachment theory. In CassidyJ.ShaverP. R. (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: theory, research, and clinical applications. (2nd ed.) New York, NY: Guilford Press. Pp. 102–127.
13.
BrethertonI.RidgewayD.CassidyJ. (1990) Assessing internal working models of the attachment relationship: an attachment story completion task for 3-year-olds. In GreenbergM. T.CicchettiD.CummingsE. M. (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years: theory, research, and intervention. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Pp. 273–308.
14.
BuchheimA.ErkS.GeorgeC.KacheleH.RuchsowM.SpitzerM.KircherT.WalterH. (2006) Measuring attachment representation in an fMRI environment: a pilot study. Psychopathology, 39, 144–152.
15.
BuchheimA.GeorgeC.KacheleH.ErkS.WalterH. (2006) Measuring adult attachment representation in an fMRI environment: concepts and assessment. Psychopathology, 39, 136–143.
16.
BuschA. L.LiebermanA. F. (2010) Mothers' adult attachment interview ratings predict preschool children's IQ following domestic violence exposure. Attachment and Human Development, 12, 505–527.
17.
CámaraW. J.NathanJ. S.PuenteA. E. (2000) Psychological test usage: implications in professional psychology. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 31, 141–154.
18.
CohenJ. (1960) A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 37–46.
19.
CohenJ. (1988) Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (2nd ed.) Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
20.
CrandellL. E.FitzgeraldH. E.WhippleE. E. (1997) Dyadic synchrony in parent-child interactions: a link with maternal representations of attachment relationships. Infant Mental Health Journal, 18, 247–264.
21.
CrandellL. E.HobsonR. P. (1999) Individual differences in young children's IQ: a social-developmental perspective. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40, 455–464.
22.
CrowellJ. A.WatersE.TrebouxD.O'ConnorE.Colon-DownsC.FiederO.PosadaG.GolbyB. (1996) Discriminant validity of the Adult Attachment Interview. Child Development, 67, 2584–2599.
23.
DunnL. M.DunnL. M. (1981) Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test–Revised: manual for Forms L and M. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
24.
DykasM. J.CassidyJ. (2011) Attachment and the processing of social information across the life span: theory and evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 137, 19–46.
25.
FleissJ. L. (1981) Statistical methods for rates and proportions. (2nd ed.) New York, NY: John Wiley.
26.
GeorgeC.KaplanN.MainM. (1984/1985/1996) The Adult Attachment Interview. Berkeley, CA: University of California.
27.
GeorgeC.WestM. (2001) The development and preliminary validation of a new measure of adult attachment: The Adult Attachment Projective. Attachment and Human Development, 3, 30–61.
28.
GeorgeC.WestM. (2011) The Adult Attachment Projective Picture System: integrating attachment into clinical assessment. Journal of Personality Assessment, 93, 407–416.
29.
GeorgeC.WestM. (2012) The Adult Attachment Projective Picture System: attachment theory and assessment in adults. New York, NY: Guilford.
30.
HollingsheadA. (1975) Four factor index of social status. Unpublished manuscript. New Haven, CT: Yale University.
31.
LamkeT. A.NelsonM. J. (1973) The Henmon-Nelson Tests of Mental Ability. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
32.
LandisJ. R.KochG. G. (1977) The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33, 159–174.
33.
LiottiG. (2009) Attachment and dissociation. In DellP. F.O'NeilJ. A. (Eds.), Dissociation and the dissociative disorders. DSM–IV and beyond. New York, NY: Routledge. Pp. 53–65.
34.
LisA.MazzeschiC.Di RisoD.SalcuniS. (2011) Attachment, assessment, and psychological intervention: a case sudy of anorexia. Journal of Personality Assessment, 93, 434–444.
35.
LuteijnF.Van der PloegF. A. (1982) Groninger Intelligentie Test. Handleiding [Groniger Intelligence Test. Manual]. Lisse, The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger. [in Dutch]
36.
MainM. (1983) Exploration, play, and cognitive functioning related to infant-mother attachment. Infant Behavior and Development, 6, 167–174.
37.
MainM.KaplanN.CassidyJ. (1985) Security in infancy, childhood, and adulthood: a move to the level of representation. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50, 66–104.
38.
OrsiniA.LaicardiC. (1997) WAIS–R. Contributo alla taratura italiana [WAIS-R. Italian validation]. Firenze, Italy: Giunti O.S. Organizzazioni Speciali.
39.
PaulhausD. L. (1998) The Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding. Toronto, Canada: Multi-Health Systems.
40.
PiagetJ. (1954) The child's construction of reality. New York, NY: Basic Books.
41.
RavenJ. C. (1958) Standard progressive matrices: sets A, B, C, D and E. London, England: Lewis.
42.
SchrootsJ. J. (1979) Leinden Diagnostic Test. Part 5. Cognitive development and school achievement. Lisse, The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger. [in Dutch].
43.
SnyderP.LawsonS. (1993) Evaluating results using corrected and uncorrected effect size estimates. Journal of Experimental Education, 61, 334–349.
44.
SpiekerS. J.NelsonD. C.PetrasA.JolleyS. N.BernardK. E. (2003) Joint influence of child care and infant attachment security for cognitive and language outcomes of low income toddlers. Infant Behavior and Development, 26, 326–344.
45.
SroufeL. A. (2006) Attachment and development: a prospective, longitudinal study from birth to adulthood. Attachment and Human Development, 7, 349–367.
46.
SroufeL. A.EgelandB.CarlsonE.CollinsW. A. (2005) The development of the person: the Minnesota Study of Risk and Adaptation from Birth to Adulthood. New York, NY: Guilford.
47.
StevensJ. C. (1992) Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
48.
StievenartM.RoskamI.MeunierJ. C.Van de MoorteleG. (2011) The reciprocal relation between children's attachment representations and their cognitive ability. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 35, 58–66.
49.
ThorndikeR. L.HagenE. P.SattlerJ. M. (1986) The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. Chicago, IL: The Riverside Publishing Company.
50.
Van IJzendoornM. H. (1995) Adult attachment representations, parental responsiveness, and infant attachment: a meta-analysis on the predictive validity of the Adult Attachment Interview. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 387–403.
51.
Van IJzendoornM. H.Bakermans-KranenburgM. J. (2010) Invariance of adult attachment across gender, age, culture, and socioeconomic status?Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27, 200–208.
52.
Van IJzendoornM. H.DijkstraJ.BusA. G. (1995) Attachment, intelligence, and language: a meta-analysis. Social Development, 4, 115–128.
53.
Van IJzendoornM. H.Van Vliet-VisserS. (1988) The relationship between quality of attachment in infancy and IQ in kindergarten. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 149, 23–28.
54.
WatersE.WippmanJ.SroufeL. A. (1979) Attachment, positive affect, and competence in the peer group: two studies in construct validation. Child Development, 50, 821–829.
55.
WebsterL.HackettR. K.JoubertD. (2009) The association of unresolved attachment status and cognitive processes in maltreated adolescents. Child Abuse Review, 18, 6–23.
56.
WechslerD. (1981) Manual for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Revised. New York: The Psychological Corporation.
57.
WechslerD. (1989) Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence–Revised manual. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
58.
WechslerD. (1997) WAIS–III administration and scoring manual. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
59.
WechslerD. (2002) The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Third Edition, (WPPSI–III). San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
60.
WestM.GeorgeC. (2002) Attachment and dysthymia: the contributions of preoccupied attachment and agency of self to depression in women. Attachment and Human Development, 4, 278–293.
61.
WestenD.NakashO.ThomasC.BradleyR. (2006) Clinical assessment of attachment patterns and personality disorder in adolescents and adults. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 1065–1085.
