Topic Variability and Linguistic Convergence in Marital Couples' Speech as Related to Specific Attachment Style

Links between mental working models, attachment style, and linguistic strategies were analyzed in the present research, which focused on linguistic choices made by marital couples. Eight couples (16 Italian subjects, M age = 49.1, SD = 0.4) with drug-addicted sons and undergoing systemic therapeutic treatment were recruited. Conversational transcripts were coded by two judges. The research analyzed (a) the definition of a topics map derived from the Adult Attachment Interview, using the discursive level of the topic; (b) the systemic-functional analysis of the topics, through both the micro- and macro-unit levels and the lexical/semantic indexes of the discourse; (c) the within-couple convergence in terms of linguistic moves, and, more generally, of their cognitive strategies. Specifically, a hierarchical model of the topic organization was used to explain the recursivity of the thematic choices made by the participants. Secondly, the characterization of the topics in terms of their cognitive/emotive values (high/low “critical” topics) was explained, especially through some “linguistic markers” as disfluency or lexical/semantic indexes (i.e., linguistic variety and completeness indexes). Third, it was found that different and specific linguistic strategies were adopted by the couples in order to reiterate their internal working models. The high convergence of linguistic patterns inside the marital couple was discussed as representative of “dysfunctional” working models, from both the communicative and relational points of view.