Date

2007

Author

Anafarta, Meltem

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Attachment theory which emphasizes the importance of the mother infant bond and its’ crucial role in determining multiple cognitive, emotional, and behavioral factors later in life, is gaining popularity in all domains of psychology. However, both in terms of conceptualization and methods of assessment, there is no consensus among the domains and this debate encourages researchers to develop new assessment methods to resolve the issue. The current study focused on the Turkish adaptation of the most recently developed unobtrusive measure of attachment: The Knowledge of Secure Base Script-Prompt Word Outline Method (KSBS) which aims to assess the degree of knowledge about the secure base script. For this purpose, four different studies were conducted each of which assesses the reliability and the validity of KSBS with varying samples and certain premises of the attachment theory were tested to validate KSBS. Accordingly, internal consistency, test-retest reliability and interrater reliability of KSBS was established. Addittionally, discriminant validity of KSBS was established presenting no relation with intelligence and certain socio-demographic variables as gender, age, education, and marital status. Also, consistent with the premises of the attachment theory, results revealed that among surgery patients the ones with lower KSBS score would display more state anxiety after the surgery than the ones with higher KSBS score. Similarly, psychiatric patients were shown to have considerably lower KSBS score than a control group with no psychiatric history. Lastly, the present study found that KSBS is correlated with perceived social support and coping strategies. Specifically, positive correlation was found between KSBS and perceived social support from friends, family, and significant others, and problem solving coping. Negative correlation was found between the helplessness and KSBS score. The expected and unexpected results of the study were discussed within the relevant literature, shortcomings of the current study, clinical implications and suggestions for future research were proposed.

Subject Keywords

Anxiety., Applied Psychology, Psychology Phd thesis

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12608864/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/17284

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis