Explorative Research On Adult Attachment And Its Influence Upon Depression

This dissertation aims at exploring adult attachment and its influence upon depression from a developmental viewpoint and in the Chinese context. 266 adults as non-clinical sample and 58 out-patient depressives as clinical sample were included. The major purposes of this research include: 1. To explore the relation between adult attachment style and depression, including the relation between self/other working models and depression level. 2. To explore the relation between two depressive personalities by Blatt and adult attachment. 3. To explore the mechanism by which attachment contributes to an individual's depression.The major findings were as below:1. Adult attachment is actually related to depression, with fearful attachment and preoccupied attachment positively related to depression level, secure attachment negatively related to depression level, while avoidant attachment unrelated to depression.2. Internal working model can help us understand how attachment contributes to depression in adulthood. Negative working model of self is an important factor for depression.3. Preoccupied attachment corresponds to dependent depressive personality, while fearful attachment corresponds to self-critical depressive personality, which offers us another way to understand the path by which attachment contributes to depression.Also, comparisons of attachment objects and attachment dimensions amongdifferent adulthood periods and genders were also made, and some developmental rules of adult attachment were discussed.