Secure and Insecure Love: An Attachment Perspective

Presenter: Phil Shaver

Length: 90 Minutes

Price: $15

In this Webinar: 

Both clinicians and researchers have noted the importance of close interpersonal relationships for the development of personality, character, and overall well-being. Attachment theory was originally created by a psychoanalytically oriented psychiatrist, John Bowlby, but unlike many psychoanalytic theories, attachment theory has been vigorously researched during the past 35 years.

The earliest research focused on child-parent relationships and their effects on child development and mental health. More recently, researchers have been exploring adolescent and adult attachment, with implications for relationship (e.g., marital) quality and individual well-being (both psychological and physical) mental health.
The theory’s key concepts center on a distinction between fundamental security and insecurity. Researchers have identified some notable (and measurable) patterns of attachment: secure, anxious, and avoidant. There is now good evidence concerning the mental and neural processes underlying these patterns, the relation of the patterns to particular forms of psychopathology and unhappiness, and the potential to intervene to increase a person’s basic sense of security and the success of his or her close relationships with others.

Learning Objectives:
1. Use key concepts from attachment theory and research to understand clients’ strengths and vulnerabilities
2. Distinguish between characteristic defenses and affect-regulation strategies of secure, anxious, and avoidant individuals
3. Recognize relationships between attachment concepts, attachment-related therapeutic strategies, and Buddhist concepts and practices

Continuing Education Information

Optional CEs (3) may be purchased through R. Cassidy Seminars. You can earn your CEs by watching the webinar and completing an accompanying reading assignment. A link to purchase CE Credits will be included in the email containing all your webinar resources. More Info Here

About the Presenter

Phil Shaver Dr. Shaver conducts research in two areas: social relationships and emotions. In the close relationships area he has studied the application of Bowlby and Ainsworth’s attachment theory to research on romantic love and couple communication, relationship loss and grieving, attachment-related mental processes, and applications of attachment theory to leadership and organizations. In the field of emotions, he has used a prototype methodology to map individuals’ and cultures’ cognitive representations of the emotion domain and, with the help of students from other countries, is investigating everyday conceptions of emotions such as love and shame in various cultures. Dr. Shaver, who has served as Executive Officer of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and President of the International Association for Relationship Research has received a Distinguished Career Award and an International Mentoring Award from the latter organization. He is past editor of the Review of Personality and Social Psychology and is a member of the editorial boards of Attachment and Human Development, Emotion, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personal Relationships, and Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. He is co-editor of several books, including Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications; Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Attitudes; Measures of Political Attitudes; Prosocial Motives, Emotions, and Behavior; Human Aggression and Violence; and The Social Psychology of Morality. With Mario Mikulincer, he coauthored a 2007 book about adult attachment research, Patterns of Attachment in Adulthood: Structure, Dynamics, and Change. A list of his publications since 1987 appears on his lab group’s web site: http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/labs/Shaver

Related Articles

Why Is Honesty So Important in a Relationship?

A Powerful Way To Stop Projecting Onto Your Partner

Want a Better Relationship? Work on Collaborative Communication

One Comment

Wanda Nayduk November 2nd, 2022

I am interested in identifying the best assessments to determine an adult attachment style. I have been trying to locate the state adult attachment measure, but have been unable to find the actual measurement tool. Is there something you would recommend instead or do you know where to access the actual?SAAM tool product. Thank you.