LE3 .A278 2012

2012

Symons, Doug

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Psychology

Psychology

Previous studies have shown significant correlations between parents’ use of mental state (MS) language, elaborative discourse and children’s social understanding. Furthermore, parental language also predicts children’s attachment orientation, an important predictor of child developmental outcomes. Little is known, however, about adult MS language, so the present study examined adult attachment orientation and its relation to language use with an unknown social partner. Adult romantic attachment was measured using the self-report ECR-R, and participants were asked to complete a joint reading task and discussion with a child-surrogate doll. Transcripts from this reading about health events were coded for MS language during the book reading and for elaborative discourse after the book had ended. Additionally, participants’ physical expressiveness during the book reading was coded. There were no significant correlations with attachment measures. These results show that attachment may not be a significant correlate of talk about thoughts and feelings when social partners have no previously shared experiences. Keywords: mental state language, elaborative discourse, adult attachment

The author retains copyright in this thesis. Any substantial copying or any other actions that exceed fair dealing or other exceptions in the Copyright Act require the permission of the author.

https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:876