The relationships between adult attachment, theoretical orientation, and therapist-reported alliance quality among licensed psychologists.

OBJECTIVE

Attachment anxiety has been depicted as an undesirable therapist characteristic based on findings that preoccupied therapists, relative to those with other attachment styles, report more ruptures in the therapeutic alliance. What has not been considered, however, is the extent to which attachment dynamics are related to theoretical orientations and how attachment styles and theoretical orientations combine to predict therapists' perceptions of the quality of their alliances.

METHOD

The present surveyed 290 licensed psychologists nationally.

RESULTS

Results revealed that even within a sample of primarily secure psychologists, higher 15 levels of attachment anxiety correlated positively with the endorsement of psychodynamic orientations, and negatively with the endorsement of cognitive-behavioral orientations and self-reported alliance quality. Endorsement of cognitive-behavioral orientations, in turn, correlated positively with therapist-reported alliance quality.

CONCLUSION

The results are discussed in terms of the extent to which attachment dimensions should be considered in therapists' understandings of their therapeutic alliances.