Assignment: Adult Attachment

Assignment: Adult Attachment

Take a moment to reflect on your friendships. Think about who you consider to be your oldest friend and who might be your closest. Are they the same person? Why or why not?

While some individuals maintain the same friendships throughout their lifespans, others adapt their circles of friends as their interests, careers, and values change. As you reflect on your past and current friendships, how might your friendships and attachments to others compare?

In this Assignment, you will take Fraley’s Adult Attachment Survey ( http://www.web-research-design.net/cgi-bin/crq/crq.pl ) to determine your personal attachment pattern. You will then consider how issues related to attachment have impacted your peer and romantic relationships, career choices, and current identity.

Complete a 2- to 3-page paper in which you do the following:

• Briefly summarize your personal patterns of attachment
• Identify your overall score and the corresponding attachment category
• Explain whether you think your results are accurate and why
• Explain how your attachment (either perceived or as identified in the Adult Attachment Survey) has shaped your development as an adult
• Justify your response with specific references to this week’s Learning Resources and the current literature

Required Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Readings

• REQUIRED – Broderick, P. C., & Blewitt, P. (2015). The life span: Human development for helping professionals (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
  • Chapter 11, “Physical and Cognitive Development in Young Adulthood” (pp. 408-437)
  • Chapter 12, “Socioemotional and Vocational Development in Young Adulthood” (pp. 438-476)
• ADDITIONAL – Arnett, J. J. (2007). Suffering, selfish, slackers? Myths and reality about emerging adults. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 36(1), 23–29.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Benson, J. E., Johnson, M. K., & Elder, G. H., Jr. (2012). The implications of adult identity for educational and work attainment in young adulthood. Developmental Psychology, 48(6), 1752–1758.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Brandell, J. R. (2010). Contemporary psychoanalytic perspectives on attachment. Psychoanalytic Social Work, 17(2), 132–157.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• McAdams, D. P., Bauer, J. J., Sakaeda, A. R., Anyidoho, N. A., Machado, M. A., Magrino-Failla, K., … Pals, J. L. (2006). Continuity and change in the life story: A longitudinal study of autobiographical memories in emerging adulthood. Journal of Personality, 74(5), 1371–1400.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• O’Connor, M., Sanson, A., Hawkins, M. T., Letcher, P., Toumbourou, J., Smart, D., … Olsson, C. (2011). Predictors of positive development in emerging adulthood. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 40(7),860–874.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Robinson, O. C., & Smith, J. A. (2010). The stormy search for self in early adulthood: Developmental crisis and the dissolution of dysfunctional personae. The Humanistic Psychologist, 38(2), 120–145.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Rodriguez, P. D., & Ritchie, K. L. (2009). Relationship between coping styles and adult attachment styles. Journal of the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences, 13, 131–141.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Smits, I., Doumen, S., Luyckx, K., Duriez, B., & Goossens, L. (2011). Identity styles and interpersonal behavior in emerging adulthood: The intervening role of empathy. Social Development, 20(4), 664–684.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Specht, J., Egloff, B., & Schmukle, S. C. (2011). Stability and change of personality across the life course: The impact of age and major life events on mean-level and rank-order stability of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(4), 862–882.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Fraley, R. C. (n.d.). Attachment style. Retrieved March 10, 2013 from http://www.web-research-design.net/cgi-bin/crq/crq.pl

Assignment: Adult Attachment

Media

• Laureate Education (Producer). (2013m). Young adulthood [Video file]. Retrieved from CDN Files Database. (COUN 6215/COUN 8215/HUMN 8215)This media piece highlights the family member aged 19–29.Note: Please click on the following link for the transcript: Transcript (PDF).
• Laureate Education (Producer). (2013f). Perspectives: Emerging adulthood [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Week 8 Learning Resources

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.