• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.297-309
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to deeply analyze the psychological influence of anxious attachment and projective identification on extramarital behavior. By systematically collecting and analyzing literature reviews, we explored how anxious attachment and projective identification are connected to extramarital behavior, strengthened the theoretical background, and suggested the possibility of application in counseling and treatment processes. We analyzed the possibility and pattern of extramarital behavior according to anxious attachment types (anxious, avoidant, and mixed types), and investigated whether projective identification plays an important role in justifying extramarital behavior and worsening relationships. The anxious attachment type tends to find stability in oneself through extramarital behavior due to the fear of being abandoned by the partner, while the avoidant attachment type tends to avoid emotional intimacy and maintain independence, and tends to distance oneself from the relationship through extramarital behavior. Mixed attachment is a state of mixed anxiety and avoidance, and tends to relieve extreme emotional changes through extramarital behavior. In addition, projective identification functions as a psychological mechanism that projects one's negative emotions and anxiety onto the other person and shifts responsibility for extramarital behavior to the other person. Through this, infidelity became a means to protect or justify oneself, which resulted in worsening the relationship. This study shows that anxious attachment and projective identification are important psychological backgrounds of infidelity, and it provides important implications for the development of counseling and treatment programs. It can be used as basic data for promoting individual psychological health and forming healthy relationships.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.22-33
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• 1997

The objective of this study is to understand disordered parent-child relationships of Reactive Attachment Disorder(RAD) systematically through the mother’ internal working model of child. In this study, RAD mothers’internal representations of the child were compared with mothers’of control group and association between mothers’ representation classifications and children’ attachment classifications was examined. Also individual differences in mother-child interaction by mothers’representation classifications was observed. The subjects of this study were 40 2-5 year-old children and their mothers, 20 attachment disordered dyads and 20 normal dyads of control group. Mothers were interviewed using the Working Model of the Child(Zeanah, Benoit & Barton 1986) to classify internal representations of child. Children’ attachment patterns were assessed by the Strange Situation Procedure. For observation of motherchild interaction, Each dyad was seen in DPICS devised by Eyberg and Robinson(1983). The results of the study were as follows：1) Among RAD group, 55% of mothers were classified as disengaged and 45% classified as distorted, while all mothers of control group were classified as balanced. In rating scales, there were significant differences in all 3 representation classifications in Intensity of involvement and Coherence. In Intensity of involvement disengaged representations had the lowest score and distorted representations had the lowest score in Coherence. 2) Mothers’representation classifications were related to children’ attachment classifications. All mothers of control group whose children were classified as secure were classified as balanced. Among RAD’ mothers, by contrast, 82% of mothers classified as disengaged had children classified as anxious-avoidant, 56% of mothers classified as distorted had children classified as disorganized / disoriented and 33% of mothers classified as distorted had children classified as anxious-resistant. 3) There were individual differences in mother-child interactions by mothers’representation classifications. In the child-centered play, mothers classified as disengaged used discriptive statement, reflective statement and discriptive-reflective question less than balanced mothers. Mothers classified as distorted used direct command and indirect command more than balanced mothers. In the clean-up task, mothers classified as disengaged and distorted used direct command and indirect command more than balanced mothers. The results of this study suggest that parents’working model of the child is an important factor to understand parent-child attachment relationships and their interactions. The understanding of parents’ working model of the child is thought to enrich our understanding of disordered parent-child relationships and to provide useful informations for specific and successful treatments.