An Evolutionary and Developmental Science Framework for Integrating
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An Evolutionary and Developmental Science Framework for Integrating Attachment, Mentalization, and Mindfulness: Implications for Religious Practice and Moral Development By Andrew Kent Kreiselmaier Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Religion May, 2017 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Volney P. Gay, Ph.D. Jacobus J. Hamman, Ph.D. Keith G. Meador, M.D. Sohee Park, Ph.D. Copyright © 2017 by Andrew Kent Kreiselmaier All Rights Reserved ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are several persons and groups I would like to acknowledge and thank from the bottom of my heart. Without their help and support, this dissertation would not have been possible. To Dr. Volney Gay – thank you very much for all of your support, help, guidance, mentorship, and direction. Without this support, I would not have been able to finish this dissertation. My interest in most of these topics all started back in your “Post-Freudian Theory” class in my first semester in 2008, when you assigned Peter Fonagy’s Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis (2001). Through copy-editing your books, monographs, and projects over the years and through co-writing our chapter (2016) together, I have also indelibly absorbed your interdisciplinary and multileveled way of thinking about the relations between religion, science, and the humanities. Many, many thanks to you. To Dr. Sohee Park – many thanks to you for your constructive advice and critiques and your guidance in all things psychological. Your schizophrenia class many years ago was instrumental in shaping my thoughts on the value of interdisciplinary projects in psychology and the neurosciences. It has also been quite heartening and hopeful to meet and know such a genuinely nice and generative person in academia! Many thanks to you. To the rest of the dissertation committee members – thank you to Dr. Jaco Hamman and Dr. Keith Meador for agreeing to serve on the committee, and for your feedback, advice, and constructive critiques. Several long talks with Dr. Meador in his office also shaped my thinking iii about the value of religious groups and moral communities in today’s world. Thank you to Dr. Hamman for chairing the committee, as well. To my family – thank you very much for your support, encouragement, love, and prayers: my parents, Kurt and Cynthia Kreiselmaier; my brothers, Brian and Paul Kreielmaier; my sister- in-law, Elizabeth Kreiselmaier; and my nephew, Brent Kreiselmaier. I would have never finished the dissertation without your support, as well. I love you all. To the Rosser family – I thank you also for your support, encouragement, and love during the last eight years: especially Laura, and also Mark, Robin, Paul, and Danielle, plus the entire extended family of grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and nephews and nieces. To all my friends – many thank you for the support and encouragement of all my friends in Wichita Falls, Fort Worth, Denver, and Nashville. I want to especially thank Dr. John Waide, for your support, guidance, and analytic insight over the last eight years; Joe Strausbaugh, for your steadfast friendship and support during the vicissitudes of life; and the Saturday morning centering prayer group at Cathedral of the Incarnation, for your support and care, even when I failed to show up for months and years at a time! iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................... iii LIST OF FIGURES.........................................................................................................................x Chapter Introduction......................................................................................................................................1 Statement of the Problem: Puzzles in the Psychotherapeutic Outcome Literature..................3 Attachment and Mentalization.................................................................................................6 Attachment, Mentalization, and Mindfulness in Human Evolution and Development...........9 Attachment and Religion........................................................................................................10 Attachment and Moral Development.....................................................................................13 Brief Historical Survey of Psychological, Psychoanalytic, and Pastoral Theological Investigations of Buddhist Meditation...................................................................................14 Critiques of Psychological and Psychoanalytic Approaches to Religion...............................18 Recent Innovations in Evolutionary Theory and Developmental Science.............................20 The Need for Evolutionary and Developmental Science Models in Buddhist Studies.........24 I. John Bowlby and Attachment Theory..........................................................................................26 Introduction to Attachment Theory.......................................................................................27 John Bowlby and the Origins of Attachment Theory............................................................28 Bowlby’s “Classical” Attachment Theory............................................................................31 Evolution and the Attachment Behavioral System.........................................................32 Attachment Figure as Safe Haven and Secure Base.......................................................33 Interactions between Attachment and Other Behavioral Systems........................................34 Internal Working Models......................................................................................................36 Secure and Insecure Attachment Styles................................................................................39 Ainsworth’s Research on Infant Attachment Classifications................................................41 Strange Situation Attachment Classifications.................................................................42 Strange Situation Empirical Data....................................................................................45 Main’s Research on Adult Attachment Functioning.............................................................46 Mary Main and the Adult Attachment Interview............................................................47 AAI Classifications..........................................................................................................50 AAI Empirical Data.........................................................................................................57 The AAI and Intergenerational Transmission of Attachment...............................................58 AAI Metacognitive Monitoring and Mentalization...............................................................59 The Stability of Attachment Styles Throughout the Lifespan...............................................60 v II. Attachment Styles and Neurobiology........................................................................................64 Introduction to Attachment Styles.........................................................................................65 Secure Attachment Styles in Childhood and Adulthood......................................................67 Internal Dynamics and IWMs of Secure Attachment.....................................................68 Research on Positive Lifespan Outcomes of Secure Attachment...................................70 Research on Mental Health Outcomes............................................................................72 Clinical Vignette.............................................................................................................72 Introduction to Insecure Attachment Styles..........................................................................74 The Anxious Attachment Style in Childhood and Adulthood..............................................75 Internal Dynamics, IWMs, and Defenses of Anxious Attachment.................................76 Research on Impaired Life Outcomes of Anxious Attachment.......................................77 Research on Mental Health Outcomes............................................................................79 Clinical Vignette..............................................................................................................80 Avoidant Attachment Styles in Childhood and Adulthood……………...............................81 Internal Dynamics, IWMs, and Defenses of Avoidant Styles.........................................82 Research on Impaired Life Outcomes of Avoidant Attachment.....................................84 Research on Mental Health Outcomes............................................................................85 Clinical Vignette.............................................................................................................86 Disorganized or Fearful Avoidant Attachment Styles...........................................................87 Internal Dynamics, IWMs, and the Break Down of Defenses........................................88 Research on Impaired Life Outcomes of Disorganized Attachment...............................89 Disorganized Attachment and Psychopathology.............................................................91 Clinical Vignette..............................................................................................................92