Researching relationships from an attachment perspective: The use of behavioural, interview, self-report and projective measures

Having demonstrated its credentials as one of the more elegant and robust conceptualisations of human relationships, attachment theory has considerable relevance to social work. Attachment-based research has flourished over the past few years and it now includes an impressive array of studies across the lifespan. This article considers four different measures used in attachment-based research, although more discussion is devoted to interview and projective measures because they specifically embrace a psychodynamic approach in their design and analytic focus. The aim of the article is to provide a brief overview of each measure and to offer some illustrative examples using practice-related material.