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Indications of attachment security in

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Donna Kaiser
The Arts in Psychotherapy

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PI1 SO197-4556(96)00003-Z
INDICATIONS OF ATTACHMENT
DONNA H. KAISER,
Drawing tasks for diagnosis and screening can
prove to be valuable instruments for art therapists.
From its inception, the profession of art therapy has
devised assessment and treatment interventions based
on a client’s spontaneous visual expressions projected
in their imagery (Naumberg, 1958). Neale and Rosal
(1993) emphasized the importance of developing and
researching innovative projective drawing techniques
to address various problems of the populations treated
by art therapists. The artistic manifestations of a cli-
ent’s developmental level, use of various defense
mechanisms, underlying emotional issues and percep-
tion of the self in relation to others have supplied a
rich source of therapeutic material yielding diagnostic
information useful in developing treatment goals.
This material often emerges more clearly in imagery
than in verbalization, and the concrete form of the art
expression provides material open to exploration and
development of insight. It also provides a mode of
symbolic communication that facilitates the develop-
ment of rapport between client and therapist.
Art therapy was originally used by those with a
psychoanalytic orientation and has served therapists
with varied theoretical orientations since the early
days of the profession. Drawing on attachment theory,
this therapist proposed that the depiction of a bird’s
nest would have the potential to elicit graphic indica-
tors of secure or insecure attachment style in women.
Furthermore, it was anticipated that the Bird’s Nest
Drawing (BND) would prove beneficial in providing
more emotional distance than the family drawing. In
the experience of this therapist, it has also proved
useful in tapping underlying emotional issues espe-
cially as they involve internalizations of a person’s
*Donna Kaiser is an art therapist who works as a Family Advocate
The Arts in Psychotherapy, Vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 333-340, 1996
Copyright 0 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd
Printed in the USA. All rights reserved
0197.4556/96 $15.00 + .@I
SECURITY IN A DRAWING TASK
MS*
expectations of how to relate to family members and
intimate partners. The depiction of a bird’s nest, ini-
tially perceived as an innocuous task by most people,
often yields rich associations about the contents of the
nest, the physical nature of the nest form, the absence
or presence of nurturing figures and the fate of the
eggs or baby birds drawn or omitted.
Attachment theory has provided a foundation for
valuable research and the development of assessment
measures of an individual’s attachment system. The
theoretical concept of an unconscious internal work-
ing model of secure or insecure attachment lends itself
to the modality of art therapy where it may be mani-
fested symbolically in imagery. The resulting expres-
sion can then provide a framework for the therapist
and client to explore past experiences as they impact
current attachment patterns. In this process, additional
art therapy interventions can be used to assist the
client to acknowledge, explore, understand and ulti-
mately rework insecure attachment patterns.
Attachment Theory
Attachment theory provides a useful perspective
for understanding both healthy and disturbed relation-
ship patterns. Bowlby (1979) observed the detrimen-
tal effects attending the separation of young children
from their mothers and delineated the concepts of
secure and insecure attachment organization. He con-
cluded that a child’s strong or secure attachment
provided the basis for healthy emotional and social
development during later childhood and even into
adulthood. Working from a psychoanalytic frame of
reference, he incorporated an evolutionary-etho-
with Lutheran Family Services in Newport News, Virginia
333
334 DONNA H. KAISER
logical approach to explain human infant behavior
and the development of subsequent relationship pat-
terns. Bowlby’s ethological approach viewed the de-
velopment of attachment behavioral systems and their
corresponding internal working models as necessary
for the survival of a species via the proximity and
protection of the primary caretaker.
Bowlby formulated attachment theory and pub-
lished the first volume of his trilogy, Attachment and
Loss, in 1969. Subsequently, research incorporating
attachment was launched when Mary Ainsworth de-
vised the Strange Situation to assess attachment in
young children (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters & Wall,
1978). Research in child development indicates that
attachment organization determines behavior and is
significant for a number of reasons. Attachment pat-
terns formed in early life persist and determine an
individual’s subsequent relationship patterns with
peers, with significant others and with one’s own chil-
dren (Bowlby, 1979). Insecure attachment has been
associated with a wide range of difficulties in a child’s
development (Sroufe, 1988; Weber, Meloy & Ga-
cone, 1992). Recent findings on adult attachment
styles also suggest that an internal organization of
insecure attachment leads to interpersonal problems
of varying kinds (Hazan & Shaver, 1987). Sroufe
(1988) stated that insecurity of attachment does not
cause later social problems, but probably makes it
more likely that a developmental context is created for
the emergence of unfavorable outcomes.
A rich body of research assessing attachment in
children has evolved over the past two decades. This
research has expanded to include assessment of at-
tachment patterns and organization in older children,
adolescents and adults, and provides a conceptual
framework contributing to the understanding of opti-
mal development throughout the lifespan. In addition,
attachment relationships are being studied as they re-
late to other relationships through life and to the de-
velopment of risk for psychopathology.
Family therapists are beginning to examine attach-
ment styles in couples counseling. Shaver and Hazan
(1988) conceptualized the love relationship as the in-
tense emotional attachment that adults experience in
the intimate bond. Pistole (1994) utilized attachment
theory with couples engaged in closeness-distance
struggles as “. the starting point of the couples’
relational system and the foundation for other
processes or patterns such as communication and
intimacy” (p. 156).
The Association for Treatment and Training in the
Attachment of Children (ATTACh) describes attach-
ment disorders in terms of an individual’s difficulty
with establishing loving, lasting, intimate relation-
ships. Those who are attachment disordered may ex-
perience difficulty giving and receiving affection, be
unable to trust and, in extreme cases, may fail to
develop a conscience. This organization advocates
public education and awareness of attachment issues
as they impact children, families and society.
Art therapists have not used the paradigm of at-
tachment in their assessments although one clinical
report discussed the use of art therapy to facilitate
attachment in pregnant women who have had previ-
ous miscarriages (Swan-Foster, 1989). Family draw-
ings have been used by art therapists to assess family
dynamics and the individual’s perception of the fam-
ily constellation and interpersonal conflict for many
years (Kwiatkowska, 1978). It has been observed that
the family drawing is one of the most anxiety-
provoking of art therapy assessment tasks and often
evokes a more defensive response than tasks which
provide greater emotional distance (Kwiatkowska,
1978). This study proposed that an individual’s de-
piction of a bird’s nest may tap unconscious psychic
representations of early caregiving experiences that
contribute to secure or insecure attachment patterns.
As a symbol, the nest has both affective and cog-
nitive dimensions. Edinger (1972) discussed the nest
as a symbol of the maternal and the protective in its
containing function and womblike form. Naumann
(1955) also noted the symbolic nature of the nest in its
protecting and containing aspects. In addition, a nest
is generally supported in a protective manner, usually
in the crook of a tree’s limb. The tree is often viewed
as a maternal symbol of nurturance (Matthews, 1986)
and, if included in the Bird’s Nest Drawing, another
dimension of caregiving is represented. Naumann
(1955) noted that the New Year’s festival in Egypt is
called the “day of the child in the nest” (p. 245).
Often young children spontaneously draw a bird’s
nest and, in this author’s experience, it is generally
viewed as an innocent and non-threatening directive.
For the purpose of this investigation, the BND was
conceived as a directive that has potential to visually
portray an individual’s unconscious internalized rep-
resentation of attachment.
Method
Nature of Sample
The subjects in this study were 41 women, aged
21-38, from a university day care center. Attachment
 ATTACHMENT SECURITY
research has shown that secure attachment organiza-
tion is generally found in 60% of the population and
that the remaining 40% would be insecurely attached,
either insecure-avoidant or insecure-ambivalent
(Campos, Barrett, Lamb, Goldsmith & Sternberg,
1983). Therefore, it was considered likely that there
would be enough subjects in each attachment category
to obtain correlation,
Assessment Procedures
The subjects were seen individually at the day care
center. Each subject was provided a sheet of 8i/2” x 11”
white paper, a #2 pencil with eraser, a pack of 8
colored thin-line markers and was asked to “draw a
bird’s nest.” After completing the drawing, the sub-
ject completed a 25item self-inventory, the Attach-
ment to Mother (ATM) scale of the Inventory of Par-
ent and Peer Attachment (Armsden & Greenberg,
1987). (The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment
includes three scales, Attachment to Mother, Attach-
ment to Father and Attachment to Peers.) The subjects
were then asked to complete a second questionnaire
giving basic demographic data, including age, marital
status, number of children, educational level, income
level and religious preference.
The ATM scale has established high reliability and
validity in previous studies. Reliability for the ATM
in a three-week test-retest for a sample of college
students was .93 (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987). Va-
lidity for the Parent Attachment scale (Mother and
Father scales) has been established by a correlation
with several other scales including the Family and
Social Self scores from the Tennessee Self-Concept
Scale (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987), the FACES (in-
cluding degree of positive family coping) (Lewis,
Woods & Ellison, 1987) with non-delinquency (Re-
dondo, Martin, Fernandez & Lopez, 1986) and with
adolescents’ self-reports of less conflict between par-
ents and less experience of loneliness (Armsden,
1986).
The Attachment to Mother scale contains 25 items
designed to measure communication, trust and alien-
ation, presumed components of an individual’s attach-
ment system. In this inventory, subjects indicate the
degree to which each of the statements is true. An
overall score is computed with high scores indicating
more secure attachment and low scores indicating less
secure attachment. In a study using the IPPA, Swinth
(199 1) reported that type of attachment as determined
by the ATM scale was closely related to other attach-
ment measures. There was not as strong an associa-
IN A DRAWING TASK zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYX
335
tion with Attachment to Father. This suggests that
Bretherton’s (1985) belief that an individual’s inter-
nalized representation of attachment is based on ex-
periences with one primary caregiver may be valid.
The instrument developed to rate the drawings col-
lected for this study was the Attachment Rating Scale
(ARS). This checklist provided the raters with a list of
specific characteristics to identify in each drawing. A
total of nine hypothesized indicators of attachment
were included in the original ARS. The first four
items relate to the containing function of the nest:
whether the nest has contents, whether the nest is
supported by a tree, whether the nest has a bottom and
whether the nest is untilted so that any contents would
not fall out. The remaining five items relate to the use
of space, color, line quality, placement and size of the
nest, formal elements that have been associated with
mental health or pathology (Jolles, 1964).
According to the scores on the ATM scale, subjects
were placed into one of two categories, either a more
securely attached or less securely attached category.
The two groups were split down the middle utilizing
the median split technique; subjects with higher
scores (High ATM Group) were rated as more se-
curely attached and subjects with lower scores (Low
ATM Group) were rated as less securely attached.
Three raters, blind to the nature of the study, were
trained to use the ARS. After training, the raters were
given the drawings in random order. After ratings
were completed, data from the ratings and from the
self-inventory were subjected to statistical analysis.
Results
Eight of the nine indicators of the ARS had suffi-
ciently high Kappas (above .7) to be considered reli-
able; therefore the inter-rater reliability was consid-
ered high for all but this one indicator. This item,
whether the nest is depicted with anxious line quality,
should be excluded from any replications of this
study. Scores on the ATM scale ranged from 50 to
121 with a mean of 94.9 and a median of 89. Using
the median split technique, the subjects were divided
into two groups, the High ATM Group and one less
securely attached (Low ATM Group). To rule out
ATM scores being associated with items on the de-
mographic questionnaire, correlations were run be-
tween the subject’s score and her age, marital status,
number of children, educational level, income level
and religious preference. All these correlations proved
to be small and not significant and, thus, not statisti-
cally related.
336 DONNA H. KAISER

Chi-square analyses were used to test for differ- parent birds, inclusion of either parent or baby birds,
ences in frequencies of occurrence of the hypothe- inclusion of two parent birds and depiction of a nest
sized attachment indicators in each attachment group. containing only eggs) with ATM scores again divided
These were conducted for all the indicators of the by a median split into the High and Low ATM
ARS with the ATM scores. Results indicated that sta- Groups. Significance was obtained for two of the five
tistical significance was not obtained between the nine indicators, with two other indicators approaching the
indicators used and subject scores on the ATM scale. 0.5 level of significance (see Table 2). The highest
Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients level of significance was seen between the inclusion
were run on all ARS indicators, and two indicators of either parent and baby birds and a subject’s score
(“Does the nest have a bottom?” and “Does it appear on the Attachment to Mother scale, x2 (1, N = 4 1) =
that the contents would not fall out of the nest, wheth- 7.04, p < .Ol. The presence of baby birds was signif-
er or not the nest contains anything?“) approached icant at x2 (1, N = 41) = 3.89, p < .05. The resence
significance (r = .27, p = .08 and r = .26, p = .07 of parent birds approached significance at x ! (1, N =
respectively) (see Table 1). If a larger sample size had 41) = 3.45, p = .06. The depiction of a nest with eggs
been used (n 2 60), these items may have been found and no birds by less securely attached subjects ap-
to be significant. proached significance at x2 (1, N = 41) = 3.48, p = .06.
An unexpected result seen in the subjects’ draw-
ings was the inclusion of parent and/or baby birds. In
Discussion
a pilot study, only art therapy students had included
birds, and this was assumed to have been a result of The results of this study demonstrate support for
drawing ability. No birds were drawn by other sub- the association between secure attachment patterns
jects in the pilot study, therefore this was not a con- and a subject’s inclusion of birds in the BND. Lower
sideration in the design of the ARS rating instrument. attachment security may correlate with a subject’s de-
Based on this observation, an additional series of piction of a nest without a bottom (often appearing as
unplanned analyses were added to this study. A re- wreath-shaped) and with a subject’s depiction of a
vised ARS, with five additional indicators, was used nest that appears unable to hold its contents, (i.e.,
to take the inclusion of birds into account. Three new tilted so that any contents would probably fall out).
volunteer raters, who were unaware of the nature of Replication of the study with a larger sample size
the study, rated the drawings with the revised ARS. might yield significant results regarding these indica-
High inter-rater reliability was attained on all five tors, which approached significance in this study.
indicators of the revised ARS, with the first three Non-significant trends were noted in the remaining
indicators having 100% agreement among the three indicators on the ARS.
raters and the last two indicators each having .95 cor- Figures 1, 2 and 3 show drawings done by women
relations of agreement.
Chi-square analyses were calculated on the five
additional items (inclusion of baby birds, inclusion of Table 2
Chi-square Analyses: ATM by ARS Indicators
Table 1
High Low
Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficients for Group Group Chi-Square
Scores on ATM and ARS
10. Baby Birds Yes n=l n=2 3.88*
Indicator r-Value No ?I= 13 il= 19
11. Parent Birds Yes ?I=8 ,* = 3 3.45
1. Contents 0.21 No n= 12 rr= 18
2. Tree 0.18 12. Either Baby or Yes n= 14 n=6 7.04**
3. Bottom 0.27 Parent Birds No n=6 n= 15
4. Able to contain 0.26 13. Two Parent Birds Yes it=5 n=2 1.I3
5. %7or more of page 0.22 No II = 1.5 n= 19
6. Less than % blank -0.07 14. Contents Other Than Yes n = 16 n= 11 3.48
7. 3-5 colors -0.08 Only Eggs No n=4 II = 10
8. Line quality 0.01
9. Centered image -0.02 *p < .05.
**p < .Ol.
 ATTACHMENT SECURITY IN A DRAWING TASK zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXW
337

Figure 1

in the more securely attached group (High Group) and less securely attached group (Low Group). The results
show depictions of the various combinations of birds of this study are consistent with the view that less
that appear in the drawings of these subjects. These securely attached women may be unconsciously ex-
are useful in a comparison with drawings from the pressing felt lack of support from significant others

? ‘4..
338 DONNA H. KAISER zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQP

Figure 3.

when they leave out parent and/or baby birds. Figure
4 shows a drawing done by the subject with the lowest
score on the ATM. This drawing is typical of nest
drawings seen in clinical settings by this investigator
in that the nest is empty, little color is used and the
image appears isolated and without a surrounding or
supporting environment. This may be an unconscious
representation of subjective experiences in early life
with attachment figures as well as revealing lack of
felt security from important affective relationships in
the present. Figure 5 shows another drawing from the
Low Group that is similar to patient drawings of a nest
holding eggs. The absence of parent birds to warm,
Figure 4.
protect and hatch the eggs may demonstrate the sub-
ject’s intrapsychic experience of early life with an
emotionally detached or uninvolved caretaker. Figure
6 shows a nest that contains eggs that appear as
though they will fall out. The nest also has no bottom
and is wreath-shaped. These two qualities are among
the two original ARS indicators that approached the
0.5 level of significance. They are also frequently
seen by this researcher in nest drawings in patient
populations.

Figure 5.
 ATTACHMENT SECURITY
Figure 6.
Revision of the ARS rating instrument to include
the five additional indicators and using new raters
yielded significant results in two areas. Near signifi-
cant results were attained previously in two other ar-
eas. These results suggest that more securely attached
subjects tend to include either parent or baby birds in
their nest drawing (p = .008). More securely attached
subjects also tended to include baby birds in the BND
(p = 0.49). Depiction of a nest with parent birds by
more securely attached subjects approached the @ =
IN A DRAWING TASK
.06) level of significance. Depiction of a nest with
only eggs by less securely attached subjects also ap-
proached the (p = .06) level of significance.
With fine tuning of the ARS and replications of
this study, the BND has potential value as a clinical
instrument useful in art therapy assessment and treat-
ment. It would be interesting to repeat the study with
adult men, with adolescents and with elementary
school age children to determine whether age or gen-
der affect depictions of the BND. Clinical experience
340 DONNA H. KAISER
with administering this test to a population of men
who are in treatment for addiction raises the question
of whether men express different aspects of relational
patterns in their drawings. Future exploration of this is
needed before results of this study can be generalized.
With revision of the ARS to include the indicators
that have been shown here to be associated with attach-
ment security, and with replication of the present study,
a necessary step toward integrating attachment theory
with the field of art therapy will potentially result.
Conclusion
The attachment paradigm provides a rich theoret-
ical framework that explains behavior from an evolu-
tionary viewpoint that considers important cognitive,
affective and behavioral components. The use of this
projective has potential to benefit art therapists and
other mental health professionals in clinical settings to
assess and treat what Bowlby (1979) called “attach-
ment pathologies.” The use of the BND as a projec-
tive and as a model for developing therapeutic inter-
ventions is of particular relevance for art therapists in
the development of intervention strategies designed to
enable patients to reconstruct or repair an internalized
insecure working model of attachment.
This therapist includes the BND in all individual
and family art evaluations to enhance therapeutic un-
derstanding of existing attachment patterns. Thera-
peutic interventions based on nest symbology are then
developed and utilized in individual, family, couples
and group art therapy to introduce attachment con-
cepts. Client understanding of relationship and inti-
macy issues, when introduced through the BND, often
elicits responses of recognition and insight that pro-
motes the healing of disturbed attachments and the
building or strengthening of a mutual connectedness
with others. There is potential for art therapy to utilize
the attachment model in a variety of ways to optimize
healthy development in clients who seek treatment.
Neale and Rosa1 (1993) called for the development of
idiosyncratic projective drawings that are developed
for use in studying particular problems. The BND fits
this category and can possibly contribute to “. . . the
creation of diagnostic instruments unique to the field
of art therapy” (p. 47).
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