ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on existing rating schemes for involvement and synchrony to develop a system for assessing interactional sensitivity in conversations between adults in attachment relationships. It outlines a method for measuring interactional sensitivity that combines interaction rating and a stimulated recall procedure. Interactional sensitivity, or the way a mother or other primary caregiver responds to an infant's attachment behaviors, plays a key role in the creation of children's working models of self and other. Attachment theory seeks to explain children's tendency to develop strong affectional bonds with an attachment figure and to exhibit attachment behavior when distressed by separation from the attachment figure. Variation in relationship-specific attachment orientations supports the continued importance of interactional sensitivity in understanding bonding in adult attachment relationships. The three major components of interactional sensitivity include conversational involvement, appropriate responses, and synchrony.
