In the light of findings of the Pilot Phase, the researcher would make a determination of what, if any further revisions of the CEAT might be needed before proceeding to a validation study.
CHAPTER 5
DESIGN PHASE OF STUDY: RESULTS
The progress and results of the Design Phase of the study are presented in this chapter. The CEAT Design Phase entailed the creation of ten pencil drawing stimulus cards, their trial and refinement, and the development of the associated Coding Scheme. Findings relate to an assessment of the developmental appropriateness of the CEAT activity, the CEAT administration technique, the stimulus card drawings’ ability to elicit attachment related material and the development of the Coding Scheme. Finally, reported are refinements made to the CEAT drawings in preparation for the Pilot Phase, the results of which are detailed in Chapter 6.
5.1 Creation of the assessment technique
5.1.1. Design and production of the stimulus cards
The CEAT stimulus drawings evolved through examination of the research literature concerning children’s attachment experience and behaviour, together with discussions about situations that were considered likely to elicit stories revealing IWMs of attachment. As explained in Chapter 4, Section 4.3.1.1 above, situations were to include some relating to engagement with others that were not necessarily stressful, as well as some that could elicit themes of separation and loss. Extensive perusal of children’s story and picture books afforded familiarity with styles of presentation appropriate for children between 6 to 12 years of age. This process generated a collection of ideas from which 10 black and white pencil drawings were
created. The content of each drawing was constructed so as to make the emotional tone of the situation portrayed ambiguous, leaving room for projections of the respondent’s own expectations.
The format of the drawings was kept within a 15 by 21 centimeter size (A5 size), in order to be easily handled by a child. An order of presentation was decided, the first and last drawings being scenes deemed less likely to arouse attachment distress and so be upsetting for vulnerable respondents. Drawings most likely to arouse attachment distress were placed in the middle of the set. Finally, the stimulus cards were laminated and bound as a book in a landscape orientation.
The final set of stimulus card pictures is presented as Appendix H. Please note that this set contains 9 and not 10 pictures, as it is the set eventually used in the Pilot Phase.
5.1.2 Design of method of administration of the technique
An administration technique similar to that used with the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), and the Children’s Apperception Test (CAT) (Bellak & Abrams, 1997), was devised. Administration instructions are set out in Chapter 2 of the CEAT Manual (presented as Appendix I) on page 3. The child is invited to tell a story about the picture, with a beginning, a middle and an end, and asked to tell what the characters in the story are thinking and feeling.
A Story Recording Sheet was designed and is presented on page 13 of the Coding Manual (presented as Appendix I). It requires the administrator to write down each story verbatim, and record the respondent’s behavioural and emotional reactions during the activity.
5.2 Initial trial of the technique
5.2.1 Recruitment of the non-clinical sample
Recruitment of the non-clinical sample for the Design Phase trial of the CEAT technique successfully followed the plan outlined in Section 4.4.1 of Chapter 4. Ten children, 5 girls and 5 boys aged between 6 and 12 years, were recruited from a State Primary School. One initial participant was replaced because, in the parent telephone interview, it was revealed that she had been diagnosed with an autistic disorder.
5.2.2 Administration and evaluation of the appropriateness of the technique
No difficulties were found with the administration technique and all participants provided complete sets of ten stories. None of the participants became distressed by the activity or refused consent. Most of the participants appeared to enjoy the storytelling session in an enthusiastic way. Therefore the CEAT was judged to be within the developmental capabilities of the target age group, and appropriate to their developmental interests.
However, half of the participants remarked that the activity was a little too long, and therefore it was decided to reduce the activity to the telling of nine stories. How this was done is conveyed below, within the description of the analysis of the story data.
A qualitative analysis of the verbatim transcripts of participant responses to each stimulus card was conducted. The frequency with which stories included material indicative of experience of attachment was noted. All the stimulus picture
cards elicited some responses that were deemed relevant, but three did this to a lesser extent. These pictures were of two adults sitting on a sofa holding a baby, a child sitting on a bed looking out of a window at a woman in a car, and two girls playing a board game on the floor. These three drawings were deleted from the CEAT stimulus picture array. In order, then, to shorten the activity, only two drawings were replaced. Replacement drawings were of a child standing at a doorway looking out at a shadow figure that was waving, and of a boy sitting on a stool looking at a fish in a fish bowl. Three of the other drawings were made more ambiguous, two by shading in characters and one by giving a child pictured with a closed fist a more open-handed gesture. In recognition of the increasingly multicultural nature of human societies, it was also decided at this point to make characters in the drawings more obviously ethnically diverse, by changing the skin color, hair and facial features of several of the children portrayed. Next, the order of presentation was determined using criteria established for the original set of drawings, described in Section 5.1.1 above.
Finally, it was found that having the stimulus cards bound together made it hard to control the children’s access to successive drawings, and it was therefore decided not to bind them together, but to present them to the child one at a time. Appendix H comprises the final set of drawings in order of their presentation to the respondent.