Attachment in Psychosis
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating the role of attachment on engagement, help seeking, emotional regulation and recovery for individuals with first episode psychosis and community samples.
IRAS ID
314111
Contact name
Katherine Newman-Taylor
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
Psychosis is a recognised experience characterised by a significant change in a person’s thoughts, perceptions, mood and behaviour, which often includes unshared experiences including hearing voices and seeing things others don’t. Research has highlighted the way people relate to others (their ‘attachment style’) can be influential in the experience of psychosis, and how people experiencing psychosis seek help and cope with difficult emotions (Gumley et al., 2014;Lawlor et al., 2020), but there is limited research on this experience for people early on in their experience of psychosis (Carr et al., 2018). Our research question is therefore Does attachment style predict engagement, help seeking, emotional regulation and recovery for individuals with first episode psychosis and within a community sample?
We plan to ask people with a first episode of psychosis (who are accessing an early intervention in psychosis service or who have been discharged within the last 6 months), and individuals who are, or have previously experienced symptoms in the community to complete a series of questionnaires (either in person, via the telephone or online) to ask about their attachment styles (how they relate to others), help seeking, how they cope with difficult emotions and their recovery. Questionnaire completion should take approximately 20-25 minutes. We will ask them to complete more questionnaires after 6 months and 12 months to track their recovery and experiences. The additional of the community sample will help support recruitment if recruitment is difficult from a first episode of psychosis sample.
This research aims to understand the importance of how people relate to others (attachment) to improve treatment of people experiencing psychosis.
REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
22/IEC08/0024
Date of REC Opinion
30 Nov 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion