Analytical pluralism: an application to the exploration of adult attachment

This chapter presents an innovative qualitative methodological approach to the study of adult attachment through illustration and discussion of a study that explored the attachment behaviours of a couple relationship across the transition to second-time parenthood. An analytical pluralistic approach was adopted to view the complexities of adult attachment from multi-dimensional perspectives. This approach recognises the plurality of epistemological and ontological paradigms underlying each of the qualitative methods, thus better promoting insight tailored to these complex experiences. The study used several methods of data collection and then applied different methods of analyses to all the data: narrative analysis to understand how participants drew on their perceived contexts to (re)construct their identities and attachment behaviours in the stories they told and psychosocial readings allowing insight into how the participants made sense of their attachment behaviours, particularly in terms of their emotional and social interactions with the world. The analytical plurality highlights the complex variation in adult attachment and how this affected the relationship dynamics. This chapter demonstrates how the application of analytical pluralism challenges traditional views of attachment as fixed and brings new insight into relational experiences by considering them fluid and dynamic processes, informed by context and subjective meaning-making.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in The Routledge International Handbook of Innovative Qualitative Psychological Research on November 10, 2023, available online: http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003132721-10
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