Adolescent Twins’ Mental Representations of Self and Other in Relation with Zygosity, Attachment Patterns and Psychological Disturbances - Doctoral Dissertation

Oct 13, 2026

Adolescent Twins’ Mental Representations of Self and Other examines how mental representations of self and other relate to zygosity, attachment patterns, and psychological disturbances across mid-adolescence. Drawing on integrated cognitive development, psychoanalytic theory, and attachment theory, the study uses a twin design with 160 twin pairs to quantify genetic and environmental contributions. Heritability estimates are calculated with model-fitting, using an adapted Differentiation-Relatedness Scale.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPaper Templates

FormatPDF

Pages353

Reading Time2 h 4 min

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PART I. INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 1. Interpersonal Relatedness and Self-Definition in Personality Development and Psychopathology

Chapter 2. Interpersonal Relatedness and Self-definition in Attachment Theory

Chapter 3. Adolescent Development and Adolescent twins

PhD in Psychoanalytic Studies Adolescent Twins’Mental Representations of Self and Other in Relation with Zygosity, Attachment Patterns and Psychological Disturbances You Zhou Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University College London 2015 Declaration I, You Zhou, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own and has not been submitted for any other professional qualification. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in this thesis. You Zhou Date 15/04/15 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like first to specially thank my primary supervisor Prof. Peter Fonagy and secondary supervisor Prof. Pasco Fearon. It has been my great honour and pleasure to have two remarkable, brilliant minds guiding me through this doctorate journey. I am also very grateful for the support from graduate tutor Prof. Patrick Luyten who is a wise successor to Prof. Sidney Blatt. As Prof. Blatt’s theory has inspired me tremendously, I hope in the future I will be able to carry on the tradition and make contributions to the field. Secondly, I would like to thank Dr. Yael Shmueli-Goetz and the whole TEDS team. It was a valuable experience for me to work in such a committed research team. A big thank you is reserved for the graduate students and interns who helped in my project. Last but not least, I would like to thank my beloved parents, relatives and friends for their wonderful support. In particular, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to my parents. I could not have accomplished this without them. Abstract Introduction: Based on a theoretical integration of cognitive development psychology, psychoanalytic theory and attachment theory, Blatt and his colleagues formulated a systematic psychodynamic model of mental representation of self and other emphasizing internalization, differentiation and integration of self and object representations in normal and disrupted personality development. During the development process, adolescence is a critical transformational stage to determine either the construction of an integrated self-identity and more mature expressions of relatedness within a wider social context, or emergence or consolidation of many forms of psychopathology. This study used a twin design to examine the degree of articulation, differentiation and integration of representation of self and representations of self and parents in mid-adolescence in order to estimate the role of the environment and of genes in individual differences in these representations. Method: This study used 160 twin pairs including equal numbers of monozygotic and dizygotic twins reared together to examine the degrees of genetic and environmental influences on mental representation in adolescence. Representations of self and other were assessed using an adapted measure of the Differentiation-Relatedness Scale. The estimates of heritability of mental representations were calculated using model-fitting analysis. Results/Discussion: There were indications of approximately 38% heritability in mental representation of self-mother and 28 % in representation of self-father. The remainder of the variance was attributed to non-shared environmental influences and possible measurement error with no effect of shared environmental influences. No genetic influence or shared environmental influences was found in self-representation. Different pathways were discussed to interpret the results, which suggested complex gene-environment interactions at play affecting the levels of mental representations in adolescence. Furthermore, the mechanisms involved in representations of self and other in adolescence were compared and contrasted with attachment security, which may potentially provide us a fuller understanding of the links between childhood experiencesand the development outcomes of cognitive, affective and interpersonal dimensions in personality development. TABLE OF CONTENTS PART

FAQs

What is the study’s main focus in mid-adolescence?

The thesis investigates how adolescents’ mental representations of self and parents relate to articulation, differentiation, and integration of representations in relation to zygosity and attachment patterns.

How was the twin sample designed?

The study included 160 twin pairs with equal numbers of monozygotic and dizygotic twins reared together.

What were the key findings about genetic and environmental influences?

Results indicated approximately 38% heritability for self-mother representation and about 28% for self-father representation, with the remainder attributed to non-shared environmental influences and possible measurement error; shared environmental influence was not found.

Oct 13, 2026

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