Internalized Representations of Early Interpersonal Experience and Adult Relationships: A Test of Copy Process Theory in Clinical and Non–Clinical Settings

Abstract

Studies connecting childhood experience and adult psychopathology often focus on consequences of abuse and neglect. Copy process theory (Benjamin, 2003) states that constructive as well as destructive experiences shape adult behavior with surprising interpersonal specificity. Childhood perceptions and social learning are encoded in memory and then "copied" in 3 basic ways in subsequent relationships: Identification (behaving as he or she behaved), Recapitulation (behaving as one behaved when with him or her), and Introjection (treating oneself as he or she was treated). The first step in evaluating copy process theory is to verify that the predicted correspondence between adult relational patterns and internal representation of early experience can be observed in different adult samples. Remembered interpersonal patterns from childhood and perceptions of adult relational patterns were measured using the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB). Strong evidence was found for each copy process in a sample of psychiatric inpatients (N = 161) and a college sample (N = 133). Positive and negative behaviors were copied in both. Evidence suggests that gender, patient status, and rated state may influence whether, and in which forms, copying occurs.

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