Recollection of a Transitional Object and Needs for Intimacy and Affiliation in Adolescents

Abstract

A number of researchers have shown that the absence or misuse of a transitional object, e.g., a soft toy or blanket, with special meaning to a small child, is associated with later cognitive or character disorders. This paper shows that recall of a transitional object is related to personality characteristics of normal adolescents. These characteristics, the need for intimacy and need for affiliation, were measured by the Thematic Apperception Test administered to 102 11th graders. As expected, results indicated that need for intimacy was related both to recall of a special toy or object and to its softness, while need for affiliation was weakly related.