Bridging the gap between attachment and object relations theories: A study of the transition to motherhood Beatriz Priel* and Avi Besser Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ben-Gurion University, Israel An empirical study of the relations between assessments of adult attachment styles and object representationswas performed in the context of rst-time mothers’ emotional ties to their unborn babies. We assumed that, while conceptualizations of attachment behaviour and internal working models grasp the early basic patterns of interpersonal relationships and affect regulation, object representations indicate current transforma- tions of these patterns in an individual’s internal world. Participants were a sample of 120 women in the third trimester of their rst pregnancy. Participants’ representations of their own mothers were found to fully mediate the association between internal working models and antenatal ties to their babies. Similarities and differences between theoretical conceptualizations and empirical operationalizations of attachment and object relations theories are discussed. Based on ethology, 20th-century Darwinism, and information-processing theories, Bowlby abandoned classic, mainly Kleinian, principles and announced ‘‘a new type of instinct theory’’ (1969, p. 17) including behavioural systems conducive to survival and adaptation. The study of observable interactions between infants and their caregivers led Bowlby to focus on proximity-seeking behaviours and to emphasize the attachment behavioural system, seen as vital for survival. Bowlby (1969, 1973, 1980) revised the Freudian concept of the ‘‘internal world’’ and proposed the concept of internal working models of self and attachment gures: based on real interactive experiences, dynamic mental representations or ‘‘internal working models’’ are construed by infants of their interpersonal world, and these shape an individual’s anticipations, responses and inter- pretations in interpersonal relationships. A main gap between attachment and object relational theories relates, for the construction of internal representations, to the differences in emphasis on real experiences, on one hand, or on the effect of the internal world of fantasy on these experiences, on the other. A recently growing body of empirical research has extended the study of attachment beyond childhood (Fonagy et al., 1995; Hazan & Shaver, 1987). Bartholomew (1990, 1997) and Bartholomew and Horowitz (1991) proposed, on theoretical grounds, a classication of internal working models of attachment that is dened by the positivity of the models of self and other. The positivity of the self model indicates the degree to 85 British Journal of Medical Psychology (2001), 74, 85–100 Printed in Great Britain q 2001 The British Psychological Society *Requests for reprints should be addressed to Beatriz Priel, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel (e-mail: bpriel@bgumail.bgu.ac.il)