Symbolic Attachment Security and Eudemonic Well-Being in Older Adults

According to attachment theory, the appraisal that an attachment figure is available, caring, and responsive facilitates psychological and social adjustment. Although the theory is regarded as a lifespan theory of development, little research has addressed the correlates of attachment in late adulthood. Symbolic attachment figures such as God may be particularly important for older adults because they have often lost loved ones, including former attachment figures. This study tested whether secure attachment to God was associated with psychological flourishing in older adults. A community sample of 106 adults (mean age = 75) completed measures of attachment to God and psychological well-being. In regression analyses controlling for age, sex, education, and self-rated religiosity, secure (non-anxious) attachment to God predicted positive relationships with others, self-acceptance, environmental mastery, and personal growth. Avoidant attachment did not predict any of the well-being indices. Results are discussed in the context of attachment theory and positive psychology.     

Parental Attachment and Adolescents' Perception of School Alienation: The Mediation Role of Self-Esteem and Adjustment

The present study examined the relationship between adolescents' attachment to parents and their feelings of alienation in the school context by considering the mediating role of adjustment and self-esteem. It was proposed that the degree of attachment to one's parents was associated with adjustment and self-esteem, which in turn predicted possible school alienation. A total of 227 students completed self-report measures on parental attachment, adjustment, self-esteem, and alienation from school. Results were consistent with the attachment theory and related literature that posits that (a) secure attachment to parents was associated with adjustment and self-esteem, (b) secure attachment to parents was negatively associated with feelings of school alienation, and (c) adjustment and self-esteem were a crucial mediators between attachment to parents and school alienation. In addition to enhanced adjustment, the self-esteem of adolescents may be an additional factor in reducing alienation at school. The results also supported the mediator role of self-esteem in the relationship between attachment to parents and adjustment. Finally, the relationship between self-esteem and school alienation were shown to be fully mediated by adjustment. The results were discussed in the context of responsibilities of teachers and school counselors, which may provide both students and parents with the skills to improve social functioning in the school context.     

不同依恋风格者情绪调节策略的认知神经特点

情绪调节是依恋研究的重要方面。本文依托Gross的情绪调节理论和相关认知神经证据,阐述了三种依恋风格者的情绪调节特点。焦虑型依恋调节负性情绪时存在注意分配的优势和表达抑制的不足;调节正性情绪时还采用了情景选择和情景修正策略。回避型依恋调节两种效价情绪均使用了表达抑制,调节正性情绪时还使用了认知重评。安全型依恋使用认知重评、注意分配和情景修正策略,效价差异不突出。探讨依恋与情绪调节的关系,有利于改善非安全型依恋的情绪调节能力。     

Continulty in the Life Story: Self-Defining Memories, Affect, and Approach/Avoidance Personal Strivings

To study affective responses to memories and their relationship to personal strivings, 117 participants (65 males, 52 females) wrote selfdefining memories and indicated their affective responses to the memories. A week later they generated personal strivings, rated them along 10 dimensions, and indicated the relevance of their memories to the strivings. Participants who recalled more memories relevant to the attainment of their strivings felt more positively about their memories. Additionally, participants who listed greater percentages of avoidance strivings also recalled more memories related to the nonattainment of their strivings. Participants with higher percentages of avoidance strivings also recalled less positive memories. In an extension of Emmons's (1986) research, participants' feelings about personal strivings were linked to their affective responses to memories generated a week earlier. These results support a goal-based theory of affect and a role for motivation in memory.     

Your love lifts me higher! The energizing quality of secure relationships

Three studies tested and confirmed the hypothesis that secure attachment relationships lead to feelings of security and energy, as well as willingness to explore. In Study 1, priming a secure attachment relationship increased felt security and energy. In Studies 2 and 3, felt energy mediated the effect of (primed) secure attachment relationships on willingness to explore. In Study 3, the effect of (primed) secure attachment relationships on felt energy and willingness to explore was independent of general positive affect. Secure attachments energize partners, thus enabling exploration.     

Healing from suicide: adolescent perceptions of attachment relationships

Relatively little is known about how adolescents overcome being suicidal. The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of adolescents' perceptions of the role of attachment relationships in the process of overcoming suicidality. Forty-one female and nine male adolescents, previously suicidal between the ages of 13 and 19, were interviewed. Qualitative data were analysed using a grounded theory approach. The study identified three main categories: (a) attachment relationships; (b) experiences of attachment; and (c) changing self-perceptions. Participants consistently reported the creation of a secure attachment as being pivotal to healing from suicidal feelings. Implications for counselling practice are discussed.     

安全依恋启动效应的内在机制：非安全依恋风格调节下情绪与认知的协同作用

安全依恋启动具有一系列积极心理效应,且表现出启动效应普遍性与特异性的共存。两种属性的区别在于个体非安全依恋风格是否参与调节,这一调节与个体的依恋策略使用和概念联结程度紧密相关。当前,对于安全依恋启动内在机制的探讨集中在情绪缓冲与认知调控过程,本文回顾现有关于安全依恋启动的主要结论与解释,整合安全依恋启动的神经基础,并纳入依恋风格的调节因素,提出一个安全依恋启动的情绪/认知协同作用模型。最后围绕需要深入探讨的关键问题进行了展望。     

Terror management and adults' attachment to their parents: the safe haven remains

Six studies examined the role of young adults' parental attachment in terror management. Studies 1-3 revealed that activating thoughts of one's parent in response to mortality salience (MS) reduced death-thought accessibility and worldview defense and increased feelings of self-worth. Studies 4-5 demonstrated that MS led to greater ease of recalling positive maternal interactions and greater difficulty recalling negative interactions, and increased attraction to a stranger who was described as being similar to one's parent. If reliance on parents for terror management purposes reflects the operation of attachment mechanisms, then such effects should vary on the basis of an individual's attachment style. Study 6 demonstrated that, after MS, insecure individuals were more likely to rely on relationships with their parents, whereas secure individuals were more likely to rely on relationships with romantic partners.     

The Interaction of Mood and Rumination in Depression: Effects on Mood Maintenance and Mood-Congruent Autobiographical Memory

Rumination is a response to distress in which individuals focus repetitively on their feelings and the causes and consequences of those feelings. When induced to ruminate, dysphorics exhibit more negative mood and recall more negative memories, but these effects are not seen in nondysphorics. This pattern of results could be due to trait-like differences between dysphoric and nondysphoric individuals, or to the high levels of negative affect that dysphorics are experiencing at the time of rumination. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of pre-rumination mood on post-rumination mood and subsequent memory. Participants scoring high or low in depressive symptoms were assigned to either a positive or negative emotion induction prior to ruminating and completing an autobiographical memory task. Analysis of self-reported mood indicates that both emotion inductions were effective. Surprisingly, all participants returned to baseline mood levels following the rumination induction, and emotion induction had no effect on the negativity of the memories recalled. Dysphorics recalled significantly more negative memories than nondysphorics, regardless of whether positive, neutral, or negative memories were specifically prompted. Our results indicated that the prolonged experience of dysphoria may have greater effects on post-rumination mood and memory than the transitory experience of sadness.     

Adult attachment styles and mothers' relationships with their young children

This research examined the relationship between adult attachment styles and mothers' feelings of closeness to their children, mothers' interaction styles in a teaching situation, individual differences in the desire to have children, and the concerns individuals have about their ability to relate to young children as parents. Investigation 1 revealed that more avoidant mothers did not feel as close to their preschool children as did more secure mothers, and they behaved less supportively toward their children during a laboratory teaching task. Anxious-ambivalence was also associated with feelings of less closeness, but the level of closeness achieved depended on marital quality. Investigation 2 showed that more avoidant college men and women, compared to secure ones, were more uncertain about their capacity to relate to young children and about whether they wanted to have children. Highly ambivalent men and women reported being more uncertain about their capacity to function well as parents, but ambivalence was not related to the strength of the desire to have children. These findings are discussed in the context of attachment theory.     

Feeling at home: A multisensory analysis of former refugee and host society residents’ integration in Wellington,Aotearoa New Zealand

In this article we explore the multisensory experiences through which former refugee and host society residents develop, maintain, negotiate, and co-construct feelings of homeliness in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Drawing upon data generated through semi-structured interviews and collaborative painting workshops with eight participants, we found that everyday multisensory stimuli were significant in shaping individual feelings towards different places, and evoking memories which further shaped unique place-based experiences. Whilst negative sensory memories at times caused anxiety and stress, individuals could also draw upon their past experiences to make connections that helped them to navigate complex sociospatial environments. These multilayered connections enabled individuals to (re)construct cultural identities in their new city, which was significant in enhancing a sense of homeliness and belonging. However, the consequences that resettlement had on changing social demographics and place dynamics also diminished a sense of homeliness for host society residents, leading to pressure being placed upon former refugees to adopt dominant cultural norms. The significant impact of everyday multisensory experiences and associated memories of place on individual resettlement and social integration suggest that these affective processes require greater attention in conceptualisations of home and belonging during refugee resettlement.     

Competence in Language at 24 Months: Relations with Attachment Security and Home Stimulation

This study explored the interrelations among attachment, home stimulation, and language development in 58 toddlers (36 medically high risk and 22 low risk) at 24 months of age. The results indicated that there were additive effects of attachment and home stimulation on language competence, especially on receptive abilities. Mothers who had established secure relationships and provided stimulating home environments had children with the highest language scores.     

Competence in language at 24 months: relations with attachment security and home stimulation

This study explored the interrelations among attachment, home stimulation, and language development in 58 toddlers (36 medically high risk and 22 low risk) at 24 months of age. The results indicated that there were additive effects of attachment and home stimulation on language competence, especially on receptive abilities. Mothers who had established secure relationships and provided stimulating home environments had children with the highest language scores.     

Understanding Attachment: Beliefs About Conflict

This study examined attachment prototype, attachment‐related feelings about conflict, style of expressing conflict, and conflict tactics using self‐report questionnaires from 188 volunteer college students. Analysis indicated that (a) persons who endorsed secure attachment reported feeling less threat from arguing than those endorsing preoccupied or fearful attachment and less concern with closeness during conflict than those endorsing preoccupied attachment, (b) persons endorsing dismissing attachment reported significantly more conflict avoidance than the securely attached, and (c) those endorsing secure attachment reported significantly less fighting and more effective arguing than those endorsing fearful attachment. Implications for preventive and remedial counseling are discussed.     

Observing mother-child relationships across generations: boundary patterns,attachment, and the transmission of caregiving

Grounded in both attachment and family systems theories, this study is one of the first to examine how relationship patterns observed in mothers' current relationships with their own mothers are recreated in their relationships with their infants. Mostly white, middle-class families (N = 55), including maternal grandmothers, mothers, and infants, were observed when infants were 6, 9, and 18 months old. At 6 months, mothers and grandmothers completed self-report assessments and worked together on discussion tasks. These interactions were coded using the Boundary Assessment Coding System, developed for the present study, which assessed three relational patterns: disengagement, balance, and entanglement. At 9 months, mothers were rated on sensitivity and intrusiveness while playing with and feeding their infants; and, at 18 months, infant-mother attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation. Multiple regression analyses revealed, as predicted, that mothers who remembered being accepted by their mothers as children and who were in highly balanced relationships with their own mothers currently were more sensitive and less intrusive with their 9-month-old infants. Further, discriminant function analyses indicated that memories of acceptance, high levels of balance, and low levels of disengagement differentiated secure from insecure attachment, whereas memories of overprotection and high levels of entanglement distinguished resistant from secure and avoidant attachment. Discussion focuses on the theoretical hypothesis that mothers internalize relationship strategies experienced with their own caregivers and recreate these patterns with their infants.     

Attachment and culture. Security in the United States and Japan

Attachment theorists maintain that cultural differences are relatively minor, and they focus on universals. Here the authors highlight evidence of cultural variations and note ways in which attachment theory is laden with Western values and meaning. Comparisons of the United States and Japan highlight the cultural relativity of 3 core hypotheses of attachment theory: that caregiver sensitivity leads to secure attachment, that secure attachment leads to later social competence, and that children who are securely attached use the primary caregiver as a secure base for exploring the external world. Attachment theorists use measures of sensitivity, competence, and secure base that are biased toward Western ways of thinking: The measures emphasize the child's autonomy, individuation, and exploration. In Japan, sensitivity, competence, and secure base are viewed very differently, calling into question the universality of fundamental tenets of attachment theory. The authors call for an indigenous approach to the psychology of attachment.     

Self-regulatory depletion and attachment avoidance: Increasing the accessibility of negative attachment-related memories

Bowlby (1980) theorized that insecurely attached people use defensive memory suppression to cope with adverse events involving childhood attachment figures. In this study, defensive memory suppression was conceptualized as a form of self-regulation that, like other types of self-regulation, requires limited resources and may be undermined by the prior exercise of self-regulation. The findings of the study showed that, in the absence of self-regulatory depletion, memories of negative experiences with attachment figures were less accessible among persons who reported more dismissing avoidance. Under self-regulatory depletion, however, accessibility increased among persons high in dismissing avoidance. Depletion of self-regulatory capacity did not moderate memory accessibility for secure, preoccupied, or fearful avoidant attachment. The results imply that dismissing avoidant persons devote their limited self-regulatory resources to suppressing negative memories and keeping their attachment systems deactivated.     

A brief episode of psychosis: Elli's story

This paper explores the notion of a GP practice as a ‘secure base’, suggesting that greater attention could usefully be paid to the importance of attachment relationships in primary care. If professionals feel secure and respected within ‘the practice’ then ‘the practice’ itself is more likely to be able to function as a ‘secure base’ for its patients. It is suggested that this concept could be developed further to provide a conceptual framework for practices to examine their function as therapeutic organizations. A short resumé of John Bowlby's attachment theory is outlined. Illustrations are given of how different attachment styles – secure, avoidant, ambivalent or disorganized – might affect patient care. A case of a mother (with postnatal depression) and her infant is considered in detail to illustrate the value of early intervention in a mother-infant relationship. Professionals are also attached to the practices where they work and the author reflects on his own retirement from being a GP (after 35 years). Finally, the paper describes another case – of a patient who was able to relive, and possibly repair, some of her earlier traumatic childhood separations through her relationship and parting from her GP as retirement approached.     

Clinical Implications of Attachment Theory

Among the clinical implications of attachment theory are the ideas of the therapist as a secure base, internalization of a secure base, and feeling understood as an aspect of secure attachment. I also discuss some issues that need to be integrated into attachment theory, namely, survivor guilt and loyalty to early objects, and the relation between attachment pattern and oedipal conflicts. Finally, attachment theory is related to the nature of therapeutic change. Clinical case material is presented in the context of discussing the above issues.     

Memory for emotions

It is argued that memory reproduces emotional data as well as cognitive information. Retrieval of feelings may be cue-dependent, emotionally mediated or coincidental. Infantile emotions can be presumed to vary strongly due to the lack of control, and, poorly labelled, they could produce powerful, but un-identifiable memories, possible components in various adult experiences. In later childhood there is greater independence, and moderately positive memories from this period have possibly fewer “withdrawal effects.” Though an event may be linked with certain remembered feelings at the time of impact, it can later be recombined with other echoes. Remembered emotions can be rewarding, and if they are found to be lacking, substitutes will often be sought, or repressed feelings may surface. These theoretical considerations are applied to the phenomena of anger, depression, and anxiety, each involving (reproduced) feeling-states influencing cognitive processing. “Turning down” the memory channel, or the timely retrieval of positive feelings could increase tolerance in this respect. Human attraction is also briefly analysed.