The boundaries between attachment and personality: Associations across three levels of the attachment network

This research examined the associations between measures of sociotropic and autonomous personality, romantic attachment anxiety and avoidance, and corresponding attachment ratings across a range of different specific relationships with people whom participants regularly interacted (including romantic partners, friends, family members, and colleagues). Analyses using hierarchical linear modeling showed that sociotropy and autonomy were directly associated with respective ratings of relationship-specific anxiety and avoidance within non-romantic relationships. In contrast, domain-specific romantic attachment predicted relationship-specific attachment with romantic (but not non-romantic) partners, and, as hypothesized, mediated the associations between sociotropy and autonomy and relationship-specific attachment within this domain. Implications for the operationalization of sociotropy and autonomy as broad-bandwidth (personality-level) measures that assess more global summaries of regularities in the same dual dimensions identified in the attachment literature (i.e., attachment anxiety and avoidance) are discussed.     

The association between working models of attachment and personality: Toward an integrative framework operationalizing global relational models

A theoretical framework is presented which outlines the association between relational models of romantic relationships (romantic attachment anxiety and avoidance) and the conceptually similar dual dimensions of autonomy and sociotropy identified in the literature on personality diatheses of depression. Two studies, along with a meta-analysis of previous research, lend support to the notion that autonomy and avoidance share a common element reflecting variation in the degree to which people seek out or avoid closeness with others, whereas sociotropy and anxiety share a common element reflecting variation in the degree to which people worry about or are content in their social relations. The measures differ in relational specificity, however, as attachment anxiety and avoidance assess models of close and romantic relationships, whereas sociotropy and autonomy reflect more abstracted representations that encompass broader categories of social relation. The proposed framework offers a variety of avenues for research operationalizing and elaborating upon the function of global relational models in the attachment system.     

Working models of romantic attachment and the subjective quality of social interactions across relational contexts

Two diary studies examined the effects of domain‐specific representations of romantic relationships (assessed using the Relationship Questionnaire in Study 1 and the Revised Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire in Study 2) on the subjective quality of social interactions across four relational contexts: those with a romantic partner, family member, platonic friend, or acquaintance/other. In both studies, domain‐specific romantic attachment, particularly attachment avoidance, was more strongly related to subjective experiences of social interactions involving a romantic partner than those with family members, platonic friends, or acquaintances/others. These results complement previous diary research using earlier categorical measures of attachment and elaborate upon the contextual effects of the attachment behavioral system in naturally occurring social interactions with different relational partners. The conditions under which working models of different relationship domains should influence interpersonal functioning are discussed, and a context‐congruence hypothesis of attachment effects, which encompasses the current findings and generates further predictions, is detailed.     

When sex is more than just sex: attachment orientations, sexual experience, and relationship quality

The authors explored the contribution of individual differences in attachment orientations to the experience of sexual intercourse and its association with relationship quality. In Study 1, 500 participants completed self-report scales of attachment orientations and sexual experience. The findings indicated that whereas attachment anxiety was associated with an ambivalent construal of sexual experience, attachment avoidance was associated with more aversive sexual feelings and cognitions. In Study 2, 41 couples reported on their attachment orientations and provided daily diary measures of sexual experiences and relationship interactions for a period of 42 days. Results showed that attachment anxiety amplified the effects of positive and negative sexual experiences on relationship interactions. In contrast, attachment avoidance inhibited the positive relational effect of having sex and the detrimental relational effects of negative sexual interactions. The authors discuss the possibility that attachment orientations are associated with different sex-related strategies and goals within romantic relationships.     

Saving graces: Impact of partner support and maternal attachment on partner attachments in an individualistic and a collectivist context

The current study investigated the relationships between current attachment to mother and attachment to romantic partners, and the role of current partner support and culture as moderators of that relationship. University students who were currently in a romantic relationship were recruited from Hong Kong and USA, and completed measures on attachment styles and partner support. Results showed that maternal attachment anxiety was correlated with romantic attachment anxiety; maternal attachment avoidance was correlated with romantic attachment avoidance, but this linkage varied by level of current partner support. Romantic attachment avoidance was also associated with current partner support, but this linkage was stronger for HK Chinese than for Americans. These results are discussed in terms of how interpersonal and personality factors promoted by culture can affect the developmental course of romantic relationships.     

The role of depressogenic personality and attachment in the intergenerational similarity of depressive symptoms: a study with early adolescents and their mothers

Parental depression has been identified as a risk factor for psychopathology in children, and for child depression in particular. Increasingly, research is addressing the underlying psychological processes that may explain the intergenerational similarity of depressive symptoms. In the present study, we aim to investigate the role of two theoretically relevant vulnerability factors in this intergenerational similarity, that is, (a) dimensions of depressogenic personality (i.e., sociotropy and autonomy) and (b) dimensions of attachment (i.e., anxiety and avoidance). Results in a sample of early adolescents and their mothers show significant intergenerational similarity in both sets of vulnerabilities. Moreover, the intergenerational similarity of both vulnerability factors was found to account for the association between mothers' and children's depressive symptoms. Within each generation there were also meaningful and specific associations between dimensions of depressogenic personality and dimensions of attachment, with sociotropy being primarily related to anxiety and with autonomy being primarily related to avoidance.     

Not all attachment relationships develop alike: Normative cross-sectional age trajectories in attachment to romantic partners,best friends,and parents

Previous research has found that age is negatively correlated with general-romantic attachment anxiety and positively correlated with general-romantic attachment avoidance. The present study examined cross-sectional age trajectories in global attachment, as well as relationship-specific attachment with romantic partners, best friends, mothers, and fathers. Across all specific relationships, older individuals reported higher attachment avoidance. In contrast, attachment anxiety with romantic partners and friends was negatively associated with age, whereas attachment anxiety with parents normatively increased as a function of age. These findings underscore the importance of examining the normative age trajectories of attachment across both global and specific levels of abstraction.     

Daily variations in attachment anxiety and avoidance: A density distributions approach

Attachment theory proposes that experiences of acceptance and rejection will modify feelings of attachment security, but such processes have rarely been investigated. In this study, daily variations in attachment anxiety and avoidance were investigated across 7 days in a sample of college undergraduates currently in romantic relationships. We observed significant within-person variation in attachment avoidance and anxiety. Participants reported lower anxiety and avoidance on days on which they felt more accepted by their romantic partners. Further, perceptions of acceptance predicted the following day’s attachment security through lower negative mood. Greater variability in attachment avoidance and anxiety was associated with greater physical aggression in relationships.     

Friendship and Romantic Stressors and Depression in Emerging Adulthood: Mediating and Moderating Roles of Attachment Representations

Although friendships and romantic relationships represent important social relationships during emerging adulthood, problems stemming from these relationships may also pose a threat to emerging adults’ psychological functioning (Collins and Madsen in Handbook of personal relationships. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp 191–209, 2006; La Greca and Moore Harrison in J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 34(1): 49–61, 2005). Thus, investigating relational stressors in friendships and romantic relationships is an important step toward understanding emerging adults’ psychological adjustment. This study focused on examining the relationship between relational stressors and depression, and the mediating and moderating roles of relationship-general attachment representations between these constructs. Data were collected from 164 emerging adults attending a Midwestern university. In partial support of our hypotheses, emerging adults’ attachment anxiety mediated the relationship between experiences of friendship and romantic stressors and depression; this result, however, was not found for attachment avoidance. Furthermore, results showed that attachment avoidance and anxiety moderated the relationship between friendship stressors and depression in emerging adulthood. Supporting our hypothesis, friendship stressors were predictive of higher levels of depression only for emerging adults who were high in attachment avoidance or anxiety. Future research and practical implications are discussed.     

冲突与支持影响情侣依恋的文化差异

采用香港和美国的被试,运用亲密关系经历量表、冲突量表和社会支持量表,考察了冲突和支持对于情侣依恋影响的文化差异。结果发现,当以依恋焦虑为因变量时,冲突、支持和文化 × 冲突 × 支持都是显著的预测变量;当以依恋逃避为因变量时,仅文化和文化 × 支持是显著的预测变量。由此可见,文化影响冲突 × 支持与依恋焦虑的关系：在香港,情侣之间的冲突和支持各自对于依恋焦虑的作用在很大程度上相互抵消;在美国,情侣之间冲突的负面影响比支持的积极影响要强,冲突 × 支持越高,依恋焦虑越高。对于依恋逃避,文化差异仅调节支持与依恋逃避的关系：在香港,支持对依恋逃避的影响要比美国强。整个研究表明,对不同类型的情侣依恋,文化的调节作用不同。     

Attachment styles and interpersonal approach and avoidance goals in everyday couple interactions

Sixty undergraduates at a public university in the northwest United States recorded their approach and avoidance communal (closeness), uncommunal (distance), agentic (assertion), and unagentic (submission) goals during a total of 836 naturalistic interactions with romantic partners. They also completed a self‐report measure of attachment style. Secure attachment predicted more approach than avoidance goals, especially agentic goals. Avoidant attachment predicted goals to avoid and not to approach closeness and submission. Anxious attachment predicted more intense and inconsistent goals; for example, anxiety predicted focusing more on avoiding distance yet less on creating closeness and predicted more within‐person variability across interactions in goals to approach distance, avoid closeness, avoid assertion, and avoid submission. In sum, the study revealed strong relationships between enduring attachment styles and momentary interpersonal goals in everyday life.     

Do episodic self- and partner-uncertainty mediate the association between attachment orientations and emotional responses to relationship-threatening events in dating couples?

This study examined relational-uncertainty perceptions (a form of cognitive appraisal) to investigate how partners in 272 heterosexual couples responded emotionally to a relationship-challenging event. Participants rated themselves on attachment anxiety and avoidance. Then, after listing a challenging event, they rated how uncertain it made them about their own and their partner's continued involvement in the relationship. Participants also rated how angry and fearful the event made them. An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model yielded three sets of results. First, actor effects from insecure attachment orientations to episodic relational uncertainty emerged. Second, proposed mediation between attachment orientations and emotional reactions by uncertainty was partially supported (perceived partner-uncertainty partially mediated the positive association of anxious attachment and fear, and self-uncertainty partially mediated the positive relation between avoidant attachment and anger). Finally, a partner effect was found between one couple member's avoidant attachment and the other's perceived partner uncertainty. Men and women exhibited similar findings.     

Attachment orientations and depression: a longitudinal study of new parents

In this longitudinal study, we followed a large sample of first-time parents (both partners) across the first 2 years of the transition to parenthood. Guided by attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969), we tested several predictions about how attachment anxiety and avoidance are related to the incidence, maintenance, increase, and decline of depressive symptoms in both sexes across the first 2 years of the transition. We found that (a) the association between attachment anxiety and depressive symptoms was moderated by factors related to the marital and/or romantic relationship; (b) the association between avoidance and depressive symptoms was moderated by factors related to family responsibilities; (c) styles of caregiving provided by romantic partners affected depressive symptoms differently among anxious and avoidant persons; and (d) in certain predictable situations, depressive symptoms persisted at higher levels or increased to higher levels in anxious or avoidant persons across the 2-year transition period. Important implications of these results are discussed.     

Two Dimensions of Attachment to God and Their Relation to Affect, Religiosity, and Personality Constructs

In this study we sought to address several limitations of previous research on attachment theory and religion by (1) developing a dimensional attachment to God scale, and (2) demonstrating that dimensions of attachment to God are predictive of measures of affect and personality after controlling for social desirability and other related dimensions of religiosity. Questionnaire measures of these constructs were completed by a sample of university students and community adults (total n = 374). Consistent with prior research on adult romantic attachment, two dimensions of attachment to God were identified: avoidance and anxiety . After statistically controlling for social desirability, intrinsic religiousness, doctrinal orthodoxy, and loving God image, anxious attachment to God remained a significant predictor of neuroticism , negative affect , and (inversely) positive affect ; avoidant attachment to God remained a significant inverse predictor of religious symbolic immortality and agreeableness . These findings are evidence that correlations between attachment to God and measures of personality and affect are not merely byproducts of confounding effects of socially desirable responding or other dimensions of religiosity.     

Discomfort and avoidance of touch: new insights on the emotional deficits of social anxiety

Physical touch is central to the emotional intimacy that separates romantic relationships from other social contexts. In this study of 256 adults (128 heterosexual couples, mean relationship length?=?20.5 months), we examined whether individual differences in social anxiety influenced comfort with and avoidance of physical touch. Because of prior work on sex difference in touch use, touch comfort, and social anxiety symptoms and impairment, we explored sex-specific findings. We found evidence that women with greater social anxiety were less comfortable with touch and more avoidant of touch in same-sex friendships. Additionally, a woman’s social anxiety had a bigger effect on a man’s comfort with touch and avoidance of touch in the romantic relationship than a man’s social anxiety had on the woman’s endorsement of touch-related problems. These effects were uninfluenced by the length of romantic relationships. Touch is a neglected emotional experience that offers new insights into the difficulties of individuals suffering from social anxiety problems, and their romantic partners.     

Partner preferences across sexual orientations and biological sex

This study examined how partner preferences differ across interpersonal contexts (romantic attachment and relationship expectations) based on sexuality and biological sex. Participants completed measures of attachment and behavioral expectations for their romantic partners, cross‐sex friends, and same‐sex friends. The attachment anxiety results revealed an effect of sexuality: Single heterosexuals scored higher for their cross‐sex friends than same‐sex friends, single lesbian/gay individuals scored higher for same‐sex friends than cross‐sex friends, and bisexuals' attachment anxiety was equal regardless of friends' biological sex. The behavioral expectation results revealed an effect of biological sex indicating that, regardless of sexuality, women are preferred over men for emotional/social needs. Finally, an interaction revealed that lesbians have higher expectations for their girlfriends/wives than straight men have for theirs.     

The association between attachment orientations and partner evaluations: An ideal standards perspective

This research examined links between attachment orientations and evaluations of potential and existing relationship partners with respect to ideal standards. In Study 1, attachment anxiety and avoidance predicted the tradeoffs individuals made when choosing between potential mates. In Studies 2 and 3, attachment anxiety and avoidance were associated with ideal partner discrepancies within existing relationships. The findings across the three studies suggest that highly anxious individuals are more likely to use the ideal partner warmth/trustworthiness and status/resources dimensions when evaluating hypothetical and actual romantic partners, whereas highly avoidant individuals are more inclined to use the ideal partner vitality/attractiveness and status/resources dimensions when making partner evaluations. These novel findings are discussed in terms of evolutionary models of mating strategies and evaluations.     

Adult attachment styles and cognitive vulnerability to depression in a sample of undergraduate students: the mediational roles of sociotropy and autonomy

We analysed the mediational role of the personality dimensions of sociotropy and autonomy in the relationship between certain styles of attachment and depressive symptoms. In order for us to do so, a group of university students filled out the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Revised Personal Style Inventory (PSI-II) and the Relationship Questionnaire (RQ). Individuals having attachment styles with a negative model of self (preoccupied and fearful) obtained significantly higher scores in the BDI than those having attachment styles with a positive model of self (secure and dismissing), which coincides with previous research. We followed the standard procedure of Baron and Kenny of linear regression in order to perform the mediational analyses. The preoccupied attachment style-depressive symptoms relationship was mediated by sociotropy. It was also found that autonomy exerted a significant mediational effect on the relationship between the fearful attachment style and depressive symptoms. These results are consistent with the notion that insecure attachment predisposes individuals to the development of depressogenic personality styles. Thus, the findings of the present study contribute to improving the understanding of the factors involved in the development of vulnerability to depression. Furthermore, the results point out the importance of evaluating both attachment style and sociotropy/autonomy personality dimensions for the treatment of depressive patients.     

Attachment-related affective dynamics: differential reactivity to others' interpersonal behavior

We examined the influences of attachment orientations on within-person changes in affect as a function of perceptions of the interaction partner's agreeable behavior in interactions involving a romantic partner and other kinds of partners. Working adults reported affect, perceptions of the other person's behavior, and the relationship with the other in interpersonal events during 20 days. As expected, the within-person association between perceived partner's agreeable behavior and negative affect was stronger for individuals higher on attachment anxiety and was weaker for individuals higher on attachment avoidance. These effects were more pronounced in interactions with a romantic partner than with other persons. Findings demonstrate that attachment orientations are associated with differing within-person processes and that these processes are sensitive to kind of interaction partner.     

Adult attachment style and vulnerability to depression

The present study examined the role of adult attachment styles in differentiating ‘depressed’ and ‘non-depressed’ college students, and the association between attachment styles and the depressive personality vulnerabilities, sociotropy and autonomy. High scores on the fearful and, to a lesser extent, preoccupied attachment scales were associated with higher levels of depression, highlighting negative self-representation as a key factor in depression. While the sociotropy vulnerability construct correlated exclusively with the preoccupied attachment scale, correlations for the autonomy construct were more complex: as predicted, fearful attachment correlated with all three autonomy subscales while dismissive attachment correlated with the defensive-separation and control subscales, but not with the self-criticism subscale. With an emphasis on negative self-representation, preoccupied attachment also correlated with the self-criticism subscale. The results suggest that fearful attachment is consistent with autonomous vulnerability and preoccupied attachment with sociotropic vulnerability. Self-criticism, a component of both fearful and preoccupied attachment, is highlighted as a strong depressive vulnerability. Dismissive attachment, not involving the self-critical component, does not appear to be associated with depressive predisposition, despite involving self-reliance and avoidance of intimacy.