The role of attachment in couple relationships described as social systems

The role that attachment plays in adult relationships seems insufficiently elucidated. Of the components of early attachment, proximity seeking and security are of prime importance. Of these two, proximity seeking is also important at the outset of adult relationships. The form of security that is characteristic of adult couple relationships, however, is different from attachment security. Working models of attachment relations also play an important role in new adult relationships. Attachment behaviour may also play a role when, under severe stress, adult coping falls short. In our way of thinking however, the functioning of adult relationships cannot be described in terms of a persistence of attachment qualities but has to be described and explained by the theory of social systems.     

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.     

Transference of attachment patterns: How important relationships influence feelings toward novel people

This study was designed to examine how working models of attachment are transferred to novel relationships. Two targets were created that resembled either participants’ romantic partner or their parent. A third control target did not share overlapping features with participants’ significant others. Both global and specific working models of attachment influenced how participants perceived new people. The target manipulation also had a main effect on feelings toward the targets: Priming the representation of one’s partner evoked fears of rejection (attachment‐related anxiety) and reduced defensiveness (attachment‐related avoidance). Furthermore, relative to the control target, participants had a more positive overall attitude toward targets that resembled a partner but did not feel more positively toward targets that resembled a parent.     

The attachment system in fledgling relationships: an activating role for attachment anxiety

Is it sensible to study attachment dynamics between potential romantic partners before they share a full-fledged attachment bond? The present data indicate that such an approach may reveal novel insights about initial attraction processes. Four studies suggest that the state-like experience of attachment anxiety has functional implications within fledgling (i.e., desired or undeveloped) romantic relationships, well before the formation of an attachment bond. Studies 1 and 3 reveal that attachment anxiety directed toward a particular romantic interest is elevated before (in comparison with after) participants report being in an established relationship. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrate that such partner-specific attachment anxiety predicts attachment-relevant outcomes in fledgling relationships, including proximity seeking, safe haven, secure base, passionate love, and other approach behaviors. These associations were reliable above and beyond (and were typically as strong as or stronger than) the effect of sexual desire. Finally, Study 4 presents evidence that partner-specific attachment anxiety may cause several of these attachment-relevant outcomes. Attachment anxiety seems to be a normative experience and may signal the activation of the attachment system during the earliest stages of romantic relationships.     

Exploring the role of emotions in injustice perceptions and retaliation

Although organizational justice scholars often describe unfairness as an emotionally laden experience, the role of emotion is underresearched. In a study of individuals who experienced being laid off (N = 173), the authors found that outcome favorability interacts with both procedural and interactional justice to predict participants' emotions. The pattern of interaction differed for inward-focused (i.e., shame and guilt) and outward-focused (i.e., anger and hostility) negative emotions. Attributions of blame mediated the relationship between fairness perceptions and outward-focused negative emotion. Outward-focused emotion mediated the relationship between fairness perceptions and retaliation.     

Hurt feelings and four letter words: Swearing alleviates the pain of social distress

Methods for alleviating physical pain are increasingly found to attenuate social pain. Recent evidence suggests that swearing may attenuate sensitivity to physical pain. This study examined whether swearing similarly attenuates two consequences of social distress: social pain and exclusion‐induced hyperalgesia. Sixty‐two people wrote about an autobiographical experience of exclusion or inclusion. Then they repeated a swear or neutral word for 2 minutes followed by measures of social and physical pain. Excluded non‐swearers reported feeling more social pain and greater sensitivity to physical pain compared with included non‐swearers. Excluded swearers reported less social pain than excluded non‐swearers and no heightened sensitivity to physical pain. The findings suggest that social and physical pain are functionally similar and that swearing attenuates social pain.     

Perceptions of conflict and support in romantic relationships: the role of attachment anxiety

Guided by attachment theory, a 2-part study was conducted to test how perceptions of relationship-based conflict and support are associated with relationship satisfaction/closeness and future quality. Dating partners completed diaries for 14 days (Part 1) and then were videotaped while discussing a major problem that occurred during the diary study (Part 2). Part 1 reveals that more anxiously attached individuals perceived more conflict with their dating partners and reported a tendency for conflicts to escalate in severity. Perceptions of daily relationship-based conflicts negatively impacted the perceived satisfaction/closeness and relationship futures of highly anxious individuals, whereas perceptions of greater daily support had positive effects. Part 2 reveals that highly anxious individuals appeared more distressed and escalated the severity of conflicts (rated by observers) and reported feeling more distressed. The authors discuss the unique features of attachment anxiety and how changing perceptions of relationship satisfaction/closeness and stability could erode commitment over time.     

Gender role perceptions of women in abusive relationships

A community sample of psychologically abused women (N = 93; 83 Anglo, 4 Hispanic, 4 African-American, 1 Native American, 1 “Other”) in 3 groups (psychological abuse only, with moderate violence, with severe violence) received payment for completing lengthy questionnaires and interviews. This study concerns women’s perceptions of their own and their partners’ gender roles and gender role attitudes. Women in all 3 groups rated themselves feminine and egalitarian, as hypothesized. Ratings of their partners were near the midpoint of the scales on masculinity and traditionalism, contrary to hypotheses. Women experiencing psychological abuse with severe violence had more negative perceptions of their partners and believed their partners had more negative views of them than did women who shared the common experience of psychological abuse but sustained less or no violence. This research was funded by Grant Number 1R29MH44217 from the National Institute of Mental Health awarded to the second author. Portions of this study were reported at the Fourth International Family Violence Research Conference, Durham, NH, July 1995. Thanks to Dr. Sue Rosenberg Zalk and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions.     

Gender and working models of attachment: Consequences for perceptions of self and romantic relationships

Several theorists have proposed that differential socialization experiences lead men and women to differ in the importance they assign to relationships and in how they interpret and respond to relationships. To explore this idea, this study examined whether men and women who reported similar attachment experiences responded differently to information about the same kind of relationship. Men and women with secure, preoccupied, or avoidant models of attachment imagined themselves in a relationship with a hypothetical partner who displayed secure, preoccupied, or avoidant behavior. As predicted, avoidant men and preoccupied women, whose attachment models exaggerated gender-role stereotypes, expressed the most negativity toward themselves and the relationship. Women also were more likely than men to apply specific information about the imagined relationship to general beliefs about their own relationships. In addition, men and women whose attachment models matched the partner's behavior responded more favorably to the relationship if they both expressed security, but less favorably if they both expressed avoidance. Findings for gender and partner matching closely paralleled those for couples in long-term relationships and support the idea that the meaning and consequences of attachment models must be considered within the context of gender roles.     

Association between attachment insecurity and couple adjustment: Moderation by couple memory networks

This study investigated whether couple‐related memories and their organization in memory networks could act as cognitive resources to protect against the negative impact of insecure attachment on couple adjustment. In two studies (n1 = 153, n2 = 567), participants in a romantic relationship described a significant couple‐related memory and provided networked memories associated with their couple‐related memory, to assess its organization in the memory system, and rated each memory for its level of need satisfaction. Findings across the two studies revealed significant moderations of need satisfaction in couple‐related memory networks, such that a higher level of satisfaction need within couple‐related memory networks was associated with a reduced negative association of attachment anxiety and avoidance with couple adjustment. When examined separately, it was shown that need‐satisfying networked memories, but not main couple‐related memories, moderated the negative association of insecure attachment with couple adjustment.     

Feedback environment and well-being at work: The mediating role of personal control and feelings of helplessness

This study examines employees' personal control and feelings of helplessness at work as partial mediators of the relationship between the supervisor–employee feedback environment and well-being (job satisfaction, job depression, job anxiety, turnover intentions) at work. Findings are reported from a cross-sectional field study with 345 participants from three different industries. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that feedback environment was positively related to job satisfaction, personal control over information and decisions, and was negatively related to helplessness, job depression, and turnover intentions. Furthermore, personal control partially mediated the relationships between feedback environment and job satisfaction as well as job depression. Helplessness partially mediated the relationships between feedback environment and job depression, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. This study adds to the literature on feedback environment in highlighting the importance of the supervisor–employee feedback environment for well-being at work and introducing personal control and helplessness as mediating variables.     

Gender differences: emotional expression and feelings of personal inauthenticity

This survey study examined the emotional expression content of human resources jobs and how the content varies by gender. On the basis of findings, it appeared that women more often conform to feminine display rules, which require the suppression of negative emotions and the simulation of positive emotions. In contrast, men more often adopted masculine display rules, which require the suppression of positive emotions and the simulation of negative ones. For both men and women, emotional dissonance generated by a feminine display-rule pattern was positively correlated with feelings of personal inauthenticity at work. Gender modified the relationship between emotional dissonance and gender only in that women who adopted the masculine display-rule pattern reported feeling the least personally inauthentic of all.     

Enhancing relationship perceptions by reducing felt inferiority: The role of attachment style

To trust in a romantic partner’s acceptance and love, people need to believe they are just as good a person as their partner (and that their partner shares this perception). Yet, people low in attachment security may have difficulty sustaining these beliefs. Two experiments examined the consequences of reducing felt inferiority to the partner. Participants high in attachment anxiety (Experiment 1) and attachment avoidance (Experiment 2) reported greater confidence in their partner’s acceptance and love and attached greater value to their partner when led to feel (or to believe their partner saw them as) superior to their partner. Thus, reducing felt inferiority may effectively enhance relationship perceptions for people relatively low in attachment security.     

Psycholegal standards and the role of psychological assessment in personal injury litigation

Conceptual and procedural aspects of the forensic practitioner's role in personal injury litigation are identified relative to the provision of evaluative, consultative, and court-related services. A model is presented for comprehensive clinical and psychodiagnostic assessment consistent with concepts of legal relevance and probative value. The model facilitates rendering psycholegal formulations and opinions regarding compensatory damages when retained to examine mental and emotional elements entered as causes of action in tort. The differential contribution of state and trait level conditions, and of proximate, pre-existing, and coexisting factors to the causal nexus of impairment is considered in this context toward establishing preincident baseline functioning and making pre-post comparisons. Approaches toward delineating the range and severity of impairments that are related to the instant event, and separating these from nonproximate factors and from the dynamics of primary and secondary gain, are considered.     

Adult attachment styles,early relationships,antenatal attachment,and perceptions of infant temperament: A study of first‐time mothers

We explored the relative contributions of first‐time mothers’romantic attachment styles and early relations with their own mothers to the prediction of infant temperamental difficulty. A mediating role for mother's attachment to the unborn baby was assumed. In a prospective longitudinal study of 115 mothers of healthy babies, a structural model was delineated according to a conception of maternally reported infant temperament as a reflection of basic aspects of the mother's personality and mother‐infant relationships. Mothers’experiences with their own mothers as supportive and nonintrusive differentiated between securely and insecurely attached participants. Security of attachment was found to facilitate antenatal attachment and perceptions of the 4‐month‐old infant as easier. Findings indicate that the effects of the mothers’romantic attachment styles on their perceptions of temperamental difficulty are mediated by their antenatal attachment. Moreover, the pattern of findings obtained suggests a link among mothers’history of relationships, romantic attachment styles, and caregiving characteristics that is congruent with evolutionary theoretical assumptions.     

Exploring social and personal relationships: The issue of measurement invariance of non‐independent observations

In social psychology, some research questions address a comparison of individuals belonging to different social or relational contexts. As measurement invariance literature has indicated, before comparing two or more groups (gender, cultures, and relationship types), the question of whether a measurement of the construct used for the comparison is invariant must be verified. Measurement invariance helps to assure the validity of the measurement and the construct equivalence across groups. However, when non‐independent data are used for comparison (the same individual provides data for his or her different relationship types), the standard multigroup analyses for testing measurement invariance are not accurate. The current study presents a modified correlated uniqueness model that may be applied in these specific cases. As an example, we analyzed the invariance of the Intimate Disclosure scale and the Conflict scale in mother–child, father–child, and romantic relationships of young adults. Results indicate a partial invariance: only configural invariance, factor loading invariance, and factor covariance invariance were found. The consequences for validity of the measurement are then discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of personal values and basic traits in perceptions of the consequences of immigration: a three-nation study

Using data from Italy, Spain, and Germany (N= 1,569), this study investigated the role of basic values (universalism and security) and basic traits (openness and agreeableness) in predicting perceptions of the consequences of immigration. In line with Schwartz's (1992) theory, we conceptualized security as having two distinct components, one concerned with safety of the self (personal security) and the other with harmony and stability of larger groups and of society (group security). Structural equation modelling revealed that universalism values underlie perceptions that immigration has positive consequences and group security values underlie perceptions that it has negative consequences. Personal security makes no unique, additional contribution. Multi-group analyses revealed that these associations are invariant across the three countries except for a stronger link between universalism and perceptions of the consequences of immigration in Spain. To examine whether values mediate relations of traits to perceptions of immigration, we used the five-factor model. Findings supported a full mediation model. Individuals' traits of openness and agreeableness explained significant variance in security and universalism values. Basic values, in turn, explained perceptions of the consequences of immigration.