Self-awareness and cigarette-smoking behavior

According to the theory of objective self-awareness (Duval & Wicklund, 1972), the concept of generalized drive is unnecessary, its explanatory function having been replaced by the concepts of self-evaluation and desire to be “correct”. An experiment was designed to compare alternative predictions from the drive and self-awarencess theories. Subjects listened to music in the presence of a mirror and, at another time, not in the presence of a mirror. The effect of self-consciousness on several habitual behaviors related to smoking was assessed. It was known that the subjects believed the number of cigarettes one should smoke “ideally” was significantly less than the number they actually smoked. Hence, the theory of objective self-awarencess predicts decreased smoking in the presence of the mirror, while a drive theory interpretation of self-consciousness predicts the opposite. Results generally supported the drive theory.     

Attachment Styles and Personality Disorders: Their Connections to Each Other and to Parental Divorce, Parental Death, and Perceptions of Parental Caregiving

Attachment theory was explored as a means of understanding the origins of personality disorders. We investigated whether adult attachment styles and personality disorders share a common underlying structure, and how both kinds of variables relate to family background factors, including parental death, parental divorce, and current representations of childhood relationships with parents. A nonclinical group of 1407 individuals, mostly adolescents and young adults, were surveyed about their attachment styles, parental marital status, parental mortality status, perceptions of treatment by parents in childhood, and 13 personality disorders. Results indicated substantial overlap between attachment and personality-disorder measures. Two of the personality-disorder dimensions are related to the two dimensions of the attachment space; that is, there is a two-dimensional space in which both the attachment patterns and most of the personality disorders can be arrayed. The one personality-disorder factor that is unrelated to attachment appears akin to psychopathy. Both personality disorders and attachment styles were associated with family-of-origin variables. Results are discussed in terms of encouraging further research to test the idea that insecure attachment and most of the personality disorders share similar developmental antecedents.     

Influence of family of origin and adult romantic partners on romantic attachment security

According to attachment theory, attachment style derives from social experiences throughout the life span. The authors tested this expectation by examining associations between the quality of observed interaction patterns in the family of origin during adolescence and self-reported romantic attachment style and observed romantic relationship behaviors in adulthood (ages 25 and 27). Family and romantic relationship interactions were rated by trained observers from video recordings of structured conversation tasks. Attachment style was assessed with items from D. W. Griffin and K. Bartholomew's (1994a) Relationship Scales Questionnaire. Observational ratings of warmth and sensitivity in family interactions were positively related to similar behaviors by romantic partners and to attachment security. In addition, romantic interactions characterized by high warmth and low hostility at age 25 predicted greater attachment security at 27, after controlling for attachment security at age 25. However, attachment security at age 25 did not predict later romantic relationship interactions after controlling for earlier interactions. These findings underscore the importance of close relationships in the development of romantic attachment security but do not indicate that attachment security predicts the quality of interactions in romantic relationships.     

Insecure attachment and personality disorder: a twin study of adults

This study used 239 twin pairs from a volunteer community sample to investigate how anxious and avoidant attachment are related to personality disorder (PD). Factor analysis showed that self‐reported anxious attachment and 11 PD scales from the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Problems loaded onto one factor (emotional dysregulation), and avoidant attachment and four PD scales loaded onto a second factor (inhibitedness). Biometric models indicated that 40% of the variance in anxious attachment was heritable, and 63% of its association with corresponding PD dimensions was attributable to common genetic effects. Avoidant attachment was influenced by the shared environment instead of genes. Correlations between avoidance and corresponding PD dimensions were attributable to experiences in the nonshared environment that influenced both variables. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attachment insecurities,life satisfaction,and relationship satisfaction from a dyadic perspective: The role of positive and negative affect

The purpose of this research is to examine the association between attachment insecurities (anxiety and avoidance) and both subjective well‐being (positive affect [PA] and negative affect [NA] and life satisfaction) and relationship satisfaction. There were 174 Spanish heterosexual couples with a mean length of relationship of 13.9 years who participated in the study. The hypotheses were tested according to the actor–partner interdependence model. We proposed a model in which PA and NA could mediate the association between attachment insecurities and life and relationship satisfaction. Results show that (1) actor effects are more frequent than partner effects; (2) anxious attachment tends to be related to NA and avoidant attachment to PA; (3) avoidance is more detrimental than anxiety for relationship satisfaction at individual and dyadic levels, and (4) there are some mediational effects of NA and PA in the association between attachment insecurities and life and relationship satisfaction.     

Attachment-related strategies during thought suppression: ironic rebounds and vulnerable self-representations

The authors conducted 2 studies of attachment-related variations in thought suppression. Participants were asked, or not asked, to suppress thoughts about a relationship breakup and then to perform a Stroop task under high or low cognitive load. The dependent variables were the rebound, of previously suppressed separation-related thoughts (Study 1) and the accessibility of self-traits (Study 2). Under low cognitive load, avoidant individuals did not show any rebound of separation-related thoughts and activated positive self-representations. Under high cognitive load, avoidant participants failed to suppress thoughts of separation and were more likely to activate negative self-representations. Attachment anxiety was associated with high activation of negative self-representations and unremitting separation-related thoughts. The results are discussed in terms of the hidden vulnerabilities of avoidant individuals.     

Physical, emotional, and behavioral reactions to breaking up: the roles of gender, age, emotional involvement, and attachment style

Associations between gender, age, emotional involvement, and attachment style and reactions to romantic relationship dissolution were studied in a survey of more than 5,000 Internet respondents. It was hypothesized that individual reactions to breakups would be congruent with characteristic attachment behaviors and affect-regulation strategies generally associated with attachment style. Attachment-related anxiety was associated with greater preoccupation with the lost partner, greater perseveration over the loss, more extreme physical and emotional distress, exaggerated attempts to reestablish the relationship, partner-related sexual motivation, angry and vengeful behavior, interference with exploratory activities, dysfunctional coping strategies, and disordered resolution. Attachment-related avoidance was weakly and negatively associated with most distress/proximity-seeking reactions to breakups and strongly and positively associated with avoidant and self-reliant coping strategies. Security (low scores on the anxiety and avoidance dimensions) was associated with social coping strategies (e.g., using friends and family as "safe havens"). Attachment insecurity, particularly anxiety, was associated with using drugs and alcohol to cope with loss.     

Attachment style, excessive reassurance seeking, relationship processes, and depression

The authors examined the association between excessive reassurance seeking (ERS) in couple relationships and depression, hypothesizing that this association can be explained by attachment anxiety. In Study 1, 72 couples completed questionnaires about ERS, depression, attachment style, and relationship quality. In Study 2, 61 couples completed the same measures in addition to completing daily diary assessments for 14 days. In both studies, ERS was related to depression, but only because of its association with attachment anxiety. The association between attachment anxiety and depression was not mediated by either partner's relationship quality, even though partners noticed each other's ERS. Instead, relationship quality was related primarily to avoidant attachment. These findings were replicated at a daily level of analysis, where interesting details of the underlying processes were revealed. At least in young unmarried couples, depression is associated with attachment anxiety--and one of its facets, ERS--mostly for intrapsychic reasons.     

Attachment Theory and Affect Regulation: The Dynamics,Development, and Cognitive Consequences of Attachment-Related Strategies

Attachment theory (J. Bowlby, 1982/1969, 1973) is one of the most useful and generative frameworks for understanding both normative and individual-differences aspects of the process of affect regulation. In this article we focus mainly on the different attachment-related strategies of affect regulation that result from different patterns of interactions with significant others. Specifically, we pursue 3 main goals: First, we elaborate the dynamics and functioning of these affect-regulation strategies using a recent integrative model of attachment-system activation and dynamics (P. R. Shaver & M. Mikulincer, 2002). Second, we review recent findings concerning the cognitive consequences of attachment-related strategies following the arousal of positive and negative affect. Third, we propose some integrative ideas concerning the formation and development of the different attachment-related strategies.