scholarly journals An Attachment Perspective on Favorite Media Figures

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110021
Author(s):  
A. Luke MacNeill ◽  
Enrico DiTommaso
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Stability ◽  
Secure Attachment ◽  
Attachment Avoidance ◽  
Parasocial Relationships ◽  
Attachment Orientations ◽  
Favorite Television

Anxiously attached individuals tend to report stronger parasocial relationships with their favorite media figures than people with other attachment orientations. Researchers have suggested that these individuals may be inclined to see their favorite media figures as safe and secure attachment figures. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate this possibility by assessing the qualities of people’s favorite media figures, particularly within a television context. A sample of 200 online participants filled out an attachment measure, reported their favorite television figure, and rated several aspects of the television figure’s personality. It was expected that anxiously attached individuals would be drawn to figures that are high in warmth, emotional stability, and sensitivity. Instead, results showed that these individuals preferred figures with greater anxious and insecure characteristics. These results suggest that anxiously attached individuals may not see their favorite media figures as safe and secure attachment figures as previously theorized. Exploratory analyses failed to show significant effects for the second attachment dimension, attachment avoidance, or for the interaction between anxiety and avoidance.

No effect of attachment avoidance on visual disengagement from a romantic partner’s face

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (7) ◽  
pp. 2166-2183
Author(s):  
Shayne Sanscartier ◽  
Jessica A. Maxwell ◽  
Penelope Lockwood
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Romantic Partner ◽  
Saccadic Reaction Time ◽  
Attachment Avoidance ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Attachment Orientations ◽  
Romantic Attachments ◽  
Visual Disengagement

Attachment avoidance (discomfort with closeness and intimacy) has been inconsistently linked to visual disengagement from emotional faces, with some studies finding disengagement toward specific emotional faces and others finding no effects. Although most studies use stranger faces as stimuli, it is likely that attachment effects would be most pronounced in the context of attachment relationships. The present study ( N = 92) combined ecologically valid stimuli (i.e., pictures of romantic partner’s face) with eye-tracking methods to more precisely test whether highly avoidant individuals are faster at disengaging from emotional faces. Unexpectedly, attachment avoidance had no effect on saccadic reaction time, regardless of face type or emotion. Instead, all participants took longer to disengage from romantic partner faces than from strangers’ faces, although this effect should be replicated in the future. Our results suggest that romantic attachments capture visual attention on an oculomotor level, regardless of one’s personal attachment orientations.

scholarly journals Attachment (in)security and threat priming influence signal detection performance

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 889-916 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezgi Sakman ◽  
Nebi Sümer
Keyword(s):  
Signal Detection ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
Self Report ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Attachment Avoidance ◽  
Attachment Figure ◽  
Attachment Orientations ◽  
Attentional Performance

This study examined whether the subliminal priming of threat and attachment figure availability interfere with cognitive attentional performance in conditions of uncertainty among individuals with differing attachment orientations. University students ( N = 225) first completed a scale to identify names of their significant attachment figures (WHOTO) and self-report measures of attachment anxiety and avoidance and were then administered a computerized signal detection task assessing their cognitive attentional performance under conditions of threat and attachment figure availability priming. Findings revealed that both attachment anxiety and avoidance posed risk factors for cognitive performance but in different patterns. While attachment avoidance made individuals more prone to errors in missing a signal that was present, attachment anxiety increased the error rate for false alarms. These findings are discussed in relation to previous work in the field and their implications for potential cultural differences.

Attachment orientations and sleep patterns: The moderating role of exchanges with spouse

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 1282-1295
Author(s):  
Nurit Gur-Yaish ◽  
Dina Cohen ◽  
Tamar Shochat
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Model ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Sleep Patterns ◽  
Attachment Avoidance ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Attachment Orientations ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Theory Framework

The objective of the study was to investigate habitual nightly sleep patterns in the context of daily accounts of relationships with bed partners utilizing the attachment theory framework. Negative exchanges with a spouse are stressful and presumably activate the attachment system. This will differently affect individuals with high and low levels of attachment avoidance and anxiety orientations, affecting their sleep patterns. Seventy-seven teachers in committed romantic relationships (mean age = 42.53 years, 89.3% married) participated. They first completed the Experience in Close Relationships–Revised instrument, indicating their attachment avoidance and anxiety orientations, and then participated in a 4-day diary study, reporting daily levels of negative exchanges with a spouse. They also wore an actigraph (activity monitor) during the nighttime to assess their sleep patterns. Mixed-model analyses revealed that respondents high in attachment avoidance had later bedtimes and shorter sleep duration following days high in negative behavioral exchanges with their spouses. In addition, respondents high in attachment avoidance had longer sleep latency and more waking episodes during the night, regardless of levels of negative exchanges. Individuals high in attachment anxiety had more waking episodes during the night after negative emotional exchanges with a spouse; the opposite pattern emerged for individuals low in attachment anxiety. Findings demonstrate the relevance of attachment orientations and the moderating effects of negative exchanges with a spouse on sleep patterns.

scholarly journals Securely Attached, Strongly Committed? On the Influence of Attachment Orientations on Organizational Commitment

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 335-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Schusterschitz ◽  
Willi Geser ◽  
Elisabeth Nöhammer ◽  
Harald Stummer
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Commitment ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Affective Commitment ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
Attachment Avoidance ◽  
Continuance Commitment ◽  
Attachment Orientations ◽  
Positive Correlations

The paper at hand is the first that explores the notion of attachment orientations, i.e. attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance, influencing individual attachment towards an organization, i.e. employees' affective, normative and continuance commitment. Findings of a questionnaire survey reveal positive correlations of attachment anxiety with affective, normative and continuance commitment. Attachment avoidance in contrast was found to contribute only to the prediction of affective commitment. Reconsidered, our results imply low affective, normative and continuance commitment for secure employees, i.e. for employees low in anxiety and low in avoidance. Implications of the findings, regarding the question of whether organizations should abstain from the employment of secure workers, are discussed.

scholarly journals Epigenetic Modification of the Oxytocin and Glucocorticoid Receptor Genes is linked to Attachment Avoidance in young Adults

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsachi Ein-Dor ◽  
Willem J.M.I. Verbeke ◽  
Michal Mokry ◽  
Pascal Vrticka
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Glucocorticoid Receptor ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Epigenetic Modification ◽  
Gene Promoter ◽  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Attachment Avoidance ◽  
Attachment Orientations ◽  
Pair Bonds ◽  
Human Participants

Attachment in the context of intimate pair bonds is most frequently studied in terms of the universal strategy to draw near, or away, from significant others at moments of personal distress. However, important inter-individual differences in the quality of attachment exist, usually captured through secure versus insecure – anxious and/or avoidant – attachment orientations. Since Bowlby's pioneering writings on the theory of attachment (e.g. Bowlby, 1969), it has been assumed that attachment orientations are influenced by both genetic and social factors – what we would today describe and measure as gene by environment interaction mediated by epigenetic DNA modification –, but research in humans on this topic remains extremely limited. We for the first time examined relations between intra-individual differences in attachment and epigenetic modification of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) and glucocorticoid receptor (NR3C1) gene promoter in 109 young adult human participants. Our results revealed that attachment avoidance was significantly and specifically associated with increased OXTR and NR3C1 promoter methylation. These findings offer first tentative clues on the possible etiology of attachment avoidance in humans by showing epigenetic modification in genes related to both social stress regulation and HPA axis functioning.

Attachment Orientations Mediate the Effect of World Assumptions on Posttraumatic Stress in Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

2021 ◽  
pp. 105413732110504
Author(s):  
Paulo Ferrajão ◽  
Ask Elklit
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Childhood Sexual Abuse ◽  
Close Relationships ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
The Self ◽  
World Assumptions ◽  
Attachment Avoidance ◽  
Psychotherapeutic Treatment ◽  
Attachment Orientations ◽  
The World

Recent research indicates that world assumptions are broad cognitive-affective schemas that affect attachment orientations in close relationships which in turn affect psychological symptoms severity. The present study analyzed if adult attachment mediated the effect of world assumptions (worthiness of the self, benevolence and meaningfulness of the world) on PTSD symptoms (PTS), in survivors of childhood sexual abuse during treatment for PTSD. Sample included 327 individuals who were sexually abused in childhood. Variables were assessed using self-report measures. Structural equation modeling was conducted to examine if the effect of world assumptions at the beginning of psychotherapeutic treatment (T1) on PTS levels 12 months after the beginning of psychotherapeutic treatment (T3) was mediated by both attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety six months after the beginning of treatment (T2). Attachment avoidance fully mediated the effect of both worthiness of the self and benevolence of the world at T1 on PTS at T3 was mediated by both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance at T2. Findings suggest that world assumptions are broad cognitive-affective schemas about the self and the world that have their actual expression in close relationships which mediate the effect of world assumptions on PTS levels.

Support Processes Predict Declines in Attachment Avoidance Across the Transition to Parenthood

2020 ◽  
pp. 014616722094870
Author(s):  
W. Steven Rholes ◽  
Jami Eller ◽  
Jeffry A. Simpson ◽  
Ximena B. Arriaga
Keyword(s):  
Transition To Parenthood ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Life Transitions ◽  
Attachment Avoidance ◽  
Major Life ◽  
Working Models ◽  
Attachment Orientations ◽  
Attachment Orientation ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Major Life Transitions

Attachment orientations in adulthood can change over time, but the specific circumstances that directly affect change are not well understood. Bowlby proposed that those circumstances involve the assimilation of information that is incongruent with an individual’s existing attachment orientation and underlying working models. In this study, 137 couples transitioning to parenthood were followed across the first 2 years of their firstborn child’s life, with both partners providing data at five time-points. Only changes in attachment avoidance were examined in this study. Consistent with predictions, downward changes in avoidance were associated with relationship events that introduced information inconsistent with avoidant working models. For example, people who provided more support to their partners declined in avoidance across the transition period. We discuss these findings and new directions needed to better understand when and how attachment orientations change during major life transitions.

scholarly journals THE EMPATHY DIFFERENCE OF CHILDREN IN LATE CHILDHOOD SEEN ON THE ATTACHMENT PATTERNS TO MOTHERS

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 108-114
Author(s):  
Fuadah Fakhruddiana ◽  
Unggul Haryanto Nur Utomo
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Method ◽  
The Other ◽  
Significance Testing ◽  
Late Childhood ◽  
Secure Attachment ◽  
Attachment Avoidance ◽  
Attachment Patterns ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Attachment Pattern ◽  
Measuring Tool

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to describe the different empathy for children in late childhood with secure attachment, avoidance attachment, and ambivalent/resistant attachment patterns. The subjects consist of children aged 10/11 – 12/13 years old that were born and lived by the mothers. Methodology: The method used in this research is the quantitative method by conducting significance testing. The data of child empathy variables are taken by semi-projective measuring tool of questions in order to explore the cognitive, affective, and motivational aspects. On the other hand, the data of attachment patterns for mother-child variables are obtained through the measuring tool in the form of force choices in which each item directly indicates the attachment pattern of the child. Results: The result of the hypothesis depicts that F = 0.673 with p = 0.415, that is p > 0.05 refers to the decline of the hypothesis. It clearly states that there is no difference found on children in late childhood with secure attachment, avoidance attachment, and ambivalent/resistant attachment. Implications: As a summary, the child empathy reviewed on each attachment pattern to the mother is not evident. This might happen due to the not-varied data as the research sample which is merely obtained at the school and other factors that affect the development of empathy of children in addition to the attachment pattern of the child with his mother.

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