Touch me just enough: The intersection of adult attachment, intimate touch, and marital satisfaction

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 1945-1967
Author(s):  
Samantha A. Wagner ◽  
Richard E. Mattson ◽  
Joanne Davila ◽  
Matthew D. Johnson ◽  
Nicole M. Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Attachment Style ◽  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Marital Quality ◽  
Married Couples ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
Marital Functioning ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Physical Affection ◽  
The Individual

Nonsexual physical affection plays an important role in marital functioning, but not all individuals are satisfied with the intimate touch they receive from their partner. Differences in adult attachment tendencies may be one way to understand the individual differences in touch satisfaction. Using a sample of 180 different-sex married couples, we explored how attachment associates with touch satisfaction in marriage in a cross-sectional investigation. Consistent with predictions, we found that husbands with greater attachment anxiety were less satisfied with touch, except when engagement in routine affection was relatively high, but especially when low. Lower routine affection diminished touch satisfaction regardless of attachment style, but greater avoidance appeared to buffer this effect for wives. However, wives with greater avoidance had husbands who reported lower touch satisfaction. We also explored the interplay of touch satisfaction and marital quality, finding that they associated positively, even when routine affection is statistically controlled. Lastly, our exploratory analyses suggest that touch satisfaction may serve as a mediating link between anxiety and marital quality. Overall, our findings support that attachment insecurities associate with engagement in and satisfaction with touch and that these processes are relevant to the overall marital quality.

Forgiveness in Relation to Attachment Style and Consanguine Marriage in Iranian Married Individuals

2012 ◽  
Vol 110 (2) ◽  
pp. 489-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahriar Shahidi ◽  
Behnaz Zaal ◽  
Mohammad Ali Mazaheri
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Attachment Style ◽  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Family Of Origin ◽  
Married Couples ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Family ◽  
Married Individuals

The aim of this study was to compare forgiveness in secure and insecure Iranian married couples. Whether marriage had occurred within the family (consanguine) or not (non-consanguine) was also considered. 400 married participants completed the Family Forgiveness Scale and the Adult Attachment Questionnaire. Analysis of reported forgiveness within the marital family showed that, although there was no significant difference between secure and insecure participants in overall forgiveness, secure participants rated “reparation” and “resolution” higher, whereas insecure participants rated “realization” and “recognition” higher. Comparing the experience of forgiveness in the family of origin, securely attached couples not only reported significantly more overall forgiveness but reported more “realization” and “resolution” while forgiving. Some interesting sex differences were also found, as individuals in consanguine vs non-consanguine couples differed in mean “recognition” in the forgiveness process.

Early-life adversities and adult attachment in depression and alexithymia

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Jani Kajanoja ◽  
Max Karukivi ◽  
Noora M. Scheinin ◽  
Hanna Ahrnberg ◽  
Linnea Karlsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Attachment Style ◽  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Childhood Maltreatment ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
Birth Cohort Study ◽  
Emotional Neglect ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Adult Attachment Style ◽  
Personality Construct

Abstract Alexithymia is a personality construct characterized by difficulties in identifying and verbalizing feelings, a restricted imagination, and an externally oriented thinking style. As alexithymia shows marked overlap with depression, its independent nature as a personality construct is still being debated. The etiology of alexithymia is unknown, although childhood emotional neglect and attachment formation are thought to play important roles. In the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, experiences of early-life adversities (EA) and childhood maltreatment (CM) were studied in a sample of 2,604 men and women. The overlap and differences between depression and alexithymia were investigated by comparing their associations with EA types and adult attachment style. Alexithymia was specifically associated with childhood emotional neglect (odds ratio (OR) 3.8, p < .001), whereas depression was related to several types of EA. In depression co-occurring with alexithymia, there was a higher prevalence of emotional neglect (81.3% vs. 54.4%, p < .001), attachment anxiety (t = 2.38, p = .018), and attachment avoidance (t = 4.03, p < .001). Early-life adversities were markedly different in the alexithymia group compared to those suffering from depression, or healthy controls. Depression with concurrent alexithymia may represent a distinct subtype, specifically associated with childhood experiences of emotional neglect, and increased attachment insecurity compared to non-alexithymic depression.

Adult Attachment, Social Support, and Depression Level of Poststroke Patients

2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (10) ◽  
pp. 1341-1351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tonggui Li ◽  
Jia Li ◽  
Qiyan Dai
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Attachment Style ◽  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Attachment Styles ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
Stroke Patients ◽  
Post Stroke ◽  
Depression Level ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
The Relationship

This study investigated the relationship between adult attachment, social support, and depression of post-stroke patients. A total of 100 post-stroke patients were recruited to complete 4 questionnaires, which include 2 widely used measurements of adult attachment – the Relationship Questionnaire (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991) and the Experiences of Close Relationships Inventory (Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998) – to measure patients' attachment style, the Social Support Inventory (Xiao, 1994) measuring four aspects of social support, and the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, 1967) measuring their depression level. The results suggested that patients differ in adult attachment styles and varied significantly in all indices of social support and depression. Secure subjects got higher scores in social support and lower scores of depression. Their depression level had significant positive correlations with attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety, and was negatively correlated to all indices of social support. Furthermore, both attachment-anxiety and subjective social support can predicate the depression level of poststroke patients.

The effects of attachment style and security priming on the perception of others’ pain

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yangu Pan ◽  
Dajun Zhang ◽  
Yanling Liu ◽  
Guangming Ran ◽  
Zhaojun Teng
Keyword(s):  
Pain Intensity ◽  
Attachment Style ◽  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Attachment Styles ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Anxious Attachment ◽  
Priming Paradigm ◽  
Perceived Pain ◽  
Preoccupied Attachment

Abundant evidence has demonstrated a relationship between adult attachment and the experience of one’s own pain. However, few studies have investigated the associations between adult attachment and perception of others’ pain. The current studies examined the effects of attachment style and security priming on the perception of others’ pain. In Study 1, we explored the influence of avoidant and anxious attachment styles on the perception of pain in pictures representing pain or no pain. The results indicated that individuals high on anxiety and low on avoidance (i.e., preoccupied attachment style) reported more pain intensity and unpleasantness for painful pictures; individuals high on both anxiety and avoidance (i.e., fearful attachment style) reported less pain intensity for painful pictures. In Study 2, we examined the effects of security priming and attachment style on the perception of pain in pictures representing pain or no pain by adopting a security priming paradigm. The results suggested that security priming attenuated perceived pain intensity for painful pictures for individuals with high attachment anxiety. In Study 3, we used another well-validated security priming paradigm; results indicated that security priming reduced perceived pain intensity for pain pictures among individuals high on anxiety and low on avoidance (i.e., preoccupied attachment style) but increased perceived pain intensity for painful pictures among individuals high on both anxiety and avoidance (i.e., fearful attachment style). Directions for future research, clinical implications, and limitations of the present studies are discussed.

Genetic Basis of Individual Differences in Tissue Composition

1976 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Ohtsuki ◽  
V. Klissouras
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Surface Density ◽  
Genetic Basis ◽  
Subcutaneous Fat ◽  
Tissue Composition ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Interindividual Variations ◽  
Ultrasonic Apparatus ◽  
The Individual

A total of 10 pairs of twin adolescent boys, 14 MZ and 5 DZ, were used to determine the relative contribution of the genotype to the individual differences observed in surface density of muscle, subcutaneous fat, and bone. The cross-sectional areas of these tissue components were calculated from photographs of the upper arm, taken by means of an ultrasonic apparatus. The respective mean percentage intrapair difference in MZ and DZ twins was 6.9 and 9.8 for total area, 6.6 and 7.8 for muscle, 13.9 and 32.0 for fat, and 6.7 and 31.3 for bone tissue. Interindividual variations in bone only could be ascribed to genetic differences.

scholarly journals Sensitivity to Affective Touch Depends on Adult Attachment Style

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Krahé ◽  
Mariana von Mohr ◽  
Antje Gentsch ◽  
Lisette Guy ◽  
Chiara Vari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Attachment Style ◽  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Attachment Styles ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
Adult Attachment Interview ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Affective Touch ◽  
Standard Assessment ◽  
Explicit Representations

AbstractAffective touch supports affiliative bonds and social cognition. However, it remains unknown whether pre-existing models of social relating influence the perception of affective touch. Here, we present the first study (N=44) to examine how individual differences in attachment styles relate to the perception of affective touch, as well as to a different non-social modality of interoception, namely cardiac perceived accuracy. Using the gold standard assessment of adult attachment (Adult Attachment Interview), we found that insecure attachment was associated with reduced pleasantness discrimination between affective vs. non-affective, neutral touch. Acknowledging the different traditions in measuring attachment, we also used a well-validated self-report questionnaire that pertains to explicit representations of current close relationships. Using this measure, we found that higher scores on an attachment anxiety dimension (but not an attachment avoidance) were associated with reduced pleasantness discrimination between affective vs. non-affective, neutral touch. Attachment patterns (in both measures) were not related to cardiac perception accuracy. These results corroborate and extend previous literature on the affectivity of touch and its relation with affiliative bonds and social cognition. Given that attachment was not related to perceived cardiac accuracy, these findings point to the specificity of the relationship between affective touch and attachment.

scholarly journals The 5-HTTLPR polymorphism impacts moral permissibility of impersonal harmful behaviors

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 911-918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yafang Yang ◽  
Chunlan Wang ◽  
Xiaohan Li ◽  
Rongjun Yu ◽  
Mengfei Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Serotonin Transporter ◽  
Synaptic Cleft ◽  
Transporter Gene ◽  
Polymorphic Region ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Moral Permissibility ◽  
Cross Sectional Analysis ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Sectional Analysis

Abstract Inspired by the roles of serotonin in an emotional aversion to harmful actions, we examined to what extent serotonin transporter gene (5-HTT)–linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR), a proxy for measuring serotonin function, underpinned the individual differences in moral judgment through cross-sectional analysis and two-wave comparison. The cross-sectional analysis with a larger cohort (N = 1197) showed that the SS carriers of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism, corresponding to the low ratio of serotonin recycling from the synaptic cleft, rated impersonal harmful actions (e.g. flipping a switch to divert a train to hit one person instead of five people) as more permissible as compared with the L-allele carriers. The two-wave comparison with a subsample from the larger cohort (N = 563) indicated that the association between 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and moral permissibility of impersonal harmful actions was stable from wave 1 to wave 2. Thus, these findings highlight the importance of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism to harmful moral behaviors.

scholarly journals Quantifying the Predictive Role of Temperament Dimensions and Attachment Styles on the Five Factor Model of Personality

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Efrat Barel ◽  
Yonathan Mizrachi ◽  
Maayan Nachmani
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Attachment Style ◽  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Attachment Styles ◽  
Attachment Security ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Five Factor Model ◽  
Self Report

Background: The present study investigated the role of temperament and attachment security in predicting individual differences in the five factor personality traits among adults. As previous studies suggested the potential moderating role of attachment in the association between temperament and personality traits, the present study sought to examine an interactionist model combining attachment and temperament in explaining individual differences in personality traits. Methods: A sample of 1871 participants (1151 women and 719 men) completed self-report measures of adult attachment style (the Relationships Questionnaire—RQ), temperament dimension (the Fisher Temperament Inventory—FTI), and personality domain (the Five Factor Model—FFM). Results: Partial correlational analyses revealed associations between attachment security and each of the five domains of the FFM, and few associations between some temperament dimensions and several domains of the FFM. Moderated regression analyses showed that attachment security moderated the associations between temperament dimensions and the Agreeableness domain of the FFM. Among secure individuals, those with higher scores on the Curious/Energetic, Cautious/Social Norm Compliant and Prosocial/Empathetic scales exhibited higher Agreeableness scores, whereas among insecure individuals, those with higher scores on the Analytic/Tough-minded scale exhibited lower scores on the Agreeableness scale. Conclusion: Overall, the current study provides evidence in support of the substantive role of social-environmental factors (Adult Attachment) as a moderating element bridging temperament-related personality elements and a number of their FFM manifestations.

INFLUENCE OF ATTACHMENT STYLES ON MARITAL SATISFACTION AMONG MARRIED COUPLES

2021 ◽  
pp. 60-64
Author(s):  
Mitra Heidari ◽  
G. Venkatesh Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Marital Satisfaction ◽  
Attachment Style ◽  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Attachment Styles ◽  
Married Couples ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Satisfaction Scale ◽  
Adult Attachment Styles ◽  
Happy Marriage

Researchers are interested in marital satisfaction since it is signicant for couples' psychological well-being. They have been studying the factors that lead to a happy marriage for a long time. Adult attachment styles, according to the prior study, serve an active role in forming an intimate relationship. The purpose of the current study was to examine the inuence of adult attachment styles (Secure, Fearful, Dismissive, and Preoccupied) on marital satisfaction among Indian married couples. 304 respondents (152 females & 152 males) from various cities across India participated in the study. To assess the participants' attachment styles and marital satisfaction, the Revised Adult Attachment Scale (Collins, 1996) and ENRICH-SF Marital Satisfaction Scale (Fowers, & Olson, 1993) were used respectively. The statistical analysis was determined using the Chisquare, Kruskal-Wallis One way ANOVAand Mann-Whitney U tests. Results showed that the respondents with secure and dismissive attachment styles had higher marital satisfaction than the respondents with preoccupied and fearful attachment styles. The study found that male and female subjects did not differ signicantly in their attachment styles and marital satisfaction. However, participants who were married for more than 20 years were more in number to have experienced a secure attachment style and they had higher marital satisfaction. Psychotherapists and counsellors in general, and couple therapists in particular, will benet from the current research. Further study will aid in a better understanding of this nding.

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