scholarly journals The Link between Attachment Style and Self-Reported Olfactory Ability: A Preliminary Investigation

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1367
Author(s):  
Amy Shell ◽  
Anna Blomkvist ◽  
Mehmet K. Mahmut
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Attachment Style ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Romantic Relationship ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
Relationship Maintenance ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Olfactory Ability

Individuals in healthy romantic relationships gain significant benefits to their psychological wellbeing and physiological health. Notably, the majority of relationship research has focused on how adult attachment influences these relationship outcomes while the role of olfaction remains an emerging research focus. The aim of the current study was to bring together these seemingly unrelated factors–attachment and olfaction–in an online quasi-experimental design. The participants were 401 undergraduate students, predominantly females, ranging in age from 17 to 70 years. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires that evaluated their attachment tendencies, olfactory ability and experiences in romantic relationships. Results indicated that attachment insecurity, across both attachment anxiety and avoidance, was associated with decreased olfactory functioning for females. These findings provide preliminary evidence that olfaction is related to romantic relationship maintenance and suggests that body odors could be fundamental for evoking the attachment system. These findings also elicit enticing new avenues of research which can assist psychologists to provide targeted treatments to individuals with olfactory deficits and insecure attachment tendencies.

Romantic relationships in adults with ADHD: The effect of partner attachment style on relationship quality

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-64
Author(s):  
Katherine Knies ◽  
Elizabeth A. Bodalski ◽  
Kate Flory
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Relationship Quality ◽  
Attachment Style ◽  
Attachment Styles ◽  
Romantic Relationship ◽  
Insecure Attachment ◽  
Adhd Symptoms ◽  
Anxious Attachment ◽  
Avoidant Attachment ◽  
Romantic Relationship Quality

Prior literature indicates that insecure attachment styles (i.e., anxious or avoidant) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) both have negative impacts on romantic relationships, but relatively little is known about how these factors interact among couples where one partner has ADHD and the other does not. One hundred and fifty-nine partners of adults with significant ADHD symptoms completed measures of their own attachment styles, their partner’s ADHD symptoms, and relationship quality. Anxious attachment was associated with lower romantic relationship quality, but avoidant attachment was associated with more positive relationship outcomes. Results also indicated that the negative effect of ADHD symptoms on romantic relationship quality may be exacerbated by a partner’s high level of anxious attachment. Though insecure attachment styles are generally thought to have a negative impact on romantic relationships, avoidant attachment was generally associated with more positive outcomes in this study. Several possible explanations based on theoretical support are included in the discussion along with clinical applications and future directions.

scholarly journals Attached at the lips: The influence of romantic kissing motives and romantic attachment styles on relationship satisfaction

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-30
Author(s):  
Danica J. Kulibert ◽  
Elle A. Moore ◽  
Melinda M. Dertinger ◽  
Ashley E. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Relationship Satisfaction ◽  
Attachment Style ◽  
Attachment Styles ◽  
Romantic Relationship ◽  
Goal Attainment ◽  
Romantic Attachment ◽  
Relationship Functioning ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Although romantic kissing is an important part of relationship functioning, little research has focused on motives for romantic kissing and how they may relate to other aspects of romantic relationships. To understand how romantic kissing impacts romantic relationship functioning, the current study assessed the relationship between romantic attachment, romantic kissing motives, and relationship satisfaction. Overall, it was hypothesized that (a) those reporting more sexual/explicit kissing motives and fewer goal attainment/insecurity motives would report higher relationship satisfaction, (b) those reporting a more secure attachment style would report higher relationship satisfaction, and (c) the relationship between romantic kissing motives and relationship satisfaction would vary according to one’s romantic attachment styles. Results from a hierarchical linear regression with 286 adults, all of whom were currently in romantic relationships, revealed that sexual/relational (β = 0.25) and goal attainment/insecurity kissing motives (β = -0.35) predicted relationship satisfaction. However, the impact of kissing motives on relationship satisfaction varied according to one’s romantic attachment. Specifically, the influence of sexual/relational motives was only significant for avoidantly attached individuals, whereas the influence of goal attainment/insecurity motives was significant for avoidantly and anxiously attachment individuals. Overall, this suggests that sexual/explicit romantic kissing motives serve to enhance the relationships of insecurely attached individuals, but not securely attached individuals. Furthermore, goal attainment/insecure motives had a negative effect on the relationship satisfaction of insecurely attached individuals, but not securely attached individuals. This study has important implications for both practitioners working with romantic couples and researchers studying romantic relationships.

Attachment Anxiety as a Barrier to the Benefits of Novel Couple Activities

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 25-34
Author(s):  
Adrienne A. Paynter ◽  
Cheryl Harasymchuk
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Romantic Relationship ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
Perceived Benefits ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Willingness To Engage

Novel and exciting couple activities have been found to increase satisfaction in couples (e.g., Aron, Norman, Aron, McKenna, & Heyman, 2000), but only if both members enjoy the exciting activity (Girme, Overall, & Faingataa, 2014). We hypothesized that attachment anxiety might thwart the enjoyment and effectiveness of novel couple activities because of perceived threats to the security of the relationship. Undergraduate students (N = 154) who were in a romantic relationship completed online questionnaires. Consistent with our hypothesis, higher attachment anxiety was associated with decreased couple enjoyment (as perceived by the participant). However, contrary to our hypotheses, higher attachment anxiety was not associated with greater willingness to engage in an unappealing partner-initiated novel couple activity, or with decreased perceived benefits to the relationship. Furthermore, consistent with our guiding hypothesis, in exploratory analyses, we found that people who scored higher on attachment anxiety were more likely to be motivated to engage in the unappealing partner-initiated novel couple activity because of threat-related concerns.

Women's Adult Romantic Attachment Style and Communication by Cell Phone with Romantic Partners

2012 ◽  
Vol 111 (1) ◽  
pp. 281-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Weisskirch
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Attachment Style ◽  
Cell Phone ◽  
Cell Phones ◽  
Romantic Attachment ◽  
Romantic Partners ◽  
Text Messages ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
Romantic Partner ◽  
Attachment Avoidance

Cell phones have become important communication media for individuals in romantic relationships. The frequency of and methods used for communication may vary by adults' style of romantic attachment. Female university students ( N = 31) currently in romantic relationships responded to a questionnaire. They estimated the frequency of calls and text messages received from and made to their romantic partners and completed the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised instrument, a measure of attachment anxiety and avoidance. Also, the participants reviewed their cell phones' memories and provided accurate frequency of communication to and from the romantic partner. Attachment anxiety was associated with more estimated text messages sent to and received from the romantic partners and actual text messages sent to and received from the romantic partners. Attachment avoidance was associated ( r = −.38) with fewer estimated calls made to the romantic partners and fewer actual calls made to the romantic partners ( r = −.34).

scholarly journals Communication modes during romantic dissolution: The impact of attachment and intimacy on initiator breakup strategies

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-103
Author(s):  
William Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Attachment Style ◽  
Adult Attachment ◽  
Romantic Relationship ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Emotional Intimacy ◽  
Pair Bonds ◽  
The Impact

A majority of romantic pair-bonds will not remain together. Surprisingly, however, less is known about relationship dissolution compared with other stages of romantic relationships, such as initiation and maintenance. The present study addresses this gap by investigating breakup initiators’ communication strategies as outcomes for the individual’s attachment style and the emotional intimacy of a recent terminated romantic relationship. Participants (N = 174) completed a series of empirically reliable and valid Likert-scale measures to assess both predictors: (a) adult attachment and (b) emotional intimacy. Emotional intimacy was a significant predictor of each of the four breakup communication strategies, and adult attachment style – particularly attachment anxiety - was significantly related to specific communication strategies, primarily those related to openness. This researcher concluded that emotional intimacy better predictors of breakup communication strategy compared with attachment style. Limitations and a general discussion or summary of findings are provided, followed by some suggestions for future research.

Dispositional Attachment Style Moderates the Effects of Physiological Coregulation on Short-Term Changes in Attachment Anxiety and Avoidance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Schreiber
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Attachment Style ◽  
Romantic Relationship ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
Insecure Attachment ◽  
Personality Pathology ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Attachment Insecurity ◽  
Insight Into

Individuals with personality disorders often experience romantic relationship dysfunction and have an insecure attachment style. Here, we examined attachment dynamics in dyadic interactions, focusing specifically on the role of physiological coregulation in state attachment processes in couples oversampled for personality pathology. One hundred twenty-one couples completed a ten-minute discussion about an area of disagreement in their relationship and a five-minute discussion in which they planned an event together. We employed a dynamical model of heart rate changes to estimate coregulation. We found that (a) increases in state attachment avoidance were associated with contrarian coregulation (heart rate becoming misaligned from the partner’s physiology) and (b) conversely, increases in state attachment anxiety were associated with dependent coregulation (heart rate becoming aligned toward the partners’ physiology). Dispositional attachment insecurity moderated the effects of state attachment insecurity on physiological coregulation. Whereas dispositional anxiety predicted individuals exhibiting dependent coregulation in response to state insecurity, dispositional avoidance predicted contrarian coregulation in response to state insecurity. This work provides insight into the role of physiological coregulation in attachment dynamics among couples oversampled for personality pathology, suggesting that disruptions to coregulation contribute to impaired emotion regulation during romantic conflicts.

Perspective Taking and Specificity of Sensory Contact in Romantic Relationships

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anca M. Miron ◽  
Robert A. Wicklund ◽  
Megan Diestelmann ◽  
Taresa Moore ◽  
Hannah Schroeder
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Romantic Relationship ◽  
Romantic Partner ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Sensory Contact ◽  
Long Distance Relationships

In two studies, we examined the effects of perspective taking aimed at one's romantic partner, and type of romantic relationship (long-distance vs. geographically close) on sensory specificity. Sensory specificity is defined as selectivity in using sensory dimensions such as visual, acoustical, or tactile, in romantic interactions. Participants were undergraduate students involved in exclusive romantic relationships. In Study 1 (N = 210), a perspective-taking orientation to the partner enhanced sensory selectivity in both types of relationships. In Study 2 (N = 120), in which perspective taking was manipulated, perspective taking caused an increase in sensory specificity for partners living in the same location, and not for those in long-distance relationships. These findings underscore the importance of studying perspective taking in the context of sensory-based romantic interactions. Implications and future directions are discussed.

scholarly journals RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FACEBOOK-RELATED BEHAVIORS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP

TEME ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 281
Author(s):  
Ivana Isailović ◽  
Jelena Šakotić Kurbalija
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Relationship Quality ◽  
Attachment Style ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Romantic Relationship ◽  
Dyadic Adjustment ◽  
Insecure Attachment ◽  
Relationship Status ◽  
Relational Factors ◽  
The Relationship

The problem of this study was to explore the relationship between Facebook-related behaviors and characteristics of romantic relationships. Based on the results of previous research, we assumed that there would be significant gender differences in the frequency and manner of using Facebook, that there would be a significant relationship between the attachment style and Facebook monitoring and Facebook-related conflicts, and that Facebook monitoring and Facebook-related conflicts would significantly predict relationship quality. The sample consisted of 201 respondents from Serbia, 42.5% of which were male. Using the Dyadic adjustment scale - DAS (Spanier, 1976, 1989), Interpersonal electronic surveillance - IES (Tokunaga, 2011; modification Tucker, 2014), The Facebook-related Conflict Scale (Clayton, Nagurney, & Smith, 2013) and Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory - ECR (Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998; modification Kamenov & Jelic, 2003), results showed that women use Facebook and post the relationship status and pictures with a partner more often than men and that people with an insecure attachment style more often engage in Facebook monitoring. Also, results showed that Facebook-related conflicts are a significant predictor of relationship quality. The present study contributes to the understanding of romantic relationship dynamics in the age of social networking sites, by pointing to the relational factors that are potentially at risk because of Facebook use.

Exposure to an Infidelity Threat Manipulation

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-127
Author(s):  
Tamra Cater ◽  
Virgil Zeigler-Hill ◽  
Avi Besser
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Romantic Relationship ◽  
Romantic Partners ◽  
Attachment Anxiety ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Attachment Avoidance ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Attachment Dimensions ◽  
High Threat

Abstract. The associations between adult attachment dimensions and responses to romantic relationship threats have been investigated in recent years. The present study extended the results of previous studies by examining whether attachment dimensions moderated the anticipated responses that individuals had to the imagined infidelity of their romantic partners. College student participants (N = 243) were randomly assigned to imagine either a high threat scenario (i.e., finding their partner having sex with someone else) or a low threat scenario (i.e., hearing a couple on television having sex) and report their anticipated responses to these scenarios. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that the attachment dimensions moderated the anticipated responses of participants to the imagined infidelity of their romantic partners but the exact patterns of these results were different than we expected. For example, individuals with low levels of attachment avoidance provided more positive evaluations of their romantic relationships than individuals with high levels of attachment avoidance in the low threat condition but this difference did not emerge in the high threat condition. These findings suggest that low levels of attachment avoidance may be most beneficial for romantic relationships when there is relatively little threat to the relationship. Further, men with high levels of attachment anxiety reported relatively positive evaluations of their relationships in the high threat condition compared to men with low levels of attachment anxiety or women (regardless of their level of attachment anxiety). Discussion focuses on the implications these results may have for understanding the connections between attachment and relationship evaluations under conditions of threat.

Love Styles and Desire for Closeness in Romantic Relationships

2009 ◽  
Vol 105 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan K. Goodboy ◽  
Melanie Booth-Butterfield
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Romantic Relationship ◽  
Love Styles

This study investigated differences in love styles (i.e., eros, ludus, storge, pragma, agape, mania) associated with the romantic desire for closeness. Participants were 197 undergraduate students ( M age = 19.8 yr., SD = 1.9; 92 men, 104 women) currently in a romantic relationship who completed a survey assessing their love styles and current desire for closeness with their partner (i.e., desired less closeness, the same level of closeness, or more closeness). Results indicated small significant differences in individuals' preferences for closeness with the eros and ludus love styles. Specifically, individuals who desired less closeness scored lower on eros love and higher on ludus love than partners who reported an ideal level of closeness or who desired more closeness.

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