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Organizations often take trust for granted or ignore it, although trust is important for organizational learning and performance. Organizations must continuously learn if they are to survive, and trust facilitates individual and organizational learning. However, many authors either mention the importance of trust, or assume trust is present, and then discuss other topics as if little can be done to better understand the antecedents of trust or to improve trust in an organization. In particular, prior to this study, researchers had not explored the influence of adult attachment and disclosiveness on organizational trust. Human resources development professionals can play a vital role by helping leaders in their organizations attain strategic goals, however, no research study done previously has focused on how trust in an organization is influenced by adult attachment and disclosiveness. There is a need to better understand organizational trust because in today's global economy, an organization's ability to survive may depend in part on individual and organizational learning facilitated by trust. This study focused on a main research question "What portion of the variance in employees' perceptions of organizational trust do employees' adult attachment and disclosiveness explain?" During this research, a revised instrument for measuring organizational trust was developed. The findings of this study showed that disclosiveness did not have a statistically significant influence on organizational trust. In contrast, fearful attachment, in particular was shown to have a modest, statistically significant, and negative influence on organizational trust. / Ph. D.

This study examined the relationship between adult attachment style and pursuer-distancer patterns in couples. Both uni- and bi-directional pursuer-distancer patterns were studied. Participants were 67 individuals (including 32 couples) in therapy. Each partner, independent of the other, completed an anonymous questionnaire containing the Multi-item Measure of Adult Romantic Attachment (Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998) and a four-item measure of pursuer-distancer pattern designed for this study. The relationship between male dismissing attachment style and the presence of a pursuer-distancer pattern in the couple approached significance. Analyses of attachment style and the specific direction of the pursuer-distancer pattern as a couple-level variable were non-significant. However, when self-report of pursuer-distancer pattern was analyzed as an individual-level variable, a significant relationship was found between pursuing and a preoccupied attachment style and between distancing and a dismissing attachment style. Fearful attachment style was related to bi-directional pursuer-distancer pattern when measured by partner's report but not when measured by self-report. Dismissing and fearful attachment styles in males were related to lower relationship satisfaction in males and females. Pursuer-distancer patterns (particularly female-pursue and bi-directional patterns) were significantly related to lower relationship satisfaction in males and females. No relationship was found between attachment style or pursuer-distancer pattern report and the gender of the participant. Implications for treating pursuer-distancer patterns couples are discussed. / Master of Science

According to adult attachment theory (Hazan and Shaver, 1987), people's levels of insecure attachment, both anxious and avoidant, are associated with their abilities to regulate emotions in a relational context. This study is the first to test emotion dysregulation as a mediator for the relationships between levels of insecure attachment and psychological aggression using dyadic data. Cross-sectional, self-report data were collected from 110 couples presenting for couple or family therapy at an outpatient clinic. Data were analyzed using path analysis informed by the Actor-Partner Interdependence Mediational Model (APIMeM; Ledermann, Macho and Kenny, 2011). While the findings did not support a mediating role of emotion dysregulation between levels of anxious or avoidant attachment and psychological aggression, results indicated direct partner effects between people's own levels of anxious attachment and their partners' psychological aggression. Higher levels of anxious attachment were associated with higher levels of emotion dysregulation in both males and females; higher levels of avoidant attachment were only associated with higher levels of emotions dysregulation in females. Limitations and clinical implications for couple therapists are discussed. / Master of Science / People have characteristic ways of interacting with their partners when experiencing distressing emotions—described as attachment dimensions—depending on factors like their comfort with vulnerability, self-worth, and confidence in their partners to provide support. Difficulties managing distressing emotions have been linked with psychological aggression between partners. This study examined if and how much difficulties managing emotions explain the relationships between people’s attachment dimensions and psychological aggression between partners. Although difficulties managing emotions did not explain this relationship, they were related to people’s own attachment orientations. People who were preoccupied with seeking reassurance from their partners, and who had low self-concept, were more likely to experience psychological aggression from their partners. Knowing that this way of interacting with partners is linked with increased likelihood of psychological aggression, couple therapists can work with partners to learn strategies to better self-regulate their own emotions and manage reactivity to each other to decrease psychological aggression. <i>Keywords</i>: emotion dysregulation, adult attachment, psychological aggression, couples

Researchers have taken the adult attachment instruments established in the western countries into other cultural settings. Taiwan is one of the many countries to which cross-cultural adult attachment research has been extended to, and where translated attachment survey instruments were applied. The problem with these translated measurements in Taiwan, however, is that the commonly-used instruments were not peer-reviewed, and often no reliability tests were even done, and the cultural appropriateness of these translated measurements was not evaluated. The usage and results of these instruments may therefore be questionable. The purpose of this current study is to present a Mandarin Chinese version of the Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ) that was translated following common protocols, administered to 320 native Taiwanese participants, and evaluated for measurement invariance. Various statistical analyses (including reliability test, confirmatory factor analysis, , and measurement invariance test) were conducted, and results from the Taiwanese college students who responded to the Chinese AAQ were compared with the results of the same instrument written and administered in its original English format and delivered to 330 participants in the United States. CFA revealed that a revision of the original AAQ was necessary. Measurement invariance test further indicated that while configural invariance was established, the findings on metric invariance were mixed, and the scalar invariance was partially established. These findings suggested a potential lack of equivalence between the Chinese and English adult attachment measurement. Specifically, some items of the scales were less invariant than others, indicating specific possible cultural differences between the two ethnic groups.

This correlational cross-sectional study investigated body image from a positive psychology viewpoint by examining variables that were predicted to contribute to positive body image in women and testing a model describing the relationships among the variables. Negative body image has been correlated with many psychological problems in the literature, but less research has examined positive body image. Some questions addressed include: Is there a relationship between secure attachment and positive body image? Do self-esteem and optimism act as intervening variables in the predicted relationship between secure attachment and positive body image? To address these questions, data from 97 women were used in a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. Some of the hypotheses were supported, although the overall model was not. Secure attachment was found to be positively correlated with and predictive of self-esteem and optimism as hypothesized and in line with previous findings. Also as hypothesized, self-esteem and optimism were found to be moderately correlated. Self-esteem and optimism were not significantly related to body image in the SEM analysis and therefore the overall proposed model was not supported. In this sample, secure attachment was found to be the greatest predictor of positive body image. Attachment accounted for 40% of the variance in body image, 44% of the variance in optimism, and 25% of the variance in self-esteem.

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In this study I explored whether the way adults think about their early childhood is related to their perception of control, coping strategies, and health outcomes. The participants (N=78) in this study were administered the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) between 1 and 18 years ago, when they were new parents. The current online survey assessed perceived control (a composite of the Perceived Health Competency Scale and a general life control item), coping strategies (generated from a factor analysis of the Brief C.O.P.E. measure), anxiety (GAD-7), overweight (a composite of waist-to-hip ratio by body mass index), lifetime number of mental health diagnoses, and lifetime number of physical health diagnoses. As expected, non-problem-focused coping strategies and low perceived control were significantly associated with overweight and poor mental and physical health outcomes. This study added a developmental component to explain the roots of these maladaptive strategies: Dismissing speech on the AAI, characterized by idealizing childhood, minimizing childhood needs and/or distress, and emphasizing the normalcy and independence of one's upbringing strongly negatively predicted current perceived control and approach coping, relative to Secure speech. In fact, Dismissing speakers endorsed using fewer coping strategies over all. Given the pervasive influence of perceived control and active coping on myriad aging and health outcomes, the origins of these strengths is of particular interest. Dismissing speakers, although they endorse experiencing less anxiety, are clearly faring the worst. Attachment theory as a framework for explaining lifespan agency, anxiety, health behaviors, and outcomes is discussed. / text

This study investigated the relationships among attachment styles, affect regulation, and outcome in a clinical sample receiving treatment for depression. Sixty-six clients completed questionnaire measures of adult attachment, dysfunctional attitudes, interpersonal problems, self-esteem, and depression. Clients’ levels of affect regulation were assessed with an observer-rated measure of affect regulation. The study’s purpose was to extend previous research by examining the relationship between adult attachment and affect regulation within a clinical context. Results indicated significant and positive associations between clients’ attachment security and their levels of affect regulation at early and late stages of psychotherapy. Late modulation of expression and arousal were found to mediate the relationship between pre-treatment attachment insecurity and outcome. Pre-treatment attachment avoidance, characterized by high discomfort with closeness, had a direct relationship with depressive symptoms not mediated by the cognitive-affective processes of affect regulation. Implications of present findings for the treatment of depression are discussed.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the attachment scale added in the newly developed self-rating questionnaire Trauma Symptom Inventory-2 (TSI-2). Participants were recruited from the Swedish parent-infant unit Hagadal (N=58). Reliability analyses concluded Cronbach´s α .92 for attachment total scale, .88 for avoidance subscale, and .91 for rejection sensitivity subscale. Convergent validity analyses concluded moderate to strong correlations between TSI-2 attachment scale and subscales, and Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) total scale and subscales (r= .34 - .68, p ≤ .01). Criterion validity analyses concluded that adverse childhood circumstances measured by Linköping Youth Life Experiences Scale (LYLES) signficantly estimated 17 % of variance in TSI-2 attachment scale scores. Preliminary support for reliability and validity of the TSI-2 attachment scale was obtained. No previous trauma symptom rating instrument has included information about adult attachment styles. The present findings point to the benefits of such inclusion.