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According to attachment theory a key moderator in the enjoyment of exploration is the strength of a person's secure base. To study exploration we placed participants in a situation in which they confronted a novel stimulus. We also gathered self-reported data on their mood immediately before and after this encounter with a novel stimulus as well as their attitudes about the novel stimulus activity. The effect of a ?secure base? on this encounter was examined in two ways: first through chronic attachment, and second through priming participants with either a secure attachment prime, an insecure attachment prime or a neutral prime. Thus, this study makes two categories of predictions: the first regarding the effect of chronic attachment, and the second regarding the effect of primed attachment. Regarding the effect of chronic attachment, we predicted that there would be an interaction between the novelty of the stimulus and chronic attachment. Specifically, we found that both chronic attachment avoidance and chronic attachment anxiety predicted greater tense mood following the activity and greater anxiety about the activity. In addition, we found that chronic avoidant attachment was related to greater anger following the activity and less happiness following the activity. These results remained significant even when mood immediately before the activity was controlled. Regarding primed attachment, we found that there was an interaction between primed attachment and novelty condition. (During the study, participants in the low novelty condition interacted more extensively with the novelty stimulus than did participants in the high novelty condition.) Specifically, we found that participants in the low novelty condition reacted more strongly to the attachment prime than participants in the high novelty condition. Further, the attachment prime predicted the direction of the change in mood. Thus, for the low novelty conditions, participants primed with secure attachment reported significantly more happiness and higher positive affect on a composite mood scale, compared with participants primed with insecure attachment. In the same way, again for the low novelty conditions, participants primed with secure attachment reported significantly lower levels of anger, compared with participants primed with insecure attachment.

Prior research has shown that attachment anxiety is related to two contradictory conflict styles: submission and dominance. In a series of three studies, I clarified this research by introducing the role of attachment-related threat in moderating submissive versus dominant tendencies of highly anxious individuals in conflict with romantic partners. I propose that rejection-related threats activate the attachment system which motivates anxious individuals to engage in submission to restore psychological proximity to their partners. Alternatively, when threat levels are low, I propose that anxious individuals exhibit dominance towards their partners in attempt to seek validation. In Study One, I replicated and extended previous research by demonstrating the relationship between attachment anxiety and the submissive conflict style. The relationship between attachment anxiety and the dominant conflict style was moderated by gender such that this relationship was stronger for women than men. In Study Two, women read a vignette outlining a hypothetical scenario where their preferences and goals conflicted with those of their partner. This vignette contained a rejection component whereby their partner responded in either a rejecting or reassuring manner. Women high in anxiety reported being somewhat more likely to defer to the wishes of a rejecting versus non-rejecting romantic partner, relative to those low in attachment anxiety. Study Three was a daily diary study, examining the relationship between attachment anxiety and the nature of real life conflicts with romantic partners over 10 days. Individuals high in attachment anxiety reported lower quality interactions and more conflicts with their partners relative to low anxiety individuals. When engaged in conflict, anxious individuals expressed greater levels of hostility towards their partners, and left their conflicts less resolved relative to low anxiety individuals. Further, partner anger moderated the relationship between attachment anxiety and submissive versus dominant tendencies. Individuals high in attachment anxiety and low in avoidance were somewhat more likely to submit to their partners when their partners expressed high levels of partner anger. On the other hand, when their partners displayed low levels of anger, individuals high in attachment anxiety reported doing somewhat more of the arguing relative to low anxiety individuals. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2012-08-06 10:39:27.373

All forms of child abuse are associated with a variety of short- and long-term negative effects. In particular, adult victims of child abuse have been known to experience more insecure forms of attachment to significant others in adulthood (McCarthy & Taylor, 1999; Muller, Lemieux, & Sicoli, 2001). It was hypothesized that particular forms of child abuse would be associated with particular forms of insecure attachment in adulthood and that adult attachment style would act as a mediator between child abuse history and negative outcomes. Five hundred fifty-two female and 294 male university student completed questionnaires on their child abuse history, adult attachment style, self-esteem, current psychological symptoms and a number of demographic variables. Regression analyses, ANCOVA’s and bootstrapping mediation analyses were completed. Physical abuse was associated with attachment avoidance and psychological maltreatment was associated with attachment anxiety. Some support was also found for associations between neglect and physical abuse with attachment anxiety. Sexual abuse was not associated with either attachment avoidance or attachment anxiety. Social support, as a control variable, was also found to be an important predictor of attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety. While it was hypothesized that there would be differences between high and low severity sexual and physical abuse on adult attachment anxiety, no statistically significant differences were found. Both attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety were found to partially mediate the relationships between child abuse and psychological symptoms and child abuse and self-esteem. These findings provide more detailed information regarding the importance of adult attachment in the area of child abuse and implications for the support and treatment of child abuse victims. One’s child abuse history can provide important information regarding one’s attachment tendencies in adulthood impacting important adult relationships including the therapy relationship.

All forms of child abuse are associated with a variety of short- and long-term negative effects. In particular, adult victims of child abuse have been known to experience more insecure forms of attachment to significant others in adulthood (McCarthy & Taylor, 1999; Muller, Lemieux, & Sicoli, 2001). It was hypothesized that particular forms of child abuse would be associated with particular forms of insecure attachment in adulthood and that adult attachment style would act as a mediator between child abuse history and negative outcomes. Five hundred fifty-two female and 294 male university student completed questionnaires on their child abuse history, adult attachment style, self-esteem, current psychological symptoms and a number of demographic variables. Regression analyses, ANCOVA’s and bootstrapping mediation analyses were completed. Physical abuse was associated with attachment avoidance and psychological maltreatment was associated with attachment anxiety. Some support was also found for associations between neglect and physical abuse with attachment anxiety. Sexual abuse was not associated with either attachment avoidance or attachment anxiety. Social support, as a control variable, was also found to be an important predictor of attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety. While it was hypothesized that there would be differences between high and low severity sexual and physical abuse on adult attachment anxiety, no statistically significant differences were found. Both attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety were found to partially mediate the relationships between child abuse and psychological symptoms and child abuse and self-esteem. These findings provide more detailed information regarding the importance of adult attachment in the area of child abuse and implications for the support and treatment of child abuse victims. One’s child abuse history can provide important information regarding one’s attachment tendencies in adulthood impacting important adult relationships including the therapy relationship.

The current study examines both attachment style and the current romantic relationship's influence on exploration. A sample was gathered of 152 female and 130 male undergraduate students from Texas A&M University. The study found that attachment styles were related to the participants' perceptions of their partner with regards to exploration. Specifically, avoidant people report using exploration as a means to distance themselves from their partner. Anxious people respond that they are dependant on their partner to explore. In addition, the study found that the Anxiety dimension predicted exploration across a range of established scales from the literature. Finally, the study presents evidence that the degree to which anxious people feel that they explore out of dependency on their partner mediates the association between anxiety and exploration. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for the current relationship partner in future studies of exploration and attachment.

Recently, attachment theory has been proposed as a possible unifying framework for assessing the parent-child relationship as part of custody determinations, due to the theory's rich empirical support. Though forensic evaluators have begun to incorporate the child’s attachment to his/her caretaker, the question of the parents' adult attachment style has so far been overlooked as a potentially relevant area for gathering information regarding parenting. Adult attachment theory not only has implications for parenting, but also for understanding co-parenting relationships and conflicts, which is often the primary reason for many child custody referrals. This study will use an attachment framework to explore group differences between child custody litigants and satisfied married couples on the Rorschach Inkblot Test. Analyses of these variables will be completed through multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Additionally, discriminant function analysis (DFA) will be conducted to explore the dimensionality of the multivariate composites between groups. Information derived from the prospective study will contribute to understanding specific attachment related group differences and thus serve as the first step in establishing the R-PAS as a system for detecting attachment organization in child-custody litigants. It is hoped that this research will better inform forensic evaluators concerning: stress and coping styles; co-parenting; caregiving fitness; and ultimately child custody decisions. / text

The present study examined the effects of adult attachment and cultural orientation on sacrifice behaviors and the corresponding emotional reactions, using a cross-cultural sample in the U.S. and China. Strain-tests protocol was utilized in this study, in which an individual (i.e., the asker) was asked to share with their romantic partner a personal goal that required a major sacrifice from their partner (i.e., the responder), and then entered a discussion to process their plan of carrying out this goal. The final sample included 115 couples from the U.S. and 99 couples from China. Results indicated that responder's attachment avoidance was negatively associated with sacrifice offered to their partners and they reported more positive emotions as a result. The interaction between attachment anxiety and nationality was significant. Specifically, in the U.S. sample, individuals with high attachment anxiety were more likely to offer sacrifice for their partners, but this effect was reversed in the Chinese sample. In addition, interdependent self-construal (ISC) was a significant moderator for the relation between attachment anxiety and sacrifice behavior. Individuals who endorsed higher ISC and higher anxious attachment were less likely to make sacrifice for their partner. Furthermore, when individual offered more sacrifice, they reported more positive emotions in general, but this effect was stronger in the Chinese sample than the U.S. sample. In addition, it was found that responders who endorsed higher ISC offered more sacrifice to their partner when asked to. These results advanced our understanding of the complex role of adult attachment in negotiating situations when partners in romantic relationships have different goals, as well as possible cultural differences in the expression of the attachment influences. The findings also highlighted the systemic perspective in understanding the roles of both partners' individual traits (i.e., attachment) and cultural values (i.e., interdependent self-construal) on their behaviors (i.e., sacrifice) in romantic relationships. Counseling implications, limitations, and future research directions were discussed.

Dating violence among college students has become a pressing concern. However, to date, the bulk of the research in this area has attempted to discern correlates of marital violence. Little research has been paid to the isolation of predictors of violence that occurs early in the relationship. This paper demonstrates the utility of several risk factors identified among male college students in predicting dating violence. Factors included are history of abuse in the family of origin; insecure attachment style as measured by parental attachment and girlfriend attachment; attributional style; anger; and depression. Though it is likely that many other factors predict male dating violence, this study aims to isolate those factors that operate within the framework of history of abuse and insecure attachment. Results indicated the following: 1. History of abuse accounted for a substantial portion of the variance in predicting dating violence. 2. The interaction of attachment to family and partner was related to verbal aggression and abuse toward and from the partner. 3. Attributional style did not significantly predict dating violence beyond history of abuse. 4. Depression was not significantly related to dating violence; however, anger was significantly and directly related to verbal aggression and overall abuse from self toward partner. 5. Results were also discussed in terms of the four abuse criteria, including some notable findings regarding partner attachment style and direction of abuse. In addition, implications for treatment and prevention and suggestions for future research were offered. / 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