The early stages of a relationship present an interdependence dilemma: People want to demonstrate interest, but are reluctant because trust is not yet established (Holmes, 1991). Five studies investigated the influence of attachment on how people navigate the interdependence dilemma focusing on the use of communal and exchange norms (Clark & Mills, 1979). In Study 1, compared to secure and avoidantly attached individuals, anxiously attached individuals avoided using exchange norms with a potential friend, presumably to signal interest in closeness. In Study 2, when a potential friend used communal norms (compared to exchange norms), anxious individuals felt more anxious and exhibited lower appearance self-esteem, whereas avoidant individuals viewed their partner as more negatively communal and liked their partner less. In Study 3, secure individuals accepted help from a potential friend, and did not feel the need to reciprocate, whereas avoidant individuals quickly reciprocated, presumably to clear their debt and to establish boundaries. Anxious individuals again felt anxious upon receiving help. Study 4 focused on emotion regulation and cognition. When a potential friend used communal norms (suggested working as a team), anxious individuals performed worse on a mental concentration task (ruminated) compared to secures. Moreover, lexical decision analyses revealed that proximity accessibility was associated with better performance for the less anxiously attached, and worse performance for the more anxiously attached, suggesting that thoughts about closeness dampened anxiety and rumination for the secures, but increased it for the anxious individuals. Finally, in Study 5, which focused on attributions, anxious individuals tended to monitor and appraise discrete events for their significance to relationship goals, and were more likely to infer relationship progress from discrete communal events. Moreover, anxious individuals made more relati
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.84987 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Bartz, Jennifer A. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002172886, proquestno: AAINR06272, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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