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Strength and weakness of research studies of attachment
Psychology on attachment
Strength and weakness of research studies of attachment
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Numerous individual factors that are characteristic of anxious attachment are also shown to relate to rumination. Rejection sensitivity, for instance, has been associated with rumination and has been shown to predict increased depressive rumination in individuals at a time six months later (Pearson, Watkins, & Mullan, 2011). This is suggested to be because rumination is a response to solve the discrepancy of the realities of rejection and the goal to obtain security in interpersonal relationships. Concern with maintaining close relationships and the belief that one is responsible for the emotional needs of others, as well as feelings of having little control over such situations, is significantly correlated with rumination, with the effect …show more content…
Due to a history of unreliability from attachment figures, anxiously attached people feel they have very little control over their relational circumstances. This results in an increased need to take over control in the face of unreliable figures and feelings responsible for setting the disposition of the relationship. This is attempted hypervigilant behavior and cognitions such as perseverative thoughts regarding if their partner is happy, over analyzation of the partner’s actions, and prevention of negative intrusions into the relationship. Low emotional intelligence, particularly the inability to perceive of mange emotions, is shown to mediate the relationship between attachment anxiety and rumination (Lanciano, Curci, Kafetsios, Elia, & Zammuner, 2012). This increased amount of individual rumination may be the key factor in understanding the overly negative relationship quality and emotional wellbeing among anxiously attached …show more content…
The effect on internalizing symptoms will be exacerbated in those high in anxious attachment. Their co-rumination becomes highly ruminative, overriding the potentially positive effects of self-disclosure with a friend. Instead they are increasingly likely to focus on the negative emotions, exacerbating those feelings, and failing to come up with productive solutions to their dilemmas. As is common in rumination, anxious individuals amplify the negative aspects of their distress, making their problems appear overwhelming (Burnette et al., 2009). They are also more likely to readily perceive threat and intensify their emotions in response (Millings et al., 2016). These features support that anxious attached individuals are prone to ruminate about perceived threat, as rumination serves the function of keeping unresolved threat in one’s awareness to prepare for necessary action (Brosschot, Gerin, & Thayer, 2006). This excessive rumination would lead to an amplified increase of internalyzing system following co-rumination for anxiously attached individuals. As for relationship quality, anxiously attached individuals are naturally insecure about the quality of their relationships. Rather than co-rumination enhancing social support and intimacy, anxiously attached individuals
Chapters 5 and 6 in Extraordinary Relationships gave a good introduction into new concepts relating to Human Interactions and Relationships. These new concepts give a better idea in understanding relationship patterns and the various emotions that come along with relationships. Two concepts that stood out to me that were discussed throughout the chapter were relationship patterns and relationship emotions. Over time many relationships develop their own unique patterns. In many cases these patterns have been part of the individual all along. Gilbert (1992) states “Usually what people do in a relationship crises is more of the same thing they have been doing, only more intensely and more anxiously” (pg.36). When individuals go through relationship
In this article, IJzendoorn discusses the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985) and how it is related to it and the Strange Situation procedure (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall 1978). IJzendoorn states that the AAI is constant, without bias, and unrelated to IQ with good psychometric aspects. When considering alternative studies focused on the influence of childhood experiences on functioning later in life, the AAI demonstrates faithfulness to be out of the ordinary but also reliable. The main underlying consensus IJzendoorn wants his audience to take away from the first section in his article is the validity of the AAI and to introduce his understanding of how Fox’s (1995) speculations address doubts about the AAI’s reliability and validity.
The first stage of the cycle is the man experiences rejection by his current partner. The past experience of rejection by the man's previous attachment relationships will be able to detonate by contact with his current partner's behaviour of rejection. Brown et al. (2010) pointed out that previous experiences of rejection weaken a man's ability to cope with present rejection. Such experiences include excessive rejection, punishment, neglect and abandonment. According to Bowlby's attachment research (as cited in Bretherton, 1992, p. 769), repeated threats of rejection may lead to excessive separation anxiety. Thus, an anxiously attached man tends to be the one being rejected or abandoned several times by parents or previous partner in his past life experience. Substantial research has been carried out which indicated a link between attachment style and man's abusive behaviour (Brown et al., 2010). Other than that, a man received excessive punishment during their childhood is more likely a troublesome individual (Fergusson & Lynskey, 1997). Therefore, when a m...
Weger Jr., H. and Polcar, L. E., (2002). Attachment Style and Person-Centered Comforting. Western Journal of Communication, 66(1) (Winter 2002), 84-103.
Strodl, E., & Noller, P. (2003). The relationship of adult attachment dimensions to depression and agoraphobia. Personal Relationships, 10(2), 171-186. doi:10.1111/1475-6811.00044
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1987). Transactional theory and research on emotions and coping. European Journal of Personality, 1(3), 141-169. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.library.gcu.edu:2048/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=6af88033-cdff-4c3b-8b49-dadc2d302c35%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4105
Following the above line of research, Mikulincer and Florian (2000) demonstrated that attachment style influences the way people react to death reminders. For instance, secure persons reacted to mortality salience with a higher desire for intimacy in romantic relationships, while individuals who scored high on the anxiety or avoidance component reacted with harsher punishment for social transgressors. These findings imply that secure persons react to death reminders by relying on their attachment relationships. In contrast, persons scoring high on either avoidance or anxiety dimension tend to rely on other defense mechanisms.
Nolen-Hoeksema offers studies to prove that rumination leads to depression, and that, in addition, people suffering with depression are more likely to ruminate;
Anxiety disorders are very common and the causes vary. Symptoms of anxiety disorders can be disabling for some but in most cases people who suffer with it can still carry on social relationships and job functions. There are medical outlets a patient can seek to help cope and treat anxiety through biological treatment and psychotherapy. The authors of “Anxiety Reactivity and Anxiety Perseveration Represent Dissociable Dimensions of Trait Anxiety” focused on anxiety vulnerability by testing and measuring reactivity and preservation in regard to anxiety. (Rudaizky, page, MacLeod 2012).
Cassidy, J., & Shaver, P.R. (1999). Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications. New York: The Guilford Press.
Beck, A. T., & Steer, R. (1993). Beck Anxiety Inventory 1993 Edition. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Attachment is an emotional bond that is from one person to another. The attachment theory is a psychological, an evolutionary and an ethological theory that is concerned with relationships between humans, specifically between mother and infant. A young infant has to develop a relationship with at least one of their primary caregivers for them to develop socially and emotionally. Social competence is the condition that possesses the social, emotional and intellectual skills and behaviours, the infant needs these to success as a member of society. Many studies have been focused on the Western society, but there are many arguments to whether or not this can be applicable to other cultures, such as the poorer countries.
Dainton and Gross (2008) specifically discuss the repercussions that negative behaviors such as jealousy induction may have on relationship maintenance. For instance utilizing negative maintenance behaviors such as jealousy to react to a relationship is negatively associated with relationship satisfaction. This research is tied in with the idea of social support and how individual respond to their partners. Researchers agree that jealousy in relationships can have a negative impact, yet also enhance romantic feelings and satisfaction based on how jealousy is initially communicated (Dainton & Gross, 2008; Yoshimura, 2004). “An essential idea behind this study is that the ways in which jealous individuals communicate their jealousy influence how the target communicatively responds. The results showed that targets of jealousy expressions most strongly respond in the style of the initial expression” (Yoshimura, 2004, p. 95). The way jealousy is expressed initially based on attitude and mood can affect the response of the partner and at shaping and guiding the relat...
Sharpsteen Don J. and Lee Kirkpatrick. "Romantic Jealousy and Adult Romantic Attachment" Journal of Personality And Social Psychology Vol. 72 (3) March 1997: 627-640. American Psychological Association
Acknowledging, the importance of attachment has been in helpful development of couples therapy, in particular to Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), “where it helps explain how even healthy adults need to depend on each other,” (Nichols, 2013, p. 62). EFT is an empirically validated experiential therapy model that works with emotion to create change. EFT therapists use “attachment theory to deconstruct the familiar dynamic in which one partner criticizes and complains while the other gets defensive and withdraws,” (Nichols, 2013, p.63). Research has demonstrated the importance of attachment in individuals. It is not solely a childhood trait attachment is a trait that individuals carry for the rest of their lives. Nonetheless, it is important to work on the attachments with families and couples in order to alleviate some of the negative interactions that arise from feeling a fear of losing the attachment with