An experimental manipulation of retrospectively defined earned and continuous attachment security.
Recent longitudinal data suggest that retrospectively defined earned-secures are not more likely than continuous-secures to have been anxiously attached to their mothers in infancy and indeed experience high-quality maternal parenting in childhood. Such findings leave unanswered the question of why earned-secures report negative childhood experiences. On the basis of speculation that earned-security may result from depression-related biases in the recall of early experiences, this report describes the effects of an experimental mood induction on the valence of young adults' (18-25 years) life narratives as assessed in the Adult Attachment Interview. Among secure adults, individuals in a sadness condition were more likely to be classified as earned-secure; happy participants were more likely to be classified as continuous-secure. Induced mood was unrelated to security versus insecurity.
Roisman
Glenn I
GI
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL 61820, USA. roisman@uiuc.edu
Fortuna
Keren
K
Holland
Ashley
A
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D002649:Child Abuse; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008016:Life Change Events; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009769:Object Attachment; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D010553:Personality Development; D012059:Rejection, Psychology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012647:Self-Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires