Attachment priming and avoidant personality features as predictors of social-evaluation biases

BOWLES, D. P. and MEYER, B. (2008). Attachment priming and avoidant personality features as predictors of social-evaluation biases. Journal of personality disorders, 22 (1), 72-88.

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Abstract

Personality research has shown that negativity in social situations (e.g., negative evaluations of others) can be reduced by the activation of participants' sense of attachment security. Individuals with avoidant personality disorder (APD), however, are theoretically less responsive to context or situational cues because of the inflexible nature of their personality disposition. This idea of individual differences in context-responsiveness was tested in a sample of 169 undergraduates who were assessed for APD features and assigned to positive, negative, or neutral attachment priming conditions. More pronounced APD features were associated with more negative responses to vignettes describing potentially distressing social situations. A significant interaction showed that participants with more avoidant features consistently appraised the vignettes relatively more negatively, regardless of priming condition. Those without APD features, by contrast, did not exhibit negative appraisals/evaluations unless negatively primed (curvilinear effect). This effect could not be explained by depression, current mood, or attachment insecurity, all of which related to negative evaluative biases, but none of which related to situation inflexibility. These findings provide empirical support for the notion that negative information-processing is unusually inflexible and context-unresponsive among individuals with more pronounced features of APD.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	BOWLES, D.P. and MEYER, B. (2008). Attachment priming and avoidant personality features as predictors of social-evaluation biases. Copyright Guilford Press. Reprinted with permission of The Guilford Press.
Research Institute, Centre or Group - Does NOT include content added after October 2018:	Psychology Research Group
Page Range:	72-88
Depositing User:	Caroline Fixter
Date Deposited:	04 Feb 2010 19:41
Last Modified:	18 Mar 2021 07:55
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/1015

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