The impact of attachment threat on mental state identification

The mediating role of negative emotion and the moderating role of attachment styles

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2933880
AutoresQingting Tang (Southwest University), Ying Liu (0000-0001-5584-7805, Southwest University), Tianyu Wang (0000-0002-7747-2685, Southwest University), Xu Chen (0000-0002-8164-3088, Southwest University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen38
Número11
Páginas3097-3120
Fecha de publicación2021-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Social and Personal Relationships (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0265-4075 • E-ISSN: 1460-3608
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/02654075211020831
OpenAlexW3167457891
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas43

We conducted two experimental studies to explore the mediating role of negative emotion and the moderating role of attachment styles when predicting mental state identification (MSI) in threatening contexts. The Chinese version of "Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task" (RMET) was used as a proxy for MSI. In Study 1, 123 participants were recruited to complete the RMET task after "recall-writing" threat inductions. In Study 2, we recruited another sample ( N = 121) and examined the effect of threats with induced cognitive loads on MSI. The results indicate that attachment threat induction can affect MSI performance through negative emotional arousal. The indirect threat effects were moderated by attachment styles; in the first stage, the mediated path effect was stronger for participants with higher attachment anxiety levels (Study 1), and in the second stage, it was stronger for participants with higher AV levels, under cognitive loads (Study 2) but independent of age and childhood trauma. These findings can contribute to a better understanding of how and when attachment threat increases the risk of MSI disruption. It suggests that, diminishing the negative impacts of attachment threat may require first training individuals to regulate emotions and promoting their attachment security

Affect (linguistics · Anxiety · Attachment theory · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Path analysis (statistics · Recall · Rumination · Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Psychology