This study examined daily emotions and social contexts of young adults who differed in global attachment style (secure vs. insecure). Sixty-nine college students (41% male, 59% female) completed self-report measures of attachment and provided time-sampling data on moods, companionship, and activities using the experience sampling method. Secure (n = 41)andinsecure (n = 28)young adults spenta similar proportion of time with familiar intimates and alone. Secure individuals reported significantly more positive affect, higher levels of energy, and more connection than insecure individuals when they were alone and higher levels of energy and connection in the context of familiar intimates. Secure participants were more likely to report extreme positive emotions, and insecure participants were more likely to report extreme negative emotions, especially when they were alone. Insecure individuals did not report either more labile or flatter emotions than did secure individuals. Results are consistent with the conceptualization of attachment style as an organizational construct for emotion.
Allen, J. P., Hauser, S. T., & Borman-Spurrell, E. (1996). Attachment theory as a framework for understanding sequelae of severe adolescent psychopathology: An 11-year follow-up study. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(2), 254-263.
2.
Brennan, K., & Shaver, P. R. (1995). Dimensions of adult attachment, affect regulation, and romantic relationship functioning. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 21(3), 267-283.
3.
Buhrmester, D., & Furman, W. (1987). The development of companionship and intimacy. Child Development, 58, 1101-1113.
4.
Burge, D., Hammen, C., Davila, J., Daley, S., Paley, B., Lindberg, N., et al. (1997). The relationship between attachment cognitions and psychological adjustment in late adolescent women. Development and Psychopathology, 9, 151-167.
5.
Collins, N. L. (1996). Working models of attachment: Implications for explanation, emotion, and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 810-832.
6.
Collins, N. L., & Read, S. J. (1990). Adult attachment, working models, and relationship quality in dating couples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 644-663.
7.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Larson, R. W. (1987). The experience sampling method. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 175, 526-536.
8.
Diener, E., & Eammons, R. A. (1985). The independence of positive and negative affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 1105-1117.
9.
Feeney, B. C., & Kirkpatrick, L. A. (1996). The effects of adult attachment and presence of romantic partners on physiological responses to stress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 255-270.
10.
Feldman, S. S., Gowen, L. K., & Fisher, L. (1998). Family relationships and gender as predictors of romantic intimacy in young adults: A longitudinal study. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 8, 263-286.
11.
Furman, E., & Buhrmester, D. (1992). Age and sex differences in perceptions of networks of personal relationships. Child Development, 63, 103-115.
12.
Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511-524.
13.
Kobak, R., Cole, H., Ferenz-Gillies, R., Fleming, W., & Gamble, W. (1993). Attachment and emotion regulation during mother-teen problem solving: A control theory analysis. Child Development, 64, 231-245.
14.
Kobak, R., Sudler, N., & Gamble, W. (1991). Attachment and depressive symptoms during adolescence: A developmental pathways analysis. Development and Psychopathology, 3, 461-474.
15.
Larson, R. W. (1987). On the independence of positive and negative affect within hour-to-hour experience. Motivation and Emotion, 11, 145-156.
16.
Larson, R. W. (1989). Beeping children and adolescents: A method for studying time use and daily experience. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 18, 511-530.
17.
Larson, R. W., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1983). The experience sampling method. In H. T. Reis (Ed.), Naturalistic approaches to studying social interaction (pp. 41-56). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
18.
Larson, R. W., Raffaelli, M., Richards, M. H., Ham, M., & Jewell, L. (1990). Ecology of depression in late childhood and early adolescence: A profile of daily states and activities. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 99, 92-102.
19.
Larson, R. W., & Richards, M. H. (1991). Daily companionship in late childhood and early adolescence: Changing developmental contexts. Child Development, 62, 284-300.
20.
Larson, R. W., & Richards, M. H. (1994). Divergent realities: The emotional lives of mothers, fathers, and adolescents. New York: Basic Books.
21.
Main, M., & Goldwyn, R. (1998). Adult attachment scoring and classification systems (Draft manual, Version 6.1). Berkeley: University of California Press.
22.
Papini, D. R., & Roggman, L. A. (1992). Adolescent perceived attachment to parents in relation to competence, depression, and anxiety: A longitudinal study. Journal of Early Adolescence, 12, 420-440.
23.
Rosenstein, D. S., & Horowitz, H. A. (1996). Adolescent attachment and psychopathology. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(2), 244-253.
24.
Russell, J. A., Lewicka, M., & Niit, T. (1989). A cross-cultural study of a circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 848-856.
25.
Shaver, P. R., & Brennan, K. (2000). Dimensions of adult attachment, affect regulation, and romantic relationship functioning. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 21(3), 267-283.
26.
Simpson, J. A. (1990). Influence of attachment styles on romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 971-980.
27.
Sroufe, L., & Waters, E. (1977). Attachment as an organizational construct. Child Development, 48, 1184-1199.
28.
Tidwell, M. O., Reis, H. T., & Shaver, P. R. (1996). Attachment, attractiveness, and social interaction: A diary study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 729-745.
29.
Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1984). Negative affectivity: The disposition to experience aversive emotional states. Psychological Bulletin, 96, 465-490.
30.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 742-754.
31.
Winstead, B. A., Derlega, V. J., & Rose, S. (1997). Gender and close relationships. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
