Understanding Postpartum OCD and the Mother/Baby Attachment
Understanding Postpartum OCD and the Mother/Baby Attachment
lisebram
May 2, 2023
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Attachment and Anxiety
The role of positive relationship events in romantic attachment avoidance.
Motivated by the Attachment Security Enhancement Model (Arriaga et al., 2018), the present research investigated the associations between positive relationship experiences and romantic attachment avoidance in three dyadic studies that combined multiple methods, including daily diaries, laboratory observations, and longitudinal follow-ups. Frequency of daily positive relationship events (but not external positive events) during a 21-day diary period predicted declines in romantic attachment avoidance (but not anxiety) from pre- to post-diary in fledgling couples (Study 1) and newlyweds (Study 2). Video-recorded discussions of fledgling couples’ shared positive experiences revealed that behaviors validating the relationship (but not simply showing conversational interest) predicted lagged declines in romantic attachment avoidance (but not anxiety) over 1 month (Study 3). The associations were mediated by positive affect during the diary period in Studies 1 and 2, and by changes in positive affect from pre- to post-discussion in Study 3. Positive relationship experiences did not significantly interact with time in predicting romantic avoidance over a 1-year follow-up with quarterly assessments of attachment orientations in Study 1, over an 8-month follow-up with monthly assessments in Study 2, or over a 2-month follow-up with monthly assessments in Study 3. Altogether, these studies provide one of the most comprehensive tests of how positive relationship experiences in nondistressing contexts are linked to romantic attachment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
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Living (dys)regulated and alienated young masculinity—Young men’s embodied experiences of mental disorders and suicidality
Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, EarlyView.
The Role of Attachment Anxiety, Attachment Avoidance, and Grit on Life Satisfaction and Relationship Satisfaction
Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Ahead of Print. The present study examined the role of attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and grit on life satisfaction and romantic relationship satisfaction. We recruited participants (n = 378, mean age = 28.3) using convenience and snowball sampling (i.e., via Facebook and email). The sample consisted of 86 males, 284 females, 2 transgender individuals, and 6 individuals who did not indicate their gender. Participants completed online surveys. Results partially supported our hypotheses that greater attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance resulted in lower life satisfaction scores, but individuals with high grit had lower life satisfaction scores than those with low grit. Additionally, results supported the hypotheses that greater attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance resulted in lower romantic relationship satisfaction scores. However, we posit that grit may work differently in influencing life satisfaction compared with romantic relationship satisfaction, particularly among our younger sample. Implications of findings and directions for future research were also explored.
Basic Tenets of Separation Theory
Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Ahead of Print. This article outlines the basic tenets of separation theory, including the fantasy bond and the voice process. The fantasy bond is a unifying concept explaining how human beings seek security in fantasies of fusion in an attempt to heal the fracture related to interpersonal trauma compounded by death anxiety. Painful elements in parent–child interactions are incorporated in the form of a negative thought process or “voice,” creating a division in the personality between the self and the anti-self. My colleagues and I developed a methodology called “voice therapy” to expose and contend with people’s destructive attitudes and attacks on themselves. The article also describes the evolution of a group of more than 100 associates and friends who have lived in close proximity and shared their innermost feelings in an ongoing group experience for more than 40 years. These people contributed significantly to the evolution of separation theory. Together, we developed an implicit set of values based on understanding factors that hurt people in their psychological development. The article specifies the concepts learned from observing the reference population and delineates findings from research in the neurosciences, attachment theory, and terror management theory that validate the key concepts of separation theory.
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From childhood emotional maltreatment to disordered eating: A path analysis.
Psychoanalytic Psychology, Vol 40(2), Apr 2023, 90-98; doi:10.1037/pap0000438 Childhood emotional maltreatment (i.e., emotional abuse and emotional neglect), attachment, reflective functioning (RF), defense styles, and disordered eating (DE) are associated with each other. … We found significant indirect effects between emotional abuse and neglect and DE via attachment insecurities (anxiety and avoidance), low RF, and neurotic
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Detaching with Love and Openheartedness
A Personal Perspective: The balance between being entirely unaffected by others or being overly affected to the point of anxiety is a tricky one. These guidelines help me.
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The Fear of Abandonment: Missing Mothers and Fairy Tales
Fear of abandonment has pervaded storytelling throughout the ages. Fairy and folk tales, in particular, capture a range of dimensions of loss and transformation.
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Internalized homonegativity moderates the association between attachment avoidance and emotional intimacy among same-sex male couples
IntroductionThe present study aimed to examine dyadic associations between attachment insecurity and emotional intimacy in same-sex male couples, and to investigate whether and how each partner’s internalized homonegativity (IH) moderated these associations.MethodsThe sample included 138 same-sex male couples. Both dyad members completed self-report measures of attachment insecurity, emotional intimacy, and IH. The actor-partner interdependence model with moderation analysis was applied.ResultsIndicated that higher levels of actor’s and partner’s attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance were associated with lower actor’s emotional intimacy. IH moderated the partner effects of attachment avoidance on emotional intimacy. The partner’s higher attachment avoidance was associated with one’s own lower emotional intimacy at low (but not high) levels of one’s own IH and at high (but not low) levels of the partner’s IH.DiscussionFindings suggest that the partner’s attachment avoidance may differently affect one’s own emotional intimacy depending on the IH levels of both dyad members. Helping partnered sexual minority men decrease attachment insecurity while recognizing their own and their partners’ IH may promote relationship quality.
Is it really that important to you? How the topics of conflict and emotional reactions to conflicts explain the associations between attachment insecurities and relationship satisfaction
Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Volume 49, Issue 1, Page 260-279, January 2023.
