Collaborative Research: Separating transient and enduring forms of change in adult attachment styles

合作研究：区分成人依恋风格的短暂和持久变化形式

• 批准号: 1423970
• 负责人: Omri Gillath
• 金额: $ 11万
• 依托单位: University of Kansas Center for Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-15 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1423970&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Separating; transient; enduring

Having strong close relationships with others is associated with health and well-being. However, people vary in how secure they are in their close relationships. Although some people are relatively confident that others will be available and supportive when needed, other people are not. These individual differences, or what social and personality psychologists sometimes refer to as attachment styles, have broad consequences for interpersonal functioning, emotion regulation, and health. How stable are attachment styles? Do certain life experiences (e.g., starting a new relationship, losing a loved one) have the potential to change attachment styles? And, if so, are these changes temporary or are they enduring? These relatively basic questions, despite being foundational for the field, have been difficult to answer; the proposed research will address this critical gap. More broadly, the proposed work will provide valuable information on what kinds of experiences can be catalysts for change. Given that attachment relationships can play a role in mental and physical health, this research may shed light on how shifts in interpersonal processes and experiences could facilitate well-being.The primary focus of the proposed research is to determine what kinds of life events and interpersonal experiences lead to enduring vs. transient changes in attachment security. To accomplish this, people will be recruited to complete self-report measures of attachment styles, personality, and interpersonal experiences once a month for a period of 24 months. This research methodology has the potential to advance our understanding of stability and change in in two crucial ways. First, previous studies have rarely had access to multiple assessments of attachment style following important life events, making it difficult to know whether changes in security are fleeting. Second, researchers rarely have access to multiple assessments of attachment style before specific life events take place, making it difficult to know how people were (or were not) changing before specific life events. The longitudinal methods in the current research will allow estimation of trajectories of security before and after naturally occurring life events. Moreover, because the proposed research addresses a set of issues that are of broad significance in social, developmental, and personality psychology, this investigation has the potential to contribute to a framework for understanding stability and change in personality and interpersonal processes more generally.

与他人保持牢固的亲密关系与健康和幸福有关。然而，人们在亲密关系中的安全感各不相同。尽管有些人相对自信地认为别人会在需要的时候提供帮助和支持，但其他人则不然。这些个体差异，或者社会和人格心理学家有时称之为依恋风格，对人际功能、情绪调节和健康有着广泛的影响。依恋类型有多稳定？某些生活经历（例如，开始一段新的关系，失去所爱的人）是否有可能改变依恋类型？如果是这样，这些变化是暂时的还是持久的？这些相对基本的问题，尽管是该领域的基础，却很难回答；拟议的研究将解决这一关键差距。更广泛地说，拟议的工作将提供有价值的信息，说明什么样的经验可以成为变革的催化剂。鉴于依恋关系可以在心理和身体健康中发挥作用，这项研究可能会揭示人际关系过程和经历的转变如何促进幸福。本研究的主要焦点是确定什么样的生活事件和人际经历会导致依恋安全的持久变化和短暂变化。为了完成这项研究，研究人员将在24个月的时间里，每月一次招募参与者完成依恋类型、个性和人际交往经历的自我报告。这种研究方法有可能在两个关键方面促进我们对稳定性和变化的理解。首先，之前的研究很少有机会在重要的生活事件之后对依恋类型进行多重评估，这使得很难知道安全感的变化是否转瞬即逝。其次，在特定的生活事件发生之前，研究人员很少有机会对依恋类型进行多次评估，这使得很难知道人们在特定的生活事件发生之前是如何变化的。目前研究中的纵向方法将允许估计在自然发生的生活事件之前和之后的安全轨迹。此外，由于提出的研究解决了一系列在社会、发展和人格心理学中具有广泛意义的问题，因此这项研究有可能为更广泛地理解人格和人际关系过程的稳定性和变化提供一个框架。