Testing alternative models of stability and change in adult attachment

根据依恋理论，人们构建“内部工作模型”——自我和社会世界的心理表征——在指导他们的人际行为和情感体验方面发挥着关键作用。不幸的是，我们并没有很好地理解这些表征的稳定性，也没有对促进依恋表征的连续性和变化的动态过程有一个共识的理解。例如，一些研究人员认为，工作模式在某种意义上是类似特质的，因为它们是人的持久特征——代表着在时间和环境中促进思想、感情和行为的稳定性。相比之下，一些研究人员认为，工作模式以一种情境方式表现，在不同的条件下，这些模式的不同特征被激活，最终导致依恋随着时间的推移而不稳定。这项研究的主要目的是回答依恋动力学的三个关键问题：成人依恋的稳定性和变化模式是否与特征模型、情境模型或两者的某种组合的预测更一致？第二，基本人格特征，如神经质，能否解释依恋稳定性的经验模式？第三，依恋表征如何影响关系体验，又如何受到关系体验的影响？为了实现这些目标，研究人员将招募处于约会/婚姻关系中的个体，在12个月的时间里，每周（样本1）或每两个月（样本2）完成依恋、个性和人际经历的自我报告。拟议的研究将为这些基本理论问题提供第一个严格的调查。此外，由于提出的研究解决了一系列在社会和人格心理学中具有广泛意义的问题（例如，稳定和变化背后的动态机制是什么？），这项研究有可能促进一个广义框架的发展，以更广泛地理解人格、情感和社会过程的稳定和变化的动态。

According to attachment theory, people construct "internal working models"-mental representations of the self and the social world-that play a critical role in guiding their interpersonal behavior and affective experience across time. Unfortunately, we do not have a good understanding of how stable these representations are, nor do we have a consensual understanding of the dynamic processes that promote continuity and change in attachment representations. Some researchers, for example, have suggested that working models are trait-like in the sense that they are enduring features of people-representations that facilitate stability in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors across time and context. In contrast, some researchers have argued that working models behave in a contextual manner, with different features of those models being activated under different conditions, ultimately leading to instability in attachment over time. The primary aims of the proposed research are to answer three critical questions of the dynamics of attachment: Are patterns of stability and change in adult attachment more consistent with the predictions of a trait-like model, a contextual model, or some combination of the two? Second, can basic personality traits, such as neuroticism, explain empirical patterns of attachment stability? And, third, how do attachment representations influence-and get influenced by-relational experiences? To accomplish these aims, individuals in dating/marital relationships will be recruited to complete self-report measures of attachment, personality, and interpersonal experiences weekly (Sample 1) or bimonthly (Sample 2) for twelve months. The proposed study will provide the first rigorous investigation into these fundamental theoretical questions. Moreover, because the proposed research addresses a set of issues that are of broad significance in social and personality psychology (e.g., What are the dynamic mechanisms underlying stability and change?), this investigation has the potential to facilitate the development of a generalized framework for understanding the dynamics of stability and change in personality, affective, and social processes more generally.