Anxious and Avoidant Attachment to God Predict Moral Foundations beyond Adult Attachment

Abstract

Van IJzendoorn and Zwart-Woudstra (1995) and Shaver and Mikulincer (2012) have proposed that adult attachment patterns are related to moral decision-making. We explore the relationship between attachment to God (ATG) and the 5 moral foundations proposed by Haidt and Graham (2007)—care/harm, fairness/reciprocity, ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity. Data from 306 adult subjects, who completed measures of adult attachment, ATG, and the 5 moral foundations, were collected online. Results revealed that attachment to God accounted for significant levels of variability in all 5 foundations above and beyond the variability accounted for by adult romantic and best friend attachment. ATG avoidance was negatively related to the care, fairness, authority, and purity foundations, while ATG anxiety was positively related to the in-group loyalty and authority foundations. Our results suggest that those with insecure attachment patterns—in this case regarding God as an attachment figure—have different moral foundation profiles.

Test of the Social Buffering Hypothesis in the Context of Religious Disagreements

“…For example, avoidant attachment in romantic relationships negatively predicted individuating morals, with empathic concern mediating this relationship (Koleva et al, 2014). Although Njus and Okerstrom (2016) found among their sample that romantic avoidance was only negatively and weakly predictive of in-group loyalty, friendship avoidance and God-attachment avoidance were both negatively and weakly associated with individuating morals. Additionally, avoidant attachment style has also been found to be predictive of less forgiveness (e.g., Davis et al, 2008; Wade et al, 2018).…”

Apego a Deus: revisão integrativa de literatura empírica

“…Seis estudos (BIRGEGARD; GRANQVIST, 2004;CASSIBBA et al, 2008;NJUS;OKERSTROM, 2016;RASHIDI et al, 2016, KENT et al, 2016 pesquisaram o apego a Deus na fase adulta.…”