“Partner in Prime”? Effects of repeated mobile security priming on attachment security and perceived stress in daily life

Abstract

Lacking secure attachment representations is associated with vulnerability to mental and physical health problems, perhaps mediated by increased susceptibility to stress and impaired emotion regulation. Even though cognitive representations of self and others tend to favor confirmation over information, research has shown that adult attachment security can be positively influenced. In a randomized control trial using a mixed between- and within-subjects design, participants (N = 112) were mobile primed with attachment security stimulating visualization tasks, over a 7-day period. Self-reported attachment security was unchanged; however, reduced attachment avoidance and perceived stress and increased resilience and self-compassion scores were obtained up to one week after the last prime. Participants who reported less effort and more pleasure in carrying out the visualization tasks experienced the highest gains. Results highlight the potential of mobile attachment security priming for intervention, but also the differential potential of such intervention for people with different attachment orientations.

The Role of Physical Activity on Parental Rejection and Body Image Perceptions

“…Adjusting to consistent experiences of rejection, individuals growing up in rejecting parental environments become dismissive. As no one seems to care about these individuals' negative feelings or makes an attempt to mitigate them (soothing), they become conditioned to care less about their own (and others') feelings as well as learn to care less about other people and their inputs [34,82,83]. In the present study, however, the group who recalled higher parental rejection did not report high levels of rejection.…”

Attachment Security Priming Delayed Negative Information-Related Attentional Disengagement Among Anxiously Attached Individuals: Evidence From Behavioral and Functional MRI Experiments

“…A temporally enhanced sense of attachment security has been found to benefit cognitive, emotional, and behavioral outcomes ( Mikulincer and Shaver, 2007 ). One of the significant beneficial effects of attachment security is emotional regulation, or more specifically, mitigating the damage caused by various types of threats or unpleasant events ( Karremans et al, 2011 ; Liao et al, 2017 ; Karreman et al, 2018 ; Oehler and Psouni, 2019 ; Wu et al, 2020 ). People that have higher attachment security report fewer negative experiences evoked by unpleasant stimuli (e.g., physical pain; Carnelley and Rowe, 2007 ; Master et al, 2009 ).…”

The Study of Security Priming on Avoidant Attentional Biases: Combining Microsaccadic Eye-Movement Measurement With a Dot-Probe Task

“…Security priming, an experimental manipulation that alters felt security by activating relevant mental representations, can moderate negative outcomes linked with insecure attachment ( Gillath and Karantzas, 2019 ). For instance, security priming has been shown to reduce aggression ( Mikulincer and Shaver, 2007 ), increase creative problem-solving capacity ( Mikulincer et al, 2011 ), and reduce stress over time ( Oehler and Psouni, 2018 ). Priming also influences memory processing, enhancing recall of positive attachment-related words, and relational expectations ( Rowe and Carnelley, 2003 ).…”