Omri Gillath, Emre Selcuk, P. Shaver
Jul 1, 2008
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Journal
Social and Personality Psychology Compass
Abstract
Despite the abundant literature on attachment processes and the development of a secure or insecure attachment orientation during childhood, it is still unclear whether adult attachment style can be changed through systematic interventions, and if so how the change process works. One way to learn more about such change is to create it, on a small scale, in the laboratory. It is already known that a person’s sense of security can be momentarily changed in the laboratory (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007a). But there is clearly a difference between very short-term and longer-term change. According to Bowlby (1982), the development of an attachment orientation in childhood is based on many encounters and interactions with caregivers, which gradually create a mental network of relatively stable expectations and concerns. Thus, it may take many episodes of security priming in a laboratory to begin to affect a young adult’s attachment style in a lasting way. Here, we explore this possibility, review existing evidence from our own and other researchers’ laboratories, and discuss directions for future research. Beginning in infancy, people rely on attachment figures (close relationship partners who provide protection, comfort, and support; Bowlby, 1982) when they encounter stresses, threats, or disappointments. Over time, these figures and encounters with them are internalized as mental representations, which attachment theorists call ‘working models’ (e.g., Bretherton & Munholland, 1999). These models can represent the self, key relationship partners, and major kinds of interactions with such partners. Such mental representations are associated in memory with particular emotions, motives, and goals that, taken together, form a person’s attachment style (e.g., Gillath et al., 2006; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007b). Attachment styles are thought to develop through a combination of conditioning and cognitive representation (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007b). For example, attachment figures who reliably provide safety and support in times of need reinforce the association in long-term memory between turning to them and having one’s anxiety and stress reduced. Eventually, merely calling a supportive attachment figure to mind and perhaps also