Lovers Conflict And Intimate Scenarios, The Safety And Avoidance Type Of Attachment To Individual Emotional Adjustment Differences

Adult attachment style(AAS) is a key factor of individual difference in the way people perceive and regulate their social relationships and corresponding emotions.Because such regulatory efforts of attachment processes are tightly linked with general emotion regulation mechanisms, some researchers have argued that “the attachment system is, in itself, an emotional regulation device”. Avoidantly attached people tend to deal with emotion by decreasing attention to emotion information and then inhibition behavior or expressive suppression,while securely attached individuals prefer a cognitive re-evaluation of the meaning and impact of events for interpersonal relationships. The strategies preferred by two attachment type correspond to behavioral inhibition or expressive suppression(ESUP) of emotions, also termed“response-focused” regulation(avoidantly attachment) and “antecedent-focused”regulation or reappraisal(secure attachment) cross the Cross’ s mode. Previous researches had illuminated the efficiency as well as the preference use of different emotion regulation strategies(ER) among different attachment styles in theoretical and behavioral study, but still lacked empirical researches to study difference between regulating positive and negative emotion systematically and comprehensively and explore temporal dynamic mechanisms. What’s more, major attachment figures had changed from caregivers to lovers as we grow up, which promote developing specific-relationship attachment represent with interaction with lovers, it’s a good choice to choose the two type pictures including intimate lovers and lovers in conflict as material to evoke positive and negative emotion and active attachment system for better study the emotion regulation differences in two kinds of situation,while scripts in previous study were mixed with offspring/partners/lovers. Event-related potential(ERP)was used to investigate the the electrocortical modulation effects in the regulation strategies focused on reappraisal(REAP) and expressive suppression(ESUP) between avoidant attachment type and secure attachment type while participants were shown the two type pictures including lover conflict--the particular negative context and intimate lover.The results showed that:(1) specific scenario can induce different attached individuals different emotional response : avoidantly attached individuals’ emotional response to romantic conflict context is stronger, but weaker to intimate context,compared with securely attached individuals.(2) In romantic conflict context,expressive suppression attenuated the emotional responding early than reappraisal,but the effect is incomplete and not-lasting for avoidant attachment. While for secure attachment, reappraisal attenuated the emotional responding early than suppression,as well as the regulation is long-lasting and effective. In romantic intimate context, for securely attached individuals,reappraisal is an effective and stable strategy,while expressive suppression effect briefly.For avoidantly attached individuals,expressive suppression can down-regulate positive emotion lastingly.It is the first time to explore the attachment as an important individual differences’ factor in emotional regulation from the specificity of scene and time course, the study’s result support emotion regulation difference in different attachment types, not only from the perspective of time resolution extends the relationship between attachment style and emotion regulation, but also expand Gross’ s theory about the individuals’ difference in emotion regulation strategies-cognitive reappraisal and suppression expression.