| This experimental study investigates the emotion regulating benefits of adult attachment figures by examining whether individuals' emotional and physiological reactivity to a stressful event is influenced by nonconscious priming of attachment figure representations. Moderating effects of individual differences in attachment security (i.e., anxiety and avoidance) are also tested. Further, the potential mediating effect of positive emotional responses to attachment figure activation are examined. Fifty-four women and 82 men were first exposed to a subliminal priming procedure in which they were exposed to either the name of their romantic partner, a positive emotion eliciting word (joyful), or a neutral word (hat). They were then instructed to prepare and deliver a 3-minute speech describing their own personal faults. Self-reported emotional responses were provided at the end of each study period. Physiological reactivity (i.e., heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, skin conductance, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure) measures were recorded throughout the experimental session. Nonconscious activation of attachment figure representations predicted many cognitive and emotional responses to the speaking task, but rarely predicted physiological responses. In some cases, exposure to the partner prime increased positive affect/appraisals or reduced negative affect/appraisals for low-anxious or low-avoidant individuals. In other cases the opposite was found. Also, in some cases the effects of the partner prime were notably distinct from the effects of the positive emotion prime, and in other cases they were parallel. The implications of the current findings for understanding the complex and multifaceted processes through which individuals derive emotion regulating benefits from romantic partners, even when they are not present, are discussed. |
