Attachment and emotional experiences: Regulatory strategies used with negative and positive emotions in response to daily life events and social interaction feedback

Associations between attachment and emotional experiences were examined in two studies. In the first study, participants (119 undergraduates) reported on their emotional reactions to positive and negative events from their own lives three times a day for four days. After one week, for participants' most positive and negative event which occurred during the four days of daily reporting, they estimated their earlier emotional reactions, reported coping strategies used and current feelings toward the events. In the second study, emotion regulation strategies were examined in a laboratory setting to control for the variability of events in the first study. Participants (133 undergraduates) were informed the study was about first impressions. They engaged in a five minute conversation with a confederate and were randomly assigned to receive positive or negative feedback about their personality. To assess regulatory strategies, after viewing the feedback participants completed a measure of emotional reactions, a stream-of-consciousness thought task, and measures of inward and outward directed strategies. Across both studies, attachment showed some relation to emotion regulation. Specifically, secure attachment was related to a greater likelihood to be accurate or overestimate positive affect, and more processing of positive experiences. Preoccupied attachment was associated with more intense negative emotions, and more negative thought processes even after receiving positive feedback. Hypotheses for dismissing attachment were not supported in that dismissing individuals did not underestimate initial negative affect intensity, rely on avoidant coping or blame the confederate for the negative feedback. Fearful attachment was linked to a tendency to focus on negative experiences (i.e. receiving negative feedback), but not positive events or emotions.