Attachment Style On The Processing Of Emotional Information In The Different Emotional Impact

Mood-congruent effect refers to the tendency for one to give priority to process information that matches the individual's mood. Although this effect has been evidenced by many studies, there are a large number of studies still draws contrary conclusions. Studies have shown that there are many factors affect mood congruency effect, which including personality, motivation, experimental conditions and so on. Attachment style is a stable psychological behavior patterns that form in an individual interactions with attachment object from childhood. In the growth of individuals, different attachment styles will develop the corresponding emotion regulation strategies, which may influence the production of mood congruency effects. Therefore, this research aims to examine the role that attachment style which explain individual differences in the process of affect regulation plays in moderating the effect of mood on emotional information processing through two experiments.In experiment 1, participants were randomly divided into negative affect group and control group. In the negative affect condition, they were asked to watch a negative short film. In the control condition, participants were in neutral states. And then, all the participants performed a lexical decision tasks and a free recall task, and completed an attachment style scale. The results showed:(1) Negative affect had not influence on reaction time on a lexical decision, and in which attachment style had not moderating effects; however, attachment anxiety had a positive predictor on reaction time of positive word. (2) Attachment style moderating the effect of negative affect on memory of emotional word. Securely attached persons and avoidance attached persons showed no significant difference in their positivity-of-recall index to the negative and neutral affect inductions. Anxiously attached persons and fearfully attached persons reacted with a mood-congruent pattern (worse recall of positive information, better recall of negative information).In experiment 2, participants were randomly divided into positive affect group and control group. In the positive affect condition, they were asked to remember two happy events. In the control condition, participants were in neutral states. And then, all the participants performed the same task and scale with the experiment 1. The results showed:(1) Mood and attachment style had not influence on reaction time on a lexical decision. (2) Attachment anxiety moderating the effect of positive affect on memory of emotional word. High attachment anxiety reacted to induced positive affect with a worse positivity-of-recall index compared with neutral condition; low attachment anxiety showed no significant difference in their positivity-of-recall index to the positive and neutral affect inductions.