Attachment and Communication: Softening the Demands for Intimacy with Avoidantly Attached Individuals
Year: 2017
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Three samples examined the influence of attachment avoidance on positively receiving messages of affection during couple conversations about love. The interactions were coded for speaker and listener behaviours to determine which actions were most effective when communicating affection. Factor analyses yielded a two factor solution of speaker behaviours: positive involvement and directness. Positive involvement included speaker engagement, expressiveness, enjoyment and love, while directness included speaker emotion, authenticity and deflecting. Results indicated that there was a speaker involvement by listener avoidance interaction on how loved the listener looked and self-reported positive emotion, such that avoidant listeners showed significantly more behavioural love when the speaker was high relative to low in positive involvement. There was no speaker directness by listener avoidance interactions. These results suggest that being involved rather than direct with an avoidant partner may be one way to lower their emotional defenses and accept the speaker's messages of affection.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Kristina M. Schrage
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2740538523