No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Attachment to objects as compensation for close others' perceived unreliability
Abstract
Attachment theory posits that close interpersonal relationships provide people with psychological security across the lifespan. Research shows that when people perceive that close others are unreliable, they may seek alternative, non-social sources of security (e.g., deities). Building on this work, the authors hypothesized that attachment to objects compensates for threatened attachment security when close others are unreliable. Partic-ipants primed with close others', but not strangers', unreliability reported increased attachment to belongings (Study 1), and this effect was mediated by feelings of attachment anxiety (concern over close others' availabili-ty), but not attachment avoidance (avoiding emotional dependence; Study 2), suggesting that object attachment compensates for the perception that close others are unreliable rather than consistently rejecting. In Study 3, when a valued belonging was removed, participants primed with uncertainty about their relationships showed increased separation anxiety and motivation to reunite with the belonging, regardless of the belonging's perceived importance for facilitating relationships.
... Maka, penggunaan media sosial akan menyediakan saluran untuk menyerap masalah bersemuka dengan orang lain dan sebagai wadah untuk menyembuniykan perasaan tidak selamat mereka. Kajian menunjukkan bahawa apabila keselamatan pergantungan seseorang menjadi terancam, manusia akan membina hubungan dengan objek yang tidak bernyawa (Keefer et al., 2012). Manusia akan bergantung kepada objek dimana dalam kontek hari ini adalah dengan menggunakan telefon pintar. ...
... Dengan ini, akan membentuk kepada suatu pergantungan emosi terhadap media sosial (Bata et al., 2018). Dalam jangka masa panjang, pergantungan emosi kepada teknologi akan membentuk kesan negative kepada psikologi dna fisiologi pengguna kerana ia akan membentuk ikatan yang tidak benar dengan membentuk keresahan apabila berpisah daripada penggunaan media sosial itu (Keefer et al., 2012). ...
... Media sosial mengandungi elemen dimana pengguna boleh membuat aktiviti berdasarkan minat dalam masa sebenar yang akan mengakibatkan pergantungan emosi terhadap aplikasi yang berkaitan. Pergantungan yang terlalu lama akan menyebabkan kesihatan psikologi akan terganggu dalam bentuk keresahan akibat berpisah dan pergantungan melalui penanaman norma kebolehpercayaan (Bata et al., 2018;Keefer et al 2012). Dengan sokongan daripada literatur, dua hipotesis pertama dicadangkan seperti berikut: H1: Keresahan pergantungan dalam kalangan belia mempunyai pengaruh positif kepada ketakutan ditinggalkan ke atas media sosial H 2 : Mengelakkan pergantungan dalam kalangan belia mempunyai pengaruh positif kepada ketakutan ditinggalkan ke atas media sosial. ...
... On the other hand, increased perceptions of the interdependence/enslavement paradox increased well-being. Although seemingly counterintuitive, it may be that having a relationship with one's phone provides security and comfort (Keefer et al. 2012;Melumad and Pham, 2020). Indeed, we do find that the interdependence/enslavement paradox was predictive of experiencing smartphones both as securing (refuge), but also as monopolizing (burden). ...
... Nevertheless, even as enslavement can seem negative, it can also send positive signals (availability and commitment). Moreover, proximity with one's phone might serve to relieve anxiety (missing an urgent call), with increases in others' unreliability creating a stronger object/smartphone attachment (Keefer et al., 2012). This perpetual connection to the phone might be advantageous, making this interdependence/enslavement paradox positively related to wellbeing. ...
... This paradox was also positively related to well-being, meaning that feeling both interdependent and enslaved led users to experiencing higher levels of well-being. This is in line with research showing that phone reliability may serve as a substitution for unreliable relationships in the physical world, and that it can also be an advantage in anxious relationships, where the attachment object can never be too close (Keefer et al, 2012;Trub and Barbot, 2016). ...
We use a paradox approach (Mick and Fournier, 1998) to explore how consumers use and experience their smartphones. To do so, we use a mixed method approach where we interviewed 28 participants across seven focus groups to learn more about when and how they used their smartphones. Participants reported many tensions with regard to their smartphone use, from which we derived one overarching paradox and five specific paradoxes, including two new paradoxes. To support and extend our qualitative findings, we also administered a questionnaire examining the proposed paradoxes and their possible connections to important consumer consequences such as ambivalence, attachment, and well‐being. Overall, we found evidence of a push and pull (or ambivalent) relationship between participants and their smartphones. Specifically, its great functionality and reliability make the connection cherished, but this ongoing reliance takes away the very same things it was meant to help build.
... "Attachment" denotes a very strong bond someone has with an attachment figure who, in their mind, provides so much security and safety to the individual that they are very dependent on the attachment figure -to the point where separation from that figure would result in serious psychological distress [2,25]. Psychological Attachment Theory was pioneered as a study of infants' attachment to their caregivers [6], and has since been extended to encompass people's attachment to pets [74], symbols or deities [39], or objects [33]. Specifically, an attachment bond would form if the caregiver met the infant's needs for security and affectionate comfort when distressed; with these two functional roles played by the attachment figure being labeled the secure base and safe haven functions. ...
... In times like that, the robot can act as a supplement to human companionship. Humans form secondary attachment bonds, beyond their primary human-human bonds, with many types of non-human agents, such as pets [74], deities [23], and objects or technologies [27,33,34]. When other people are absent, these secondary attachment figures can help to lower stress [23]. ...
... Robots, too, could play this role of secondary attachment figure. By virtue of straddling the line between objects and agents, robots possess the ability to be reliably present when primary attachment figures (humans, pets) may not be -a key feature leading to the development of secondary attachments [33]. In this way, a robot would not replace any of the social interactions in the child's life, but rather be available as a companion when other people are not. ...
Potential applications of robots in private and public human spaces have prompted the design of so-called “social robots” that can interact with humans in social settings and potentially cause humans to attach to the robots. The focus of this paper is an analysis of possible benefits and challenges arising from such human-robot attachment as reported in the HRI literature, followed by guidelines for the use and the design of robots that might elicit attachment bonds. We start by analyzing the potential benefits for humans becoming attached to robots, which might include increased natural interaction, effectiveness and acceptance of the robot, social companionship, and well-being for the human. Turning to the potential risks associated with human-robot attachment, we discuss the possibly suboptimal use of the robot in the most benign cases, but also the potential formation of unidirectional emotional bonds, and the potential for deception and subconscious influence of the robot on the person in more severe cases. The upshot of the analysis then is a recommendation to reconceptualize relationships with social robots in an attempt to retain potential benefits of human-robot attachment, while mitigating (to the extent possible) its downsides.
... There is reason to speculate that attachment is related to how people relate to and use their smartphone devices. It is known that attachment expectancies impact expectancies across multiple domainsnot only across different types of relationships but to objects as well (Keefer et al., 2012). Preliminary research suggests that individuals with higher levels of attachment anxiety in close relationships manifest parallel feelings towards the deviceanxiety when separated from it and safety when it is close by (Keefer et al., 2012;Trub & Barbot, 2016). ...
... It is known that attachment expectancies impact expectancies across multiple domainsnot only across different types of relationships but to objects as well (Keefer et al., 2012). Preliminary research suggests that individuals with higher levels of attachment anxiety in close relationships manifest parallel feelings towards the deviceanxiety when separated from it and safety when it is close by (Keefer et al., 2012;Trub & Barbot, 2016). The same is true, though to a lesser extent, for individuals with high levels of attachment avoidance. ...
... Other findings suggested that women's perceptions of their smartphonesand the psychological connection they experience towards themwas directly associated with more general attachment-related expectancies. This illustrates the extent to which interpersonal expectancies have the potential to generalize to perceptions of the devices through which communication is mediateda notion which has begun to gain traction in attachment research (Keefer et al., 2012;Trub & Barbot, 2016). Specifically, women with greater attachment anxiety felt a greater degree of refuge and safety, and a lesser degree of burden, towards the device. ...
A lack of clarity exists regarding associations between sexting – an increasingly common form of sexual communication – and sexual risk taking. This is particularly relevant for younger, heterosexually-active women who are at elevated risk for sexually transmitted infections and may be likely to consent to sexting that is unwanted in response to partner pressure. Separately, attachment insecurity has been associated with overall sexting and unwanted (but consensual) sexting specifically. This study tested a model comprised of two paths linking attachment insecurity, sexting and sexual risk through 1) sexual communication skills and 2) smartphone-related expectancies. Participants included 2559 women (Mage = 23.07; SD = 3.04) who reported US residence and recent (past 60 day) sex with a male partner. Attachment anxiety and avoidance were negatively associated with the odds of sex with casual partners (both with and without condoms) through sexual communication and overall sexting. Attachment anxiety was positively associated with the odds of sex with casual partners (with and without condoms) through escape motivations and overall sexting. Simultaneously, attachment anxiety was associated with increased odds of condomless sex through escape motivations and unwanted sexting. Implications are discussed for smartphone-based, sexual risk reduction interventions targeting relationship expectancies, sexual communication, and emotional regulation.
... Attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969) has recently been proposed as an adaptive framework within which to conceptualize young adults' relationships with their smartphones (Keefer et al., 2012;Konok et al., 2016;see Parent & Shapka, 2020 for a detailed theoretical overview). From this perspective, it has been theorized that young adults develop attachment relationships with their smartphones and use them to satisfy their attachment needs. ...
... Indeed, building on Bowlby's (1969) assertion that attachment targets exist within a hierarchy with the primary attachment figure at the top, Hazan and Shaver (1994) specified that, though they differ in their importance, people normally become attached to multiple individuals, and even to inanimate objects. In support of this, research has shown that individuals readily form attachments with nonhuman targets (e.g., companion animals; Archer & Ireland, 2011, places;Scannell & Gifford, 2010, and material objects;Cipriani & Kreider, 2009;Keefer et al., 2012;Konok et al., 2016;Konok et al., 2017;Myers, 1985), and that they derive security from these targets by virtue of their perceived reliability. Thus, similar to attachment to human targets, attachment to objects (e.g., smartphones) is said to reflect the major features of attachment bonds (i.e., proximity of the attachment object provides a sense of security to the individual and a safe haven in situations of distress, such that separation from the object results in separation anxiety; Ainsworth, 1985;Bowlby, 1969;Hazan & Shaver, 1994). ...
... Indeed, this has been supported by work from Konok et al. (2016) which found that young adults readily form attachments to their smartphones, and that this is particularly true for those high in attachment anxiety, as assessed in their relationships with romantic partners. Moreover, in further support of this, work from Keefer et al. (2012) indicated that individuals primed with relationship uncertainty experienced more separation anxiety upon being separated from their smartphones. In contrast, individuals high in attachment avoidance, characterized by chronic attempts to inhibit the activation of the attachment system as a means of minimizing emotional distress (Chopik & Peterson, 2014), are hypothesized to be less likely to form attachments to their smartphones as they tend to avoid forming new attachment bonds in general (Parent & Shapka, 2020). ...
Given recent concerns around the conceptualization of problematic smartphone use within a medical-addiction model, the objective of this work is to examine an alternative, adaptive, framework in which to conceptualize young adults’ experiences of problematic smartphone use. Specifically, this work employed an attachment theory lens to understanding young adults’ experiences of problematic smartphone use through examining the relationship between their attachment dimensions (i.e., attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance), their experiences of problematic smartphone use, and their use of their smartphone as an attachment target. Online questionnaires were administered to 403 participants (ages 18–25). Hierarchical Linear Regression and mediation analysis were used to examine the relationship between young adults’ attachment dimensions, problematic smartphone use, and their use of their smartphone as an attachment target. Findings indicate that young adults higher in attachment anxiety (but not in attachment avoidance) experience more problematic smartphone use, and that this relationship is accounted for by their use of their smartphone as an attachment target. Results from this work support the use of an attachment theory framework for understanding what has typically been conceptualized as a behavioural addiction to smartphones.
... In the psychological study of Attachment Theory, researchers use the word "attachment" to denote a very strong bond someone has with an attachment figure who, in their mind, provides so much security and safety to the individual that they are very dependent on the attachment figure -to the point where separation from that figure would result in serious psychological distress [1]. Psychological Attachment Theory was pioneered as a study of infants' attachment to their caregivers, and has since been extended to encompass people's attachment to pets [99], symbols or deities [61], or objects [57]. In line with [26] we question whether robots are truly the objects of our attachment to the degree that we experience classic infant-caregiver markers of anxiety and avoidance in our bonds with them. ...
... However, similarly to human-human attachment, more recent experimental evidence is building to support the claim that human-object attachment is not simply limited to infants. Keefer, Landau, Rothschild, and Sullivan argue in a series of papers that attachment to non-human targets can be viewed as compensation for lack of similar attachment with human others [57,59,58]. They experimentally demonstrate that when primed with unreliability of close others, participants scored higher on an attachment to objects measure. ...
... Indeed, Granqvist even goes so far as to label these bonds "attachment-like," clearly distinguishing them from the strong attachments engendered by human-human bonds. Moreover, human-object attachment as described by Keefer at al. seems to fit the same pattern as participants turned toward objects to compensate for the perceived unreliability of close others [57]. ...
Attachment theory is a research area in psychology that has enjoyed decades of successful study, and has subsequently become explored in realms beyond that of the original infant-caregiver bonds. Now, attachment is studied in relation to pets, symbols (such as deities), objects, technologies, and notably for our purposes, robots. When we discuss attachment in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), is “attachment” to a robot the same as being attached to a pet? Or does it more closely resemble attachment to a technology device such as a smartphone? Through untangling the concept of attachment in HRI, we summarize a breadth of the existing attachment literature in a unified spectrum. We present a notion of weak attachment, and strong attachment before setting both as distinct ends of a spectrum of attachment. We motivate this spectrum by teasing out the underlying theoretical basis for strong attachment, and how capabilities of the attachment figure could lead to stronger or weaker attachment. This more nuanced, multi-dimensional representation of attachment allows us to present a clarified categorization of where various human-robot bonds explored in HRI studies fit on the spectrum, where robots in general could place, and how a clearer definition of human-robot attachment can benefit future HRI studies.
... The relationship between people and what they cherish can be traced back to our infancy and its influence is very much relevant throughout our life span (Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1981). The source of attachment security sometimes extends beyond the usual circle of close relationships and includes non-human objects or possessions (Keefer, Landau, Rothschild, & Sullivan, 2012). ...
... The association between individuals and their inanimate cherished objects reflects the human need for psychological security obtained from close relationships (Bowlby, 1969(Bowlby, , 1982. Eventually, people develop a close attachment to inanimate objects if this need is thwarted (Keefer et al., 2012). Specifically, this attachment helps an individual to identify their separate sense of self and find a healthy way to identify as a social being (Dyl & Wapner, 1996). ...
... This bond is generally persistent with time and involves a relentless motivation of the individual to be with their targeted object of affection (Ainsworth, 1989). The context of human attachment to their object of affection is extensively discussed in the empirical literature on cherished possessions (Keefer et al., 2012). ...
The word cherishing is frequently used in our daily jargons. It is also very often mentioned in empirical literature on cherished possessions. However, despite the relevance of the term in the empirical literature on cherished possessions, very little is known about the way it operates in people’s lives. The only link with cherishing happens to be the studies conducted in individualistic cultures on cherished possessions. Besides, there is hardly any consensus on how cherishing operates in collectivistic culture such as India owing to the scarce literature available on the topic. Hence, the present study addresses the gap in the literature with the objective to explore the concept of cherishing. The present study examines cherishing through qualitative investigation by using semi-structured interviews in India. Forty-eight participants were interviewed for the study. Analysis of the data based on grounded theory techniques revealed three major themes: (i) the attributes of cherishing, (ii) functions of cherishing and (iii) the objects of cherishing. The attributes of cherishing convey a sense of protectiveness, a tendency to care, affective orientation and reminiscence. The functions reveal the benefits experienced from cherishing. The objects of cherishing convey the targets towards which one experiences cherishing. Recommendations for further study, along with theoretical and practical implications of the study findings, are also discussed.
... Attachment objects provide relief from negative emotions when an individual is distressed (Bretherton, 1985). Therefore, object attachment is defined as a type of compensatory attachment strategy when the primary attachment figure is absent (Bowly, 1969;Keefer et al., 2012). In other words, attachment object gives individuals a sense of security in stressful situations, allowing them to use adaptive emotional regulation strategies (Bowly, 1969). ...
... Individuals experienced greater anxiety, fear and distress upon being separated from the MP. Individuals also reported increased motivation to reunite with it (Arpaci, 2019;Cheever et al., 2014;Keefer et al., 2012;Konok et al., 2016;2017;Mannion, 2018). Moreover, it was found that young adults saw their MPs as a source of security (Fowler & Noyes, 2015). ...
... To continue with H1b, in line with previous work from Keefer et al. (2012) and Konok et al. (2016Konok et al. ( , 2017, findings from the present study indicate that Turkish university students form some degree of attachment to the MP. The phone attachment has the main features of interpersonal attachment that are separation anxiety, safe haven, secure base and proximity maintenance (Ainsworth, 1985). ...
The main aim of this study was to adapt the Mobile Attachment Questionnaire (MAQ) to Turkish culture. It was also aimed to investigate whether mobile phone attachment (MPA) exists in Turkish university students and whether it has the main characteristics of interpersonal attachment. This study also aimed to investigate the MPA's relationship with nomophobia, smartphone addiction and materialism, and to examine the predictive power of them on MPA. The study group consisted of a total of 242 university students. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to determine the structural validity of the MAQ-TR. The goodness of fit/home/prx indices met the model fit requirements for the four-factor 13-item MAQ-TR. Reliability analyses results provided high internal consistency coefficients. Correlation analyses results showed that individuals highly attached to their phones experienced more severe symptoms of nomophobia and smartphone addiction and materialists were more likely to accept their phones as attachment object. Regression analysis showed that nomophobia, smartphone addiction and materialism were significant predictors of MPA. Given that MPA is an understudied concept, this study provides a starting point for future researches on problematic and non-problematic phone use.
... We believe that individual attachment styles, defined as working models of how people behave in social interactions (Shaver et al., 2005), might be particularly relevant to understanding customers' affective, attitudinal, and behavioral responses to interactions with frontline service robots. Specifically, we build on the idea that, in the case of absence or unreliability of human figures, people can rely on nonhuman targets (e.g., service robots) to generate compensatory experiences of attachment security (Keefer et al., 2012;Mikulincer & Shaver, 2016). ...
... Previous research suggests that customers can form attachments to nonhuman targets to generate compensatory experiences of attachment security (Mikulincer et al., 2003). Specifically, Keefer et al. (2012) found that people report increased attachment to objects and that this effect was mediated by attachment anxiety, but not by attachment avoidance. Furthermore, Konok et al. (2016) studied the role of AAS in people's attachment to mobile phones, reporting that higher customers' scores on AAS, but not on avoidant attachment, were associated with higher predisposition to forming an attachment to their mobile device. ...
... Anxious attached individuals crave intimacy in a social interaction, but at the same time are preoccupied with receiving unreliable social feedback (Mikulincer et al., 2003;Shaver et al., 2005). Unlike humans, objects (e.g., service robots) are perceived as exceptionally reliable, especially when it comes to social feedback (Keefer et al., 2012). Previous literature suggests that robots (compared to humans) are perceived as less empathic, less socially expressive, and less capable of understanding human feelings, and thus less capable of displaying social cues that can be interpreted as possible signs of deprecation (Paiva et al., 2017;. ...
Despite the growing application of interactive technologies like service robots in customer service, there is limited understanding about how customers respond to interactions with frontline service robots compared to those with frontline human employees. Moreover, it is unclear whether all customers respond to the interaction with frontline service robots in the same way. Our research looks at how individual differences in social behaviors, specifically in customers' attachment styles, influence three types of customer responses: affective responses (experienced pleasantness), attitudinal responses (perceived empathy, satisfaction), and behavioral responses (word‐of‐mouth). Three experimental studies reveal that customers with low (vs. high) scores on anxious attachment style (AAS) measures respond more negatively to frontline service robot (compared to a frontline human agent). We investigate alternative explanations for these findings, such as robots' level of anthropomorphism and we show that human‐likeness features such as voice type and level of human‐like physical appearance, cannot explain our findings. Our results indicate that for low‐AAS customers replacing frontline human service agent with frontline robot undermines customer attitude and behavioral responses to service robots, leading to possible implications on customer segmentation, targeting, and marketing communication.
... Nonexperts generally consider artificial agents to be intelligent [34,104] and able to reason [50,110]. Because of their perceived competence, they may be willing to rely on artificial agents more than on simple objects [45] or unreliable humans [55]. However, nonexperts also feel ambivalent about the future role of artificial agents in society. ...
... Thus, the expectation of reliability serves as a basis for trust [65,112]. In anxiety-provoking situations, an individual may restore a sense of security not only through attachment to another human being but also through attachment to a nonhuman object [4,55,94]. What remains unexplored is whether in these situations an artificial agent could be seen as a potential authority figure despite our ambivalence toward this form of technology. People's confidence in their ability to control their environment and what happens to them is essential for their wellbeing. ...
... Indeed, positive feelings towards humans or nonhumans heighten confidence in their ability to protect. In particular, like objects [4,94], artificial agents are perceived as reliable and effective-for example, if a person is disappointed by someone, they might develop attachment toward a transient object to restore their feeling of safety [55]. Delegation of control could, paradoxically, increase one's sense of control while reducing anxiety if the proxy is perceived as reliable and thus able to manage the situation more effectively and reliably. ...
Robots and other artificial agents are increasingly present in eldercare, education, and at work. They are designed to help humans with tasks and to meet labor shortages?a technological fix for our times. In two experiments and a follow-up study, we investigate factors that influence the acceptance of artificial agents in positions of power, using attachment theory and disappointment theory as explanatory models. We found that when the state of the world provokes anxiety, citizens perceive artificial agents as a reliable proxy to replace human leaders. Moreover, people accept artificial agents as decision-makers in politics and security more willingly when they deem their leaders or government to be untrustworthy, disappointing, or immoral. Finally, we discuss these results with respect to theories of technology acceptance and the delegation of duties and prerogatives.
... Bodily proximity to material possessions may support consumers in feeling close to self-relevant entities that are physically and mentally distant. Second, in identifying this proximity-seeking behavior, our paper extends research on compensatory consumption and need-fortouch effects (e.g., Keefer et al., 2012;Peck & Shu, 2009;Post el al., 2023). As such, the value of bodily proximity to self-relevant objects may derive not only from a distance-reducing function to their associated meaning, but also from their quality of providing a material reference point in situations of anxiety. ...
... Compensatory consumption and insecurity This literature stream provides a thorough understanding of the relevance of insecurity to materialism and compensatory consumption. Experimental/survey Keefer et al. (2012); Pieters (2013) Ackerman et al., 2010;Noble & Walker, 1997;Williams & Bargh, 2008b). In this context, it is noteworthy that the pertinent expression "extended self" per se suggests a metaphorical application of a physical notion (i.e., extension) to a cognitive concept (i.e., the self; Belk, 1988). ...
Previous research has extensively investigated the relationships that consumers create and maintain with their possessions. However, little is known about why material objects (compared to immaterial ones) may be particularly relevant for consumers' self‐definition. In this research, we argue that being physically close to objects helps consumers to feel psychologically close to the more abstract meaning of these objects. Four experimental studies provide converging support for this reasoning. Specifically, these studies indicate that being proximal to an object reduces the psychological distance to the object's meaning and enhances the benefits that consumers associate with the object. Moreover, the effect of bodily proximity on perceived benefits is moderated by separation anxiety, such that consumers that are highly anxious about being separated from the object's meaning derive higher benefits from being proximal to it. The findings contribute to research on the extended self and highlight the potential importance of physical proximity as a motivational driver of consumer behavior.
... Previous studies indicate that humans can become attached to objects and places [20], [35], suggesting that feelings of security, safety, and comfort do not need to come from biological others [36], [37], [20]. For example, research consistently demonstrates that participants feel safer in their homes than in other places. ...
... Similarly, a study that examined attachment to smartphones showed that priming uncertainty of close relationships was intensified when participants' smartphones were taken away from them. Moreover, this effect was independent of the phone's perceived ability to actually connect between them and close others [37]. ...
... Adolescents exhibit more infantile anthropomorphism than adults because they need more care and attention (Neave et al., 2015). When an interpersonal relationship crisis is impending, Keefer et al. (2012) claimed that people depend on anthropomorphism as a buffer to reduce distress, resulting in HB. Hence, adolescents with more severe anthropomorphism could have a higher level of HB. ...
... Being highly avoidant adolescents, they may replace personal interaction by hoarding items. In short, this study further confirms that insecure attachment is associated with greater attachment to objects rather than people, leading to HB (Keefer et al., 2012). ...
The impact of insecure attachment on hoarding behavior (HB) has been supported by empirical evidence. However, scant literature has focused on how anthropomorphism (attributing human-like traits, characteristics, or emotions to nonhuman objects) and hoarding beliefs (motivations for ownership) affect the relationship between insecure attachment and HB, especially among Chinese adolescents. Using a cross-sectional study, we reserved 903 participants (Males 561, Females 342, Mean = 20.20, SD = 1.85, range Age = 18-24) to complete self-report questionnaires about close relationships, anthropomorphism, saving beliefs, and saving inventory to investigate the mediating role of anthropomorphism and the moderating role of hoarding beliefs in the relationship between insecure attachment and HB. The results were as follows: attachment anxiety and avoidance had a positive relationship with HB. Anthropomorphism is a mediating factor in the association between attachment anxiety and HB. In addition, hoarding beliefs moderated the relationship between attachment anxiety and HB. This study further elaborated on the relationships between insecure attachment, anthropomorphism, hoarding beliefs, and HB, which might shed some light on adolescent clinical interventions.
... In this context, it is perhaps not surprising that personified objects attain the significance seen in The Repair Shop. We learn as children that teddy bears or dolls can be companions that, despite being inert, feel like they are living beings who are on our side (Keefer et al. 2012;Keefer, Landau, and Sullivan 2014). ...
... Like dogs (Kurdek 2008), discussed in Chapter 7, or spiritual beings (Lenfesty and Morgan 2019; Niemyjska and Drat-Ruszczak 2013), cherished objects can even function emotionally like human attachment figures, giving us a sense of safety and promoting positive physiological effects (Keefer, Landau and Sullivan 2014;Keefer et al. 2012). These compensatory companionships can, in effect, reset our bodies away from competitive insecure and threat-based systems that damage not only our own health but also our social relationships, and towards more emotionally connected and healthy social schemas (Gilbert 2019). ...
In Hidden Depths, Professor Penny Spikins explores how our emotional connections have shaped human ancestry. Focusing on three key transitions in human origins, Professor Spikins explains how the emotional capacities of our early ancestors evolved in response to ecological changes, much like similar changes in other social mammals. For each transition, dedicated chapters examine evolutionary pressures, responses in changes in human emotional capacities and the archaeological evidence for human social behaviours. Starting from our earliest origins, in Part One, Professor Spikins explores how after two million years ago, movement of human ancestors into a new ecological niche drove new types of collaboration, including care for vulnerable members of the group. Emotional adaptations lead to cognitive changes, as new connections based on compassion, generosity, trust and inclusion also changed our relationship to material things. Part Two explores a later key transition in human emotional capacities occurring after 300,000 years ago. At this time changes in social tolerance allowed ancestors of our own species to further reach out beyond their local group and care about distant allies, making human communities resilient to environmental changes. An increasingly close relationship to animals, and even to cherished possessions, appeared at this time, and can be explained through new human vulnerabilities and ways of seeking comfort and belonging. Lastly, Part Three focuses on the contrasts in emotional dispositions arising between ourselves and our close cousins, the Neanderthals. Neanderthals are revealed as equally caring yet emotionally different humans, who might, if things had been different, have been in our place today. This new narrative breaks away from traditional views of human evolution as exceptional or as a linear progression towards a more perfect form. Instead, our evolutionary history is situated within similar processes occurring in other mammals, and explained as one in which emotions, rather than ‘intellect’, were key to our evolutionary journey. Moreover, changes in emotional capacities and dispositions are seen as part of differing pathways each bringing strengths, weaknesses and compromises. These hidden depths provide an explanation for many of the emotional sensitivities and vulnerabilities which continue to influence our world today.
... For example, Kogut and Kogut (2011) show that attachment anxiety encourages the endowment effect, while attachment avoidance has no significant effect. Similarly, Keefer et al. (2012) find that attachment anxiety rather than attachment avoidance predicted attachment to objects. Konok et al. (2016) show that attachment anxiety, but not attachment avoidance, associates with attachment to mobile device. ...
... Particularly, Pozharliev et al. 's (2021) study regarding service robot suggests that attachment anxiety is more relevant. Moreover, given that a typical response to anxiety is investment in alternative, non-human sources, while a typical response to attachment avoidance is resisting emotional dependence on other people (Keefer et al., 2012), attachment anxiety is more relevant to the current study. Therefore, we do not have particular expectations regarding the interplay of attachment avoidance with chatbot's communication styles. ...
Chatbots are increasingly occupying the online retailing landscape, and the volume of consumer-chatbot service interactions is exploding. Even so, it still remains unclear how chatbots should communicate with consumers to ensure positive customer service experiences and, in particular, to improve their satisfaction. A fundamental decision in this regard is the choice of a communication style, specifically, whether a social-oriented or a task-oriented communication style should be best used for chatbots. In this paper, we investigate how using a social-oriented versus task-oriented communication style can improve customer satisfaction. Two experimental studies reveal that using a social-oriented communication style boosts customer satisfaction. Warmth perception of the chatbot mediates this effect, while consumer attachment anxiety moderates these effects. Our results indicate that social-oriented communication style can be beneficial in enhancing service satisfaction for highly anxiously attached customers, but it does not work for the lowly anxiously attached. This study provides theoretical and practical implications about how to implement chatbots in service encounters.
... Moreover, students living in a dorm live away from their primary attachment figures. Various researchers (Bowlby, 1969;Keefer et al., 2012) describe object attachment as a kind of compensatory attachment strategy that occurs in the absence of a primary attachment figure, suggesting that the phone may be accepted as an attachment object. Previous studies have also revealed that university students form an attachment to the MP (Keefer et al., 2012;Konok et al., 2016;Konok et al., 2017) and they gain a sense of safety in the presence of an MP (Fowler & Noyes, 2015;Konok et al., 2017). ...
... Various researchers (Bowlby, 1969;Keefer et al., 2012) describe object attachment as a kind of compensatory attachment strategy that occurs in the absence of a primary attachment figure, suggesting that the phone may be accepted as an attachment object. Previous studies have also revealed that university students form an attachment to the MP (Keefer et al., 2012;Konok et al., 2016;Konok et al., 2017) and they gain a sense of safety in the presence of an MP (Fowler & Noyes, 2015;Konok et al., 2017). Therefore, students who live in a dorm may exhibit more nomophobic behaviours if the MP is perceived as an attachment figure. ...
In the modern world, the mobile phone has become an indispensable part of modern life. On the one hand, the mobile phone allows maintaining interpersonal contacts and fulfilling work or school duties regardless of time and location. It enables individuals to plan their daily routines and their free times. On the other hand, a mobile phone is a tool that can cause several psychological and physical problems. Nomophobia, which is considered the phobia of the modern era, is only one of these problems. In the simplest terms, nomophobia is the fear of being without a mobile phone and the intense anxiety and distress experienced in the absence of a mobile phone. Although technological addictions such as smartphone addiction and internet addiction have been studied extensively in the psychology literature, it is striking that nomophobia is a neglected psychological problem. However, nomophobia is emerging as a common phenomenon among young adults, as most young adults use the mobile phone for about 5 hours a day. Some users define the mobile phone as a friend and the meaning of life. More importantly, prevalence studies have revealed that about half of young adults suffer from nomophobia. Since nomophobia causes many serious consequences such as physical pain, social problems and a decrease in academic achievement, nomophobia studies are important and beneficial especially for the younger generation.
This book has been written to emphasize the importance of nomophobia and to provide detailed information about the diagnosis, treatment, prevalence, predictors and symptoms of nomophobia. In addition, this book aimed to conceptualize nomophobia theoretically. Also, based on the theoretical conceptualization, psychological structures that can cause nomophobia have been identified. The theoretical conceptualization has been tested and validated using scientific methods. This book, which contains a comprehensive literature review and scientific research, can shed light on researchers for future nomophobia studies. I also believe that this book will make valuable contributions to the clinical field by providing a better understanding of the factors that should be considered in prevention programs and treatment interventions developed for nomophobia. I hope that scholars, clinicians, and students from a variety of disciplines will find my efforts helpful.
... Attachment insecurity is related to increased psychiatric distress and difficulties in affective regulation [43]. Anxiously attached individuals might use inanimate objects as a means to feel socially connected and secure [44]. This is similar to what Winnicott called a "transitional object" such as a toy or a blanket which the child attaches to during the separation stage from the primary attachment figure. ...
... Excessive buying in anxious attachment may be a maladaptive coping strategy for emotion dysregulation [60]. In contrast, avoidantly attached individuals dismiss their needs for social connection and they do not attach to objects for support [44,60]. In Keefer et al. 's study (2012), they hypothesized that increased attachment anxiety would mediate the effect of the prime on object attachment, but attachment avoidance would not. ...
Background
The purpose of the present study was to comprehensively examine the measurement aspects, the prevalence, and the psychological correlates of problem shopping among a large-scale national sample of Turkish adults.
Result
Participants (N = 24,380, 50% men, M age = 31.79 years, age range = 18–81 years) completed a questionnaire that comprised the Shopping Addiction Risk Questionnaire, the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised. Results showed that 1.8% of the participants had probable shopping addiction. Being female, being younger, psychiatric distress, positive affect, negative affect, anxious attachment, and avoidant attachment were positive correlates of problem shopping.
Conclusion
The results of this large sample size study suggest that shopping addiction is not a rare condition in Turkey. Further research is needed to understand different motives that underlie the problematic shopping behavior in the young and female population in comparison to older and male populations. Preventive programs or any interventions for people with PSB needs to address regulation difficulties and development of healthy strategies to cope with psychiatric distress.
... Further, there is evidence to suggest that interpersonal difficulties are specifically associated with increased OA. For example, OA is related to insecure attachments to people (Keefer, Landau, Rothschild, & Sullivan, 2012;Neave, Tyson, McInnes, & Hamilton, 2016), as well as feelings of loneliness and rejection, and believing others to be unreliable (Keefer et al., 2012;Lastovicka & Sirianni, 2011;. This growing evidence highlights the important role that attachment to both people and objects plays in the presentation of hoarding disorder. ...
... Further, there is evidence to suggest that interpersonal difficulties are specifically associated with increased OA. For example, OA is related to insecure attachments to people (Keefer, Landau, Rothschild, & Sullivan, 2012;Neave, Tyson, McInnes, & Hamilton, 2016), as well as feelings of loneliness and rejection, and believing others to be unreliable (Keefer et al., 2012;Lastovicka & Sirianni, 2011;. This growing evidence highlights the important role that attachment to both people and objects plays in the presentation of hoarding disorder. ...
Overview
Hoarding Disorder (HD) is characterized by extreme attachment to one's possessions. Despite a number of studies showing that this attachment may partially be driven by interpersonal dysfunction, few have identified specific factors underlying these interpersonal issues and object attachment (OA) within HD. To address this, we investigated Fear of Intimacy (FOI) which has not been researched in its relation to HD. We predicted that FOI would positively correlate with OA and hoarding symptoms, and FOI would have a significant indirect effect on hoarding symptoms via OA.
Method
Participants (N = 116) with elevated scores on the Saving Inventory–Revised were recruited to complete a battery of measures.
Results
Controlling for depression, anxiety, and stress FOI and OA were positively correlated with hoarding symptoms and each other, with mixed results depending on the hoarding measure used. The indirect effect of FOI on hoarding symptoms through OA was significant.
Discussion
This is the first study to establish FOI as a related factor of HD and show that this relationship might be partially accounted for by OA. These findings provide initial support for a theoretical understanding of HD whereby FOI may predict or maintain the disorder partly due to its relationship with OA.
... Attachment insecurity is related to increased psychiatric distress and di culties in affective regulation [34]. Anxiously attached individuals might use inanimate objects as a means to feel socially connected and secure [35]. This is similar to what Winnicott called a "transitional object" such as a toy or a blanket which the child attaches to during the separation stage from the primary attachment gure. ...
... Excessive buying in anxious attachment may be a maladaptive coping strategy for emotion dysregulation [47]. In contrast, avoidantly attached individuals dismiss their needs for social connection and they do not attach to objects for support [35,47]. In Keefer et al.'s study (2012), they hypothesized that increased attachment anxiety would mediate the effect of the prime on object attachment, but attachment avoidance would not. ...
Background:The purpose of the present study was to comprehensively examine the measurement aspects, the prevalence, and the psychological correlates of problem shopping among a large-scale national sample of Turkish adults.
Result: Participants (N = 24380, 50% men, M age = 31.79 years, age range = 18 to 81 years) completed a questionnaire that comprised the Shopping Addiction Risk Questionnaire, the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised. Results showed that 1.8% of the participants had probable shopping addiction. Being female, being younger, psychiatric distress, positive affect, negative affect, anxious attachment, and avoidant attachment were positive correlates of problem shopping.
Conclusion: The results of this large sample size study suggest that shopping addiction is not a rare condition in Turkey. Further research is needed to understand different motives that underlie the problematic shopping behavior in the young and female population in comparison to older and male populations. Preventive programs or any interventions for people with SA needs to address regulation difficulties and development of healthy strategies to cope with psychiatric distress.
... Work on attachment theory also speaks to MMC's allure of control. Children often form attachments to caregivers, and in cases where primary caregivers are unreliable, they may form relationships with objects (Keefer et al., 2012;Winnicott, 1953Winnicott, /1986. Although smartphones offer wellness resources for social, psychological, and emotional support (Chib & Lin, 2018), they do not offer care in the traditional (i.e., human) sense. ...
... Although smartphones offer wellness resources for social, psychological, and emotional support (Chib & Lin, 2018), they do not offer care in the traditional (i.e., human) sense. Instead, users become attached to their devices because they offer a sense a control (Konok et al., 2016), especially when they perceive close others as unreliable (Keefer et al., 2012). ...
In recent decades, mobile media and communication have become integral to human psychology, including how people think and feel. Although the popular press, parents, and educators often voice concerns about the integration of mobile media into everyday life (e.g., “smartphone addiction”), the growing body of scholarship in this area offers a mix of positive, negative, and conditional effects of mobile media use. This review article traverses this variegated scholarship by assembling cognitive and affective implications of mobile media and communication. It identifies information processing, offloading, spatial cognition, habit, attention, and phantom vibrations as cognitive themes, and feelings of pleasure, stress/anxiety, safety/security, connectedness, and control as affective themes. Along the way, it helps bring structure to this growing and interdisciplinary area of scholarship, ground psychological work on mobile media in theorizing on technological embedding, inform academic and public debates, and identify opportunities for future research.
... Recent studies on the hoarding disorder have employed the attachment theory as an overarching theory to explain why individuals hoard and to illustrate its consequences [49,50]. Therein, researchers argue that, having intense emotional attachments to the contents and deriving a sense of comfort from one's possessions may make it difficult for an individual to discriminately determine which contents to save or discard; thus, ultimately contributing to the development of the hoarding disorder [51,52]. Therein, the 'hoarder' forms intense emotional attachments to their possessions [43,53] and often reports experiencing a grief-like loss when discarding the 'contents' [54,55,56]. ...
With the cost of data storage approaching near zero, an individual can acquire, share, and store digital content (i.e., emails, images, videos, and documents) more than ever before. This behavior is exacerbated by the availability, affordability, and usability of modern technological devices like smart mobile phones, wearables, the rapid proliferation of social media and communication apps, and the intensification of digitized business and/or personal interactions. As a result, there is an increased propensity to acquire and accumulate substantial amounts of digital content. Employing the theoretical foundations of the attachment theory and the hoarding disorder, this study argues that the characteristics such as difficulty of discarding digital content, digital clutter, and frequent excessive acquisition of digital content demonstrate the signs of digital hoarding. By conducting a survey using 846 respondents and conducting a multigroup analysis, this study provides confirmatory evidence on digital hoarding and its association to anxiety. As such, this study contributes to the dark side of technology use and introduces a new concept called digital hoarding to information systems research.
... Indeed, in line with the theorizing of Kim et al. [36], these students may be using their smartphones as an alternative for their lack of a secure attachment. That is, for those higher in attachment anxiety, their smartphones may function as a tool for employing strategies that help reduce their uncertainty about close others (e.g., voyeurism on social media and constant texting/calling), or as an alternative attachment target (see [23,[68][69][70]). In this way, attachment anxiety could be seen as a risk factor that distinguishes those with potentially more functional dependence on their smartphones (i.e., in the "connected" class) from those with a more concerning pattern of use (i.e., in the "problematic" class). ...
University students are consistently ranked among the highest users of smartphones. As such, recent research has focused on examining the antecedents and consequences of problematic smartphone use among university students. While this work has been instrumental to our understanding of the risk and protective factors of developing problematic smartphone use, it has been largely variable-centered and thus fails to recognize the diversity with which problematic smartphone use is experienced among university students. As such, this study employed a person-centered approach (i.e., latent class analysis) to classify individuals based on patterns of problematic smartphone use feature/symptom cooccurrence among a sample of 403 Canadian university students. The relationships between these subgroups (or classes) and potential covariates (i.e., self-regulation, attachment anxiety, and attachment avoidance) were then examined to gain a more complete understanding of university students’ experiences of problematic smartphone use. Three classes of problematic smartphone use were identified: (1) “connected” displaying the features/symptoms of problematic smartphone use associated with being constantly connected to smartphones; (2) “problematic” displaying all of the features/symptoms of problematic smartphone use; (3) “distracted” displaying the features/symptoms associated with being distracted by smartphones. Findings indicate that attachment anxiety and avoidance were significantly associated with membership in the most pathological (i.e., “problematic”) class, suggesting that this may be an especially important risk factor for developing problematic smartphone use among university students. Moreover, self-regulation was significantly related to membership in the least pathological class (i.e., “connected”) suggesting that this may function as an important protective factor in developing more concerning patterns of problematic smartphone use. Findings from this work provide empirical evidence of a heterogeneity in patterns of problematic smartphone use associated with distinct individual-level risk factors. This has important implications for conceptualizations of problematic smartphone use and the development of intervention and prevention efforts.
... Perhaps rather surprisingly, many people find greater comfort from their pets than their relatives (Serpell 2016), or feel closer to their god than to their friends (Niemyjska and Drat-Ruszczak 2013). Pets (Kurdek 2008) and objects (Bell and Spikins 2018b;Keefer and Landau 2014;Keefer et al. 2012) can act as psychological attachment figures. Much like a parent, they function in the same way to bolster confidence and wellbeing at times of insecurity. ...
In Hidden Depths, Professor Penny Spikins explores how our emotional connections have shaped human ancestry. Focusing on three key transitions in human origins, Professor Spikins explains how the emotional capacities of our early ancestors evolved in response to ecological changes, much like similar changes in other social mammals. For each transition, dedicated chapters examine evolutionary pressures, responses in changes in human emotional capacities and the archaeological evidence for human social behaviours. Starting from our earliest origins, in Part One, Professor Spikins explores how after two million years ago, movement of human ancestors into a new ecological niche drove new types of collaboration, including care for vulnerable members of the group. Emotional adaptations lead to cognitive changes, as new connections based on compassion, generosity, trust and inclusion also changed our relationship to material things. Part Two explores a later key transition in human emotional capacities occurring after 300,000 years ago. At this time changes in social tolerance allowed ancestors of our own species to further reach out beyond their local group and care about distant allies, making human communities resilient to environmental changes. An increasingly close relationship to animals, and even to cherished possessions, appeared at this time, and can be explained through new human vulnerabilities and ways of seeking comfort and belonging. Lastly, Part Three focuses on the contrasts in emotional dispositions arising between ourselves and our close cousins, the Neanderthals. Neanderthals are revealed as equally caring yet emotionally different humans, who might, if things had been different, have been in our place today. This new narrative breaks away from traditional views of human evolution as exceptional or as a linear progression towards a more perfect form. Instead, our evolutionary history is situated within similar processes occurring in other mammals, and explained as one in which emotions, rather than ‘intellect’, were key to our evolutionary journey. Moreover, changes in emotional capacities and dispositions are seen as part of differing pathways each bringing strengths, weaknesses and compromises. These hidden depths provide an explanation for many of the emotional sensitivities and vulnerabilities which continue to influence our world today.
... Human stress responses can even be reduced by the presence of imagined allies, or their proxies in terms of cherished objects, which can act like compensatory attachments to repair these rifts. Dogs and other animals (Kurdek 2008), beliefs in spiritual beings (Lenfesty and Fikes 2017), and even treasured possessions (Bell and Spikins 2018;Keefer, Landau, and Sullivan 2014;Keefer et al. 2012), can act like parents or attachment figures, making us feel more secure (discussed in Chapters 6 and 7). ...
In Hidden Depths, Professor Penny Spikins explores how our emotional connections have shaped human ancestry. Focusing on three key transitions in human origins, Professor Spikins explains how the emotional capacities of our early ancestors evolved in response to ecological changes, much like similar changes in other social mammals. For each transition, dedicated chapters examine evolutionary pressures, responses in changes in human emotional capacities and the archaeological evidence for human social behaviours. Starting from our earliest origins, in Part One, Professor Spikins explores how after two million years ago, movement of human ancestors into a new ecological niche drove new types of collaboration, including care for vulnerable members of the group. Emotional adaptations lead to cognitive changes, as new connections based on compassion, generosity, trust and inclusion also changed our relationship to material things. Part Two explores a later key transition in human emotional capacities occurring after 300,000 years ago. At this time changes in social tolerance allowed ancestors of our own species to further reach out beyond their local group and care about distant allies, making human communities resilient to environmental changes. An increasingly close relationship to animals, and even to cherished possessions, appeared at this time, and can be explained through new human vulnerabilities and ways of seeking comfort and belonging. Lastly, Part Three focuses on the contrasts in emotional dispositions arising between ourselves and our close cousins, the Neanderthals. Neanderthals are revealed as equally caring yet emotionally different humans, who might, if things had been different, have been in our place today. This new narrative breaks away from traditional views of human evolution as exceptional or as a linear progression towards a more perfect form. Instead, our evolutionary history is situated within similar processes occurring in other mammals, and explained as one in which emotions, rather than ‘intellect’, were key to our evolutionary journey. Moreover, changes in emotional capacities and dispositions are seen as part of differing pathways each bringing strengths, weaknesses and compromises. These hidden depths provide an explanation for many of the emotional sensitivities and vulnerabilities which continue to influence our world today.
... It turns out that this topic has been discussed in the literature, and the conclusion is that people, especially when human attachment figures are less accessible, tend to become attached to objects other than people (Hooley and Wilson-Murphy, 2012;Keefer et al., 2012). This is similar to the well-known concept of transitional objects described by . ...
... It turns out that this topic has been discussed in the literature, and the conclusion is that people, especially when human attachment figures are less accessible, tend to become attached to objects other than people (Hooley and Wilson-Murphy, 2012;Keefer et al., 2012). This is similar to the well-known concept of transitional objects described by . ...
... It turns out that this topic has been discussed in the literature, and the conclusion is that people, especially when human attachment figures are less accessible, tend to become attached to objects other than people (Hooley and Wilson-Murphy, 2012;Keefer et al., 2012). This is similar to the well-known concept of transitional objects described by . ...
... It turns out that this topic has been discussed in the literature, and the conclusion is that people, especially when human attachment figures are less accessible, tend to become attached to objects other than people (Hooley and Wilson-Murphy, 2012;Keefer et al., 2012). This is similar to the well-known concept of transitional objects described by . ...
This book examines the use of modern technologies in clinical psychological practice. It considers how we define attachment in an age where changes in technology and the COVID-19 pandemic have increased the prevalence of online contact in the process of diagnosis and psychological treatment.
Based on an attachment paradigm that is relatively unexplored, the book outlines how modern online contact influences mental health and development, along with the therapeutic relationship between client and professional. It discusses people’s relationships with new technologies, how relationships can be established using these technologies, and how these technologies affect professional relationships between psychologists and their clients, which they define as e-attachment. In the context of new technologies, the book draws on neurobiology and clinical psychology to consider mental health, social functioning, and emotional regulation.
Presenting both theory and examples from case studies, this cutting-edge book will be of great interest to researchers, academics, and post-graduate students in the fields of clinical psychology, psychotherapy, and mental health. Those also carrying out research into digital and online learning within the field of mental health will also benefit from this text.
Link: https://www.routledge.com/E-attachment-and-Online-Communication-The-Changing-Context-of-the-Clinical/Sitnik-Warchulska-Izydorczyk-Wajda/p/book/9781032116860
... Technophobia, concerns, and negative sentiments towards robots constitute a particular barrier to the assimilation of robotic technologies among older people (e.g., van Maris et al., 2020). Developing an emotional attachment to robots is possible since humans can become attached to objects (Keefer et al., 2012). Moreover, as SARs become more common, users are more likely to connect with them ( van Maris et al., 2020). ...
Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) are expected to support autonomy, aging in place, and wellbeing in later life. For successful assimilation, it is necessary to understand factors affecting older adults Quality Evaluations (QEs) of SARs, including the pragmatic and hedonic evaluations and overall attractiveness. Previous studies showed that trust in robots significantly enhances QE, while technophobia considerably decreases it. The current study aimed to examine the relative impact of these two factors on older persons QE of SARs. The study was based on an online survey of 384 individuals aged 65 and above. Respondents were presented with a video of a robotic system for physical and cognitive training and filled out a questionnaire relating to that system. The results indicated a positive association between trust and QE and a negative association between technophobia and QE. A simultaneous exploration demonstrated that the relative impact of technophobia is significantly more substantial than that of trust. In addition, the pragmatic qualities of the robot were found to be more crucial to its QE than the social aspects of use. The findings suggest that implementing robotics technology in later life strongly depends on reducing older adults technophobia regarding the convenience of using SARs and highlight the importance of simultaneous explorations of facilitators and inhibitors.
... We emphasize, therefore, that the link we observed between attachment-related avoidance (negative model of others) and low welfare state trust (cf., model of the world) was not theoretically indiscriminate but was indirect and occurred via low trust in other humans (i.e., social trust). In a similar vein, previous studies have demonstrated that attachment orientation pre dicts anxiety when separated from inanimate objects such as smartphones (Keefer et al., 2012), and religious believers' representations of God (Granqvist, 2020). However, this is, as far as we know, the first study to indicate that attachment orientation (presumably through related mental models) also relates to how societal institutions are represented by people. ...
Social and political trust are crucial for societal well-being and are linked to lower levels of corruption as well as to the size of the welfare state. Interpersonal trust is shaped through attachment-related experiences in close interpersonal relationships. However, previous research has not linked these two strands of research, yielding an important knowledge gap about the potential implications of attachment for social and political trust. Therefore, we investigated whether attachment orientations are related to both social trust and trust in the welfare state. Data were collected in two countries with different organization and size of the welfare state, the United States (n = 284) and Sweden (n = 280). In both countries, attachment-related avoidance (but not anxiety) was negatively related both to social trust and trust in the welfare state, even after controlling for pertinent confounds. Our findings also suggested that social trust may mediate the link between avoidance and trust in the welfare state. These results cohere with an assumption that people’s attachment-related working models may extend to their models of the world at large. We conclude that interpersonal parameters should be considered to fully understand the development of trust in political institutions.
... Consumption can also substitute interpersonal interactions [50]. For example, products and brands are increasingly designed to be anthropomorphic in design and function, providing benefits similar to human-like interactions. ...
Research on the effect of consumption on self-esteem is relatively scarce and related evidence is fragmented. We review articles from the literatures on consumption, advertising, materialism, mass media, and social media as they relate – directly or indirectly – to consumer self-esteem. We introduce a taxonomy of eight types of processes through which consumption affects self-esteem: self-discrepancy, self-congruency, self-enhancement, self-determination, compensatory consumption, self-verification, self-object association, and market-mediated relationships. Based on this taxonomy, we highlight consumption domains and recent consumer trends that impact self-esteem. Moreover, we suggest priorities for further research.
... Where human others may be rejecting or undependable, objects may form a reliable substitute due to their lack of agency and ability to be controlled entirely by their possessor. Using an experimental methodology, Keefer, Landau, Rothschild, and Sullivan (2012) found that participants who thought about times when close others have been unreliable endorsed stronger object attachment compared to those who recalled instances of reliability. Additionally, found that loneliness was positively associated with hoarding symptoms and that attachment to objects mediated this relationship, providing further evidence for a "compensation hypothesis". ...
The formation of intense emotional attachments to objects, difficulty parting with possessions, and the extreme accumulation of clutter are key features of Hoarding Disorder (HD). Although substantial literature implicates processes such as dysfunctional beliefs and maladaptive emotional cycles in HD, little is known about the vulnerability factors that lead to their development and hoarding symptomatology. The current review sought to systematically collate and integrate findings from studies investigating the relationship between hoarding symptoms and three proposed vulnerability factors: i) interpersonal attachment, ii) early family environment, and iii) traumatic/adverse life events. A comprehensive search of the databases PsycInfo, PubMed, and Scopus identified a total of 39 studies for inclusion. The results presented a complex pattern that supported the presence of relationships between insecure attachment, cold and controlling family experiences, and exposure to adverse life events with increased hoarding severity. However, the specificity of these factors to HD over other clinical groups remains unclear and findings are limited by the heterogenous and small number of studies. We conclude by discussing the clinical implications and limitations of these findings and propose new directions for future research.
... Hostetler & Noiseux [113] found how those spaces where residents can access nature close to home result in a variety of conservation, social, and health benefits. Thus, in the context of pandemic, when many people have lost access to many of their typical sources of socialization, UGS may serve as an important compensatory role in satisfying a variety of psychological needs [114]. ...
This paper reports the results of an exploratory study carried out in Birjand, Iran, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the study was to explore the behavioral change in the use and the motivation to visit a green space (public or private) during the pandemic as compared to the pre-pandemic period, the effect of green spaces (private and public) on users’ feelings, the relations between the extent to which the access to green spaces was missed, and characteristics of respondents and the place they live. A survey was carried out through an online questionnaire in winter 2020 and about 400 responses were collected. The results showed a decrease in visitation of public green spaces during the pandemic, and higher visitation of private green spaces such as gardens or courtyards by those with access. In addition, both public and private green spaces enhance positive feelings and decrease the negative ones. Respondents missed access to green spaces, especially when their visitation before the pandemic was high, and women missed them more than men. Therefore, private green spaces might represent an opportunity for psychological respite in time of a pandemic, but also for socialization. The study reports respondents’ useful suggestions for urban landscape planning for the city of Birjand that might also be useful for other cities in dry lands; improving the quality of green spaces beyond the quantity may play a role in enhancing the connection to nature in the time of a pandemic, with positive effects on mental health, and this can also can improve recreation opportunities and reduce inequalities.
... Objects serve as a source of comfort for individuals with HD and may function as a substitute for secure interpersonal relationships (Mathes et al., 2020). Experimental research has shown that anxiously attached individuals may turn to possessions for support when close others are unreliable (Keefer et al., 2012). Individuals with HD imbue objects with humanness Greenberg, 1987), which may allow them to use objects for interpersonal emotion regulation. ...
Psychological treatment for hoarding problems has historically been associated with poor outcomes. When treated as a subgroup of obsessive‐compulsive disorder, individuals with hoarding beliefs were less likely to respond to treatment than individuals exhibiting other obsessive‐compulsive beliefs and behaviours. When treated as its own disorder using cognitive behavioural therapy, individuals report approximately 25% improvement in symptoms on average. However, less than a third of people experience clinically meaningful change. Further, changes in functioning and quality of life are not routinely assessed. In this paper, we review the current conceptualisation and treatment of hoarding problems to shed light on how treatment for hoarding disorder may be improved. Utilising a harm reduction approach before administering treatment may be important to ensure the safety of individuals. Research should test whether treatment outcomes improve by including strategies that enhance a client’s interpersonal functioning and ability to regulate emotions (i.e., based on dialectal behaviour therapy and mentalisation‐based treatments), especially while discarding and organising belongings. We should also use modern learning theory to improve the delivery of exposure activities.
... Third, social-psychological literature shows that when faced with uncertainty, people manage their uncertainty by focusing on secure and pleasurable experiences. For example, when dealing with unreliable loved ones, the appeal of treasured belongings increases (Keefer et al., 2012). People seek the concrete and known positive of soft haptic sensations, which in turn reduce their perceptions of uncertainty (Van Horen & Mussweiler, 2014). ...
Savoring-an emotion-regulation strategy that involves deliberately upregulating positive affect-has many benefits, but what enhances savoring in the present moment? Drawing from life-history theory, affective and developmental science, and social-psychological frameworks, we examined the idea that perceptions of uncertainty--perceiving the world as random and unpredictable-enhance subsequent savoring. In a large experience-sampling study (Study 1, N = 6,680), we found that individuals who perceived more uncertainty showed increases in subsequent savoring in their daily lives. In a preregistered experiment (Study 2, N = 397), individuals who watched a film that induced uncertainty (vs. order or a control condition) subsequently reported higher savoring intentions. Finally, in a field experiment on a busy urban street (Study 3, N = 201), we found that passersby who received fliers that induced uncertainty (vs. order) subsequently engaged in more savoring behavior by stopping to smell a bouquet of roses. These findings from three studies with diverse samples and methodologies underscore an upside to the specter of uncertainty: it can cause people to savor the positives of the present. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
... This concept originally stems from attachment theory, which acknowledges the bond between caregiver and child (Ainsworth, 1979;Bowlby, 1969). The theory has since evolved to encompass attachments between humans and inanimate objects (Keefer et al., 2012). More recently, studies emphasise attachment towards digital devices, especially for the younger adult segment (Clayton et al., 2015;Ohadi et al., 2018;Trub & Barbot, 2016). ...
The UK Government and charity-based initiatives encourage the use of digital devices to improve connectivity and address health care challenges across an escalating, ageing population. However, research on the lived experiences of older adults using technology is limited. The aim of this study is to build on technology paradox theory to provide a greater understanding of older adults’ use of digital devices and the associated coping strategies that are adopted. A qualitative approach, employing event-based diaries, reveals functional, social and psychological paradoxes as well as influences on self-worth. The findings also identify how older adults adapt to the challenges of such technology paradoxes by developing novel coping strategies such as, adjusting and acceptance. Furthermore, implications for policy and practice are established.
... Technology has further become a central route through which this surrogacy occurs, with individuals frequently developing parasocial relationships with television personalities, particularly if they exhibit a chronically heightened desire to belong (Greenwood & Long, 2009). These vicarious relationships, which include those with technology, subsequently provide a sense of belonging in the absence of more traditional interpersonal bonds (Derrick et al., 2009;Keefer, Landau, Rothschild, & Sullivan, 2012;Keefer, Landau, & Sullivan, 2014). This satisfaction of affiliative needs through technological modalities would make surrogacy advantageous in pathogenic environments in which interpersonal contact is particularly risky. ...
During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals were advised to adhere to social distancing guidelines limiting physical interpersonal contact. Humans have a suite of adaptations to satisfy belonging needs while avoiding diseased conspecifics. Competition between motivational systems may explain adherence and resistance to social distancing guidelines and how technologically mediated interactions further shape these decisions. This study is a preregistered analysis of data in a representative sample collected during the pandemic investigating how individual differences in affiliative and pathogen-avoidant motives predict interest in physical interactions (N = 2409). Germ aversion predicted disinterest in physical interactions and need to belong predicted interest. Additional analyses revealed technology use satisfied belonging motives that unexpectedly heightened interest in physical contact. Exploratory analyses further indicate that internet speed was similarly associated with greater interest in physical interactions. We frame these results through a competing fundamental social motives framework and discuss how to address future pandemics effectively.
... First, the study supports the current literature concerning role of emotional attachments, associated positive and negative affect, certain personality characteristics and early experiences 16 in development and maintenance of hoarding behavior. Second, the study confirms that material possessions are a source of security, 18 provides a sense of identity to the owner, 19 and are considered symbols of status in society. 5 Finally, it involves the account of socio-cultural aspects like status transformation with resulting sense of competition, gender role, impact of material deprivation, and religious construction for explanation of phenomenon as more of context specific elements in indigenous settings of Pakistan. ...
Background: Hoarding is a complex phenomenon that has received extensive attention in recent years. Most studies have been conducted in Western culture with few from other regions of world, which advocates need to explore the phenomenon in different cultural contexts. Objective of this study was to ascertain the perception of hoarding behavior among general population of Rawalpindi and Islamabad cities of Pakistan.Materials Methods: This exploratory qualitative study with grounded theory design was conducted in National Institute of Psychology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan from September 2015-May 2016. Sample of 46 subjects from different socio-cultural backgrounds was selected from otherwise healthy adult (20-60 years) population of Rawalpindi Islamabad cities of Pakistan by purposive sampling. A qualitative research methodology was employed to develop theoretical understanding of phenomenon. Focus group discussions with six groups were conducted to assess existence and phenomenology of hoarding behavior in present cultural framework. Data was analyzed using grounded theory method.Results: Findings of this study support current literature concerning the role of emotional attachments, associated positive and negative affect, certain personality characteristics and early experiences in development and maintenance of hoarding behavior. This study also confirms that material possessions are source of security by providing sense of identity to owner, and are considered symbols of status in society. Finally, it involves the account of socio-cultural aspects like status transformation, with resulting sense of competition, gender role, impact of material deprivation, and religious construction of phenomenon that emerged as more of culture specific elements in indigenous settings of Pakistan.Conclusion: This study addresses factors that underpin major themes in relation to form and prevalence of hoarding behavior in cultural context of Pakistan and discusses the findings in reference to the similarities and differences with extant literature.
... Given that a greater anxious attachment is associated with more severe hoarding, we also hypothesized that an anxious attachment style would moderate changes in object attachment over time, such that greater levels of anxious attachment would be associated with an increase in object attachment over time, whereas lower levels of anxious attachment would be associated with a constant level of object attachment. Since previous research has not supported avoidance attachment as a contributor to hoarding disorder (i.e., Crone et al., 2019;Danet & Secouet, 2018;Keefer et al., 2012;Medard & Kellett, 2014), we only considered anxious attachment in our hypotheses. Finally, we hypothesized that changes in object attachment over time also would be moderated by the amount of empathy a person has for fictional characters and by how much personal discomfort they experience when trying to help others in stressful situations, such that the combination of experiencing a lot of personal discomfort when trying to help others in stressful situations and having a lot of empathy for fictional characters would be associated with the greatest increase in object attachment from Time 1 to Time 2. ...
Excessive attachment towards possessions can be maladaptive because it can lead individuals to excessively acquire and save objects. Little is known about how attachment to objects develops and changes over time; however, interpersonal factors have been theorised to play a role. The current study examined whether interpersonal factors, specifically interpersonal attachment style and empathy, moderate changes in object attachment over time. A total of 145 participants with excessive acquiring and discarding difficulties rated their level of attachment to a novel object just after receiving it, and one week later. Participants also completed measures of interpersonal anxious attachment and interpersonal functioning. We found that changes in object attachment over time were moderated by interpersonal anxious attachment. Also, our findings suggested that individuals with hoarding problems are likely not impaired in their ability to empathise with others, but rather have difficulty displaying empathy in tense social situations and also have more empathy for fictional characters. Further, greater discomfort in tense social situations and greater empathy for fictional characters interacted to predict greater object attachment. Taken together, these findings indicate that individuals with an interpersonal anxious attachment style may be those at risk of forming greater attachments to objects over time. A learning history which includes inconsistent support from caregivers may result in individuals experiencing more empathy for fictional characters and discomfort in tense social situations, which may produce a vulnerability for becoming excessively attached to objects. Our results are in line with theories of hoarding which propose that individuals use objects to compensate for unmet interpersonal needs and suggest that treatment may need to target interpersonal functioning to reduce hoarding symptoms.
In the last two years, consumers have experienced massive changes in consumption – whether due to shifts in habits; the changing information landscape; challenges to their identity, or new economic experiences of scarcity or abundance. What can we expect from these experiences? How are the world's leading thinkers applying both foundational knowledge and novel insights as we seek to understand consumer psychology in a constantly changing landscape? And how can informed readers both contribute to and evaluate our knowledge? This handbook offers a critical overview of both fundamental topics in consumer psychology and those that are of prominence in the contemporary marketplace, beginning with an examination of individual psychology and broadening to topics related to wider cultural and marketplace systems. The Cambridge Handbook of Consumer Psychology, 2nd edition, will act as a valuable guide for teachers and graduate and undergraduate students in psychology, marketing, management, economics, sociology, and anthropology.
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically disrupted everyday life, leading to a cascade of negative emotional responses such as death anxiety. Against this backdrop, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the buffering effect of brand attachment on death anxiety by exploring the roles of brand concepts and brand positioning on psychological compensation for security.
Design/methodology/approach
This multi-method paper features four studies and shows how brands can offer emotional support under high-risk circumstances.
Findings
Study 1 includes two surveys which offer preliminary evidence that death anxiety can enhance consumers’ brand attachment. Study 2 reveals a causal effect wherein consumers experiencing death anxiety are more likely to attach to brands with a self-transcendence (vs self-enhancement) concept. Study 3 examines the mediating role of need for security in the relationship between death anxiety and attachment to brands with a self-transcendence concept. Further, Study 4 indicates the moderating role of brand positioning: self-transcendence brands adopting local (vs global) positioning strategies are more likely to satisfy consumers’ need for security, thereby leading to strong brand attachment.
Originality/value
The findings of this paper contribute to the brand attachment literature and to the global branding literature regarding consumers’ emotional responses in the context of COVID-19. This paper innovatively frames brand concepts and brand positioning and provides actionable guidelines to help brands satisfy consumers’ needs amid a worldwide crisis.
Our understanding of the meaning of hoarding is still in development. Thematic readings of the literature suggest that hoarding involves a very distinctive way of understanding the world, with the act of acquiring and retaining of material comprising in a form of psychological home or safe space. The connection of the person to their hoard requires further exploration, as does the place that this relationship has with the wider world of society and culture. This study sought to investigate experiences of persons who hoard and their relationship to their hoarded material. A phenomenologically‐oriented qualitative research design was used to investigate 14 participants' experiences of hoarding. Analysis of transcripts was conducted using thematic moment by moment analysis consistent with the phenomenological approach. To give further clarification and elucidation to the meaning of hoarding a psychoanalytically informed analysis of the material was included. Three themes emerged from this process: Firstly, “It's not yours. It's mine”; secondly, “Keeping within the walls”; and thirdly, “Sorting through.” The emergent themes reflect the creative and inventive ways participants related to hoarded material. Themes are discussed in relation to relevant psychoanalytical concepts, including Winnicott's Transitional Objects, with difficulties observed in hoarding paralleling difficulties transitioning out into the world of relating, as well as the part that cultural unconscious processes play here. Aspects of Bion's container‐contained function are also discussed. Implications for future research and working clinically with people who hoard are discussed, particularly the handling of hoarded material.
Background
Emerging research has suggested that hoarding may be associated with reduced social cognition, specifically reduced theory of mind and hostility biases, which may contribute to the social difficulties observed in this population. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT) in a sample of individuals with Hoarding Disorder (HD) and assess its potential as an adjunct to CBT. We secondarily examined changes in loneliness and hoarding symptoms.
Methods
Twelve individuals, with a primary diagnosis of HD, completed a 12-week SCIT program and one booster session. Participants were assessed at pre-treatment, mid-treatment, post-treatment, and one-month follow-up on measures of theory of mind, attributional style, hoarding symptom severity, and loneliness.
Results
From pre-to post-treatment, participants had an improvement in theory of mind for sarcastic remarks and a reduction in hostility bias, hoarding symptoms, and loneliness. Retention was also good as all participants completed treatment.
Conclusion
These preliminary results suggest that SCIT is a promising treatment to improving social cognition for hoarding disorder and may improve interpersonal difficulties such as loneliness. We propose that SCIT may represent a potential adjunct targeting social factors to improve the efficacy of CBT.
In Hidden Depths, Professor Penny Spikins explores how our emotional connections have shaped human ancestry. Focusing on three key transitions in human origins, Professor Spikins explains how the emotional capacities of our early ancestors evolved in response to ecological changes, much like similar changes in other social mammals. For each transition, dedicated chapters examine evolutionary pressures, responses in changes in human emotional capacities and the archaeological evidence for human social behaviours. Starting from our earliest origins, in Part One, Professor Spikins explores how after two million years ago, movement of human ancestors into a new ecological niche drove new types of collaboration, including care for vulnerable members of the group. Emotional adaptations lead to cognitive changes, as new connections based on compassion, generosity, trust and inclusion also changed our relationship to material things. Part Two explores a later key transition in human emotional capacities occurring after 300,000 years ago. At this time changes in social tolerance allowed ancestors of our own species to further reach out beyond their local group and care about distant allies, making human communities resilient to environmental changes. An increasingly close relationship to animals, and even to cherished possessions, appeared at this time, and can be explained through new human vulnerabilities and ways of seeking comfort and belonging. Lastly, Part Three focuses on the contrasts in emotional dispositions arising between ourselves and our close cousins, the Neanderthals. Neanderthals are revealed as equally caring yet emotionally different humans, who might, if things had been different, have been in our place today. This new narrative breaks away from traditional views of human evolution as exceptional or as a linear progression towards a more perfect form. Instead, our evolutionary history is situated within similar processes occurring in other mammals, and explained as one in which emotions, rather than ‘intellect’, were key to our evolutionary journey. Moreover, changes in emotional capacities and dispositions are seen as part of differing pathways each bringing strengths, weaknesses and compromises. These hidden depths provide an explanation for many of the emotional sensitivities and vulnerabilities which continue to influence our world today.
Wood stoves emit particulate matter when used for domestic heating. Consequently, the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning in Sweden enforced a prohibition of new installations of old wood stoves in 2017 to protect the public health. The prohibition caused a public backlash that organized itself as a “wood stove rising”, eventually leading to a cancellation of the new legislation in 2019. We performed comprehensive interviews with 11 signatories of the original appeal to analyze the underlying motives for combating the implementation of this pro-environmental energy policy. We find that domestic heating through fire-making is an age-old human behavior that is deeply connected to several social and emotional human needs, but also to survival in remote areas with cold climate. The likelihood of policy observance and acceptance is higher if the policy is not perceived as being in direct conflict with these needs: basic emotion regulation, sensations of tradition and connection to other people, and means of crisis management for the individual. We also find that the protesters acted out of a sustainability perspective, albeit one where the continued use of functional devices was valued more than the perceived wear-and-tear of replacing outdated technology.
Objective
Many studies have explored the relationship between insecure attachment and mobile phone addiction from different theoretical perspectives; however, the results have been different. This meta-analysis aimed to explore the relationship between insecure attachment and mobile phone addiction.
Methods
Studies published before November 2021 were identified through a systematic online search. A total of 22 studies, including 38 independent effect sizes were included from a systematic search of multiple databases, with a total sample size of 11,810 cases. Stata Version 16.0 was used for meta-analysis.
Results
The meta-analysis based on random-effects model showed that mobile phone addiction was highly positively associated with attachment anxiety (r = 0.395, 95%CI [0.345, 0.442]) and weakly positively correlated with attachment avoidance (r = 0.194, 95%CI [0.137, 0.250]). The relationship between attachment anxiety and mobile phone addiction and that between attachment avoidance and mobile phone addiction were both moderated by mobile phone addiction measures but not moderated by gender and attachment measures.
Conclusion
There is a positive correlation between mobile phone addiction and insecure attachment. In the future, measures to prevent mobile phone addiction should focus on insecure attachment individuals and help them construct a healthy attachment relationship and secure attachment model.
Significance
Attachment theory focuses on the primal form of emotional bonding between humans. Attachment is conceptualized as an innate behavioral system aimed at safeguarding against potential threats by assuring proximity to caring and supportive others. When individuals feel securely attached (thus feeling less threatened in most situations), the activation of the caregiving behavioral system (concern for others) is facilitated. With this research, we show that priming attachment security influences how much people care about and accept climate change via an increased empathy for humanity. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this activation bypasses the resistance of politically conservative individuals to mitigate climate change. Overall, we show that attachment security–based stimuli can inform intervention and policymaking strategies to help fight climate change.
We tested whether temporary social needs satisfaction through social surrogacy would ensure greater willingness to adhere to social distancing recommendations elicited by the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were randomly assigned to social exclusion or inclusion
via Cyberball (n = 534) followed by either a social surrogacy manipulation (imagine favorite TV show), or one of two control states. No restorative effects emerged following a social surrogacy prime. An exploratory analysis considering age as a moderator (MAge = 36.89 years, 16 SD = 10.88, range = 19–70 years) found that excluded adults (i.e., middle and older ages) reported more intentions to deviate following surrogacy experiences relative to control experiences; no effects emerged for younger adults in this analysis. We discuss the limitations of social surrogacy in fostering compliance with social distancing initiatives.
Background
Excessive emotional attachments to objects in hoarding may represent a compensatory strategy for unmet attachment and relational needs.
Aims
This study aimed to clarify the extent and specificity of attachment and interpersonal needs in hoarding disorder compared to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and healthy controls (HC). The primary aim of the study was to investigate the specificity of poor bonding with key attachment figures in childhood, and attachment insecurity in current relationships. Secondly, present-day interpersonal interactions, including loneliness and social support, were assessed for diagnostic specificity.
Methods
A cross-sectional between-groups design was used to compare scores on measures in those with hoarding (n = 38); OCD (n = 46); and HCs (n = 49).
Results
Individuals with hoarding reported diminished parental bonding, greater attachment insecurity and loneliness in current relationships compared to HCs. The clinical groups did not differ from each other. The hoarding group reported the poorest levels of social support.
Conclusions
These results suggest interpersonal attachment and relational needs are relevant, but not diagnostically specific, to hoarding. Poor social support is particularly heightened in those with hoarding compared to OCD. Longitudinal and interventional research evaluating the impact of interventions addressing social support on object attachment is needed.
It was predicted that attachment is associated with exploration in adults. An exploration scale that measures willingness to explore the physical, social, and intellectual environments was constructed. Study 1 measured chronic attachment patterns and found that both anxiety and avoidance correlated negatively with the desire to explore. Study 2 primed attachment styles by exposing participants to attachment-related sentences in an ostensible sentence memorization task. Participants primed with a secure style were more open to exploration than were participants primed with the insecure styles. Together, the results of Study 1 and Study 2 provide converging evidence that the behavior systems of attachment and exploration are linked in adults.
The psychology of religion has existed as a neglected subdiscipline in general psychology, but a trend toward integration is currently present, partly due to applications of well-corroborated theories from mainstream psychology. The article has two aims. First, the most influential psychodynamic "depth" approaches (those of Erikson, 1958, 1959, 1963; Freud, 1913/1919, 1927/1964a, 1939/1964b; Jones, 1991; Rizzuto, 1979, 1991) to the study of relations between secular and divine relationships are criticized. The critique encompasses theoretical, methodological, and empirical reservations, including natural science and falsifiability concerns; reservations concerning the relation to the biological sciences and the theory of evolution by natural selection; and concerns with broad stages of development, the content of mental representations, and the parsimony of the analyses. Methodological points of critique are offered for the sole use of nonoperationalizable constructs, clinical case study designs, and post hoc reconstructions of past relationships. It is suggested that the problems with the depth approaches are serious enough to warrant a different point of departure for the study of relations between secular and divine relationships. Second, for the sake of further integration of the psychology of religion with general psychology, attachment theory is proposed as an emerging alternative to the traditional depth approaches, and some of the convergences and divergences between the two are highlighted. It is argued that besides passing the test in relation to the above theoretical and methodological challenges, the emerging attachment framework retains the most important insights of the traditional depth perspectives.
871 participants, 375 boys and 496 girls, mean age 16.7 + 1, were administered the Parental Bonding Instrument (P.B.I.), the Brief Symptom Inventory (B.S.I.), the General Well-Being Questionnaire (G.W.B.) and the Chestnut Lodge Transitional Object Scale. Results supported Winnicott's theory: participants reporting attachment to a Transitional Object (T.O.) in their childhood reported significantly more optimal maternal bonding than participants who were not attached to a T.O. Participants reporting attachment to a T.O. in adolescence had significantly more psychiatric symptoms and less general well-being. Adolescence T.O. attachment might be considered a marker of mental distress in the general, normal population.
The purpose of the study was to investigate the prevalence of the use of a transitional object (TO) in adolescence and its connection with depressive symptoms and mental distress in youth by gender.
The study group consisted of 1,054 adolescents (465 boys, 589 girls) from normal comprehensive schools in Turku, a Finnish town with approximately 175,000 inhabitants. The mean age of both gender groups was 14.5 years (SD 0.5); respondents came from all social classes. Background and TO information was collected with questionnaires. Depressive symptoms and mental distress were explored by the children's depression inventory (CDI) and its subscales: low self-confidence, anhedonia and sadness.
Of all respondents, 29% (n = 285) had a TO: 37% of girls and 18% of boys. The difference between genders was statistically significant. There was also a statistically significant gender difference in the character of the TO reported: 72 % of girls with a TO had a soft toy, whereas 49% of boys with a TO used hard objects, such as pens, hard toys or books. TO-users showed more depressive symptoms than non-users, but the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.053). Significant differences were found in the CDI subscales: TO-users had more sadness than non-users and girls using a TO showed more sadness than non-using girls. TO-using boys did not differ from non-using boys with regard to sadness or the other CDI-subscales.
The use of a TO seems to be common in adolescence. Adolescents with more depressive symptoms more often used a TO. The sadness of girls using TOs requires attention.
Self-report measures of adult attachment are typically scored in ways (e.g., averaging or summing items) that can lead to erroneous inferences about important theoretical issues, such as the degree of continuity in attachment security and the differential stability of insecure attachment patterns. To determine whether existing attachment scales suffer from scaling problems, the authors conducted an item response theory (IRT) analysis of 4 commonly used self-report inventories: Experiences in Close Relationships scales (K. A. Brennan, C. L. Clark, & P. R. Shaver, 1998), Adult Attachment Scales (N. L. Collins & S. J. Read, 1990), Relationship Styles Questionnaire (D. W. Griffin & K. Bartholomew, 1994) and J. Simpson's (1990) attachment scales. Data from 1,085 individuals were analyzed using F. Samejima's (1969) graded response model. The authors' findings indicate that commonly used attachment scales can be improved in a number of important ways. Accordingly, the authors show how IRT techniques can be used to develop new attachment scales with desirable psychometric properties.
Attachment theoretical studies have increased our understanding of the socioemotional foundations for religious development. However, because these studies have been correlational and based on self-reports, they are vulnerable to concerns of self-presentation bias and lack of basis for causal inference. Three subliminal stimulation experiments were therefore performed, where activation of the attachment system was attempted by way of unconsciously administered separation stimuli. In Experiments 1 and 3 (N = 29 and 89), the separation stimulus alluded to God, and in Experiment 2 (N = 47), it alluded to mother. Responses were moderated by perceived attachment history with parents in all experiments. Participants with secure histories increased in religious attachment behaviors, whereas those with insecure histories decreased following attachment system activation compared with control stimulation. There also were suggestions of experimental group increase in proximity seeking in relation to God. The main conclusion supports correspondence between internal working models of parents and God.
Three studies examine the psychometric properties (i.e., the test-retest reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity) of Fraley, Waller, and Brennan's Revised Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR-R) self-report measure of romantic attachment anxiety (model of self) and avoidance (model of others). Longitudinal analyses suggest that the ECR-R provided highly stable indicators of latent attachment during a 3-week period (85% shared variance). Hierarchical linear modeling analyses further validated the ECR-R, suggesting that it explained between 30% to 40% of the between-person variation in social interaction diary ratings of attachment-related emotions experienced during interactions with a romantic partner and only 5% to 15% of that in interactions with family and friends. Guidelines are offered regarding the conditions where highly reliable and precise measures of romantic attachment, such as the ECR-R, are deemed necessary and where shorter, albeit slightly less reliable measures, such as Bartholomew and Horowitz's Relationship Questionnaire, may also be viable.
This research describes the psychometric properties of a new child self-report measure, the separation anxiety scale for children (SASC), which assesses the frequency of symptoms of separation anxiety in children from 8 to 11. The factor solution with a sample of 1,201 children from 8 to 11, isolated three factors, discomfort from separation, worry about separation, and calm at separation, tested by confirmatory factor analysis, which accounted for 32.80% of the total variance. Results indicated that the SASC has a high internal consistency (alpha = 0.83). The results revealed a high test-retest reliability of the instrument, and a high number of correctly diagnosed cases. The correlation of scores with other anxiety measures shows that the variable most associated with separation anxiety is trait-anxiety.
In this essay, Winnicott describes the interstices between illusion and reality. He focuses his discussion on the soft objects used by an infant, what he calls a transitional object. He says transitional objects involve the nature of the object, the infant’s capacity to recognize the object as ‘not-me’ and yet to feel paradoxically that he has created that object. Through the attachment to the transitional object the infant initiates an affectionate type of object relationship. Winnicott emphasises the importance of this transitional object to the infant, and how parents respond to it. The transitional object belongs to the realm of illusion, which is at the basis of initiation of experience. An infant’s transitional object ordinarily becomes gradually decathected as cultural interests develop.
Communication scientists routinely ask questions about causal relationships. Whether it is examining the persuasive impact of public service announcements on attitudes and behavior, determining the impact of viewing political debates on political knowledge or voter turnout, or assessing whether success in achieving one's Internet browsing goals prompts greater interest in e-commerce, communication scholars frequently conduct research to answer questions about cause. Data analysis usually focuses on examining if the putative causal variable, whether manipulated or measured, is related to the outcome using a linear model such as analysis of variance or linear regression. In many arenas of research, such analyses, when accompanied by good research design, are sufficient to answer the question as to whether variation in X causes variation in Y. But deeper understanding accrues when researchers investigate the process by which a given effect is produced. Although it might be interesting and even important to discover, for mechanisms ...
Four years after responding to a newspaper survey on attachment and close relationships, 146 women completed a follow-up survey on changes in their religious belief and experience during the interim period. Logistic regression analyses were used to predict Time 2 religion variables prospectively from adult attachment styles as measured at Time 1, statistically controlling for Time 1 religious commitment. Insecure-avoidant and insecure-anxious women, as measured at Time 1, were more likely than secure women to report having found a new relationship with God in the subsequent four-year period, and insecure-anxious women were more likely than both other groups to report a religious experience or conversion during that period. Results are interpreted in terms of religious beliefs serving a compensatory role for individuals lacking secure interpersonal attachments.
In this summary of my recent book (Kirkpatrick, 2004), I outline a general theoretical approach for the psychology of religion and develop one component of it in detail. First I review arguments and research demonstrating the utility of attachment theory for understanding many aspects of religious belief and behavior, particularly within modern Christianity. I then introduce evolutionary psychology as a general paradigm for psychology and the social sciences, arguing that religion is not an adaptation in the evolutionary sense but rather a byproduct of numerous psychological systems that evolved for other adaptive purposes, of which the attachment system is just one example. I conclude by summarizing numerous advantages of this framework over other extant approaches to the psychology of religion.
People may value their possessions, in part, because ownership of goods promotes feelings of security. If so, increasing their sense of security should reduce the value they place on possessions. In two studies we tested this prediction. In Study 1, participants who were assigned randomly to write about an instance of receiving social support placed less monetary value on a blanket they owned relative to participants who were assigned randomly to write about a pleasant restaurant experience. In Study 2, participants who were unobtrusively primed with security-related words placed less monetary value on a pen they just received relative to participants who were primed with positive or neutral words. Results suggest that enhancing interpersonal security reduces valuing possessions.
Ethological attachment theory is a landmark of 20th century social and behavioral sciences theory and research. This new paradigm for understanding primary relationships across the lifespan evolved from John Bowlby's critique of psychoanalytic drive theory and his own clinical observations, supplemented by his knowledge of fields as diverse as primate ethology, control systems theory, and cognitive psychology. By the time he had written the first volume of his classic Attachment and Loss trilogy, Mary D. Salter Ainsworth's naturalistic observations in Uganda and Baltimore, and her theoretical and descriptive insights about maternal care and the secure base phenomenon had become integral to attachment theory. Patterns of Attachment reports the methods and key results of Ainsworth's landmark Baltimore Longitudinal Study. Following upon her naturalistic home observations in Uganda, the Baltimore project yielded a wealth of enduring, benchmark results on the nature of the child's tie to its primary caregiver and the importance of early experience. It also addressed a wide range of conceptual and methodological issues common to many developmental and longitudinal projects, especially issues of age appropriate assessment, quantifying behavior, and comprehending individual differences. In addition, Ainsworth and her students broke new ground, clarifying and defining new concepts, demonstrating the value of the ethological methods and insights about behavior. Today, as we enter the fourth generation of attachment study, we have a rich and growing catalogue of behavioral and narrative approaches to measuring attachment from infancy to adulthood. Each of them has roots in the Strange Situation and the secure base concept presented in Patterns of Attachment. It inclusion in the Psychology Press Classic Editions series reflects Patterns of Attachment's continuing significance and insures its availability to new generations of students, researchers, and clinicians.
Two studies examined how destiny beliefs (that potential relationships are or are not "meant to be") interact with state attachment anxiety to predict forgiveness tendencies. In Study 1, participants expe- rienced an experimental manipulation of attachment anxiety (vs. security) before indicating the degree to which they would forgive a series of hypothetical partner offenses. In Study 2, participants reported every 2 weeks for 6 months (14 waves in total) on offenses enacted by their partner and indicated the degree to which they forgave the partner, both concurrently and 2 weeks later. Consistent with predictions, results revealed Destiny BeliefsState Attachment Anxiety interaction effects: Strong (relative to weak) destiny beliefs predicted reduced forgiveness tendencies for individuals experiencing state attachment anxiety, but such beliefs were not associated with forgiveness for individuals experiencing state attachment security. Results from Study 2 suggest that this interaction effect was significantly mediated through trust in the partner.
Organismic theories and recent research suggest that environments that do not support growth and self-expression are associated with valuing financial success relatively more than affiliation, community feeling, and self-acceptance. This prediction was investigated in a heterogenous sample of 18-yr-olds using a variety of methods and informants. Teenagers who rated the importance of financial success aspirations relatively high compared to other values were found to have mothers who were less nurturant. Further, materially oriented teenagers grew up in less advantageous socioeconomic circumstances and were raised by mothers who especially valued the teens' financial success. Discussion focuses on explicating the different ways values are acquired. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Three studies tested the hypothesis that people may turn to materialism when they face uncertainties in modern life. Study 1 showed that anomie and self-doubt are significant predictors of materialistic orientations; other plausible antecedents have less predictive value. In Study 2, participants experiencing chronic self-doubt showed a higher level of materialism if they were primed to experience doubt and insecurity. In Study 3, participants with chronic perceptions of anomie showed a higher level of materialism if they were primed with the concept of normlessness. Together, these three studies show that some people turn to materialism when they experience uncertainty within the self (self-doubt) or perceive uncertainty relating to society (anomie). © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
People with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) who hoard have been posited to have an atypical emotional attachment to the inanimate objects that they pathologically accumulate, yet this hypothesis has not been formally examined using methodology from the attachment field. To explore this hypothesis, attachment to people and to inanimate objects was assessed in 30 individuals with OCD (n = 14 hoarders, n = 16 non-hoarders). Attachment was assessed using standard measures of interpersonal attachment: the Reciprocal Attachment Questionnaire and the Five Minute Speech Statement. These measures were adapted to evaluate inanimate object attachment as well. The data provides preliminary evidence that individuals who hoard report significantly higher levels of emotional over-involvement (EOI) with inanimate objects and lower levels of EOI with people than non-hoarders. Hoarders also reported significantly higher levels of care-seeking behavior from inanimate objects, and less effectiveness in making use of the inanimate object relationship in comparison to non-hoarders. Hoarding severity was correlated with significantly increased dysfunction in all of these areas. Fear of losing an inanimate object was found to significantly predict hoarding severity. In general, female participants had significantly higher mean ratings of interpersonal attachment insecurity than male participants, regardless of OCD symptomatology. Although limited in sample size and methodology, this study provides preliminary data on attachment style in people with OCD, and the data generate specific hypotheses about attachment in those who compulsively hoard that should be explored in future research.
The authors present the results of a project to develop scales to measure the features of adult attachment using a construct-oriented approach. Adult attachment is defined in terms of eight features: proximity seeking, secure base effect, separation protest, feared loss of the attachment figure, reciprocity, availability, responsiveness of the attachment figure, and use of the attachment figure. Each feature was defined and a large item pool to tap all dimensions was derived from item nominations by clinicians, researchers, and lay subjects. The resultant scales were administered to a small sample for preliminary empirical testing. Analyses of internal reliability for each scale resulted in the elimination of items that detracted from reliability. After editing, all scales had satisfactory internal consistency. A discriminant-functions analysis provided suggestive evidence that this method of defining and measuring adult attachment would have relevance for identifying psychopathology.
Two studies examined how destiny beliefs (that potential relationships are or are not "meant to be") interact with state attachment anxiety to predict forgiveness tendencies. In Study 1, participants experienced an experimental manipulation of attachment anxiety (vs. security) before indicating the degree to which they would forgive a series of hypothetical partner offenses. In Study 2, participants reported every 2 weeks for 6 months (14 waves in total) on offenses enacted by their partner and indicated the degree to which they forgave the partner, both concurrently and 2 weeks later. Consistent with predictions, results revealed Destiny Beliefs x State Attachment Anxiety interaction effects: Strong (relative to weak) destiny beliefs predicted reduced forgiveness tendencies for individuals experiencing state attachment anxiety, but such beliefs were not associated with forgiveness for individuals experiencing state attachment security. Results from Study 2 suggest that this interaction effect was significantly mediated through trust in the partner.
Attachment in adulthood: Structure, dynamics, and change
- M Mikulincer
- P R Shaver
Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2007). Attachment in adulthood: Structure, dynamics, and change. New York: Guilford Press.
An approach to the delineation of adult at-tachment: Scale development and reliability. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Dis-ease
- M West
- A Sheldon
- L Reiffer
West, M., Sheldon, A., & Reiffer, L. (1987). An approach to the delineation of adult at-tachment: Scale development and reliability. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Dis-ease, 175, 738–741. doi:10.1097/00005053-198712000-00006.
The principles of psychology. Available:. http://psychclassics
- W James
James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology. Available:. http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/
James/Principles/.