Search

Residential crowding in both U.S. and U.K. samples of 36-month-old children is related concurrently to the Bracken scale, a standard index of early cognitive development skills including letter and color identification, shape recognition, and elementary numeric comprehension. In the U.S. sample, these effects also replicate prospectively. Statistical controls for income, child gender, maternal age, and maternal education are incorporated throughout. In both samples the association between crowding and cognitive development are mediated by maternal responsiveness. Mothers in more crowded homes are less responsive to their children. (Contains 4 tables.)

Central to attachment theory is the postulation of an inborn system to regulate attachment behavior. This system has been well studied in infancy and childhood, but much less is known about its functioning at later ages. The goal of this study was to explore the form and function of attachment behavior in the daily lives of young adults. Twenty eight days of online diary data were collected from a sample of 60 undergraduates. In addition to providing descriptive data on routine attachment behavior, the study tests the theorized function of attachment behavior--that is, affect regulation. With the exception of safe haven behaviors, results indicate that age-appropriate attachment behaviors are readily observable during this phase of development, tend to be preferentially directed toward attachment figures, and regulate affect in a theory consistent manner. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for normative developmental change and normative attachment processes.

Working models of attachment in martial functioning were examined. The security and accuracy of working models were measured with a new Q-sort method. Spouses with secure working models (self as relying on partner as psychologically available) showed more constructive modulation of emotion and reported better adjustment. the accuracy of internal working models, measured with an objective index of spouses' agreement about models, was associated with independent reports of marital adjustment and observers' ratings of communication in problem-solving and confiding tasks. Behavior in communication tasks showed predictable associations with attachment security. Husbands' attachment security covaried with wives' rejection during problem solving, and wives' security covaried with quality of husbands' listening during a confiding task. A reciprocal interaction view of working models and marital functioning is supported.

Some of the closest reciprocal relationships are between parents and their children. As part of the attachment characterizing many parent-child bonds, individuals form mental representations that are chronically accessible and calibrate expectations for future relationships. We predict that there exist unique neural signatures of this chronic accessibility. Young (N = 29, 16 females) and older adults (N = 27, 12 females) made trait judgments for parent or child, respectively, during fMRI scanning. Multivariate analysis identified whole-brain patterns of activation that covaried with the magnitude of parent-child attachment when thinking about that individual. Higher levels of parent and child attachment were associated with lower neural recruitment in anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, posterior cingulate cortex, medial temporal lobe, and occipital face area. Results provide novel evidence for neural signatures of chronic accessibility, as bringing to mind one's attached parent or child requires less engagement of brain regions involved in distress relief, memory, and facial processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent investigations in neuroscience elucidate the neural basis of close other cognitive representations, which serve functions central to our health and happiness. Yet, there are persistent barriers to this research, including disparate research methods and the absence of a common theoretical background. The present review connects neuroimaging and attachment theory within a novel social, cognitive and affective framework. We apply attachment theory to understand why we would expect cognitive representations of close others to be different from other social neural representations. Developing reliable markers of attachment is a critical step in mapping close other neural representations. We then examine existing neuroimaging literature on close other representations, highlighting the recruitment of neural systems supporting reward, motivation and distress alleviation, in addition to the mirror neuron system, default network and salience network. We then review the methodologies of past studies, revealing a diverse array of self-report measures assessing 'closeness' and social cognitive tasks that, taken together, preclude meaningful synthesis of findings. Lastly, we discuss specific behavioral measures of attachment and closeness with recommendations for the field. This attachment framework integrates brain and behavioral sciences and unites theoretical principles with empirical methods to further our understanding of how the brain represents close others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decades of research indicate that individuals adhere to existing states ("status quo bias") and value them more ("endowment effect"). The present work is the first to investigate status quo preference within the context of trade-offs in mate choice. Across seven studies (total N = 1,567), participants indicated whether they would prefer remaining with a current partner possessing a particular set of traits (e.g., high trustworthiness, low attractiveness) or switching to an alternative partner possessing opposite traits. Preference for a given trait was highest when the individual representing the status quo (one's romantic partner or an interaction partner) possessed that trait. Concerns about hurting the partner, ambiguity avoidance, and biased construal of the partner and the alternative predicted status quo preference and disapproval of the current partner by network members eliminated this effect. These findings indicate that when it comes to matters of the heart, we tend to love what we currently have. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the effects of attachment working models on social perception processes. Participants estimated the number of behavioral instances they would require to confirm and disconfirm hypothetical others’ possession of various traits. The attachment dimension of avoidance was associated with a defensively conservative style of social perception. High scorers on avoidance required more evidence to make a positive judgment and also more evidence to reject a negative judgment. In contrast, the attachment dimension of anxiety was associated with a relatively impulsive and labile perceptional style. High scorers on anxiety tended to require less evidence to make both positive and negative judgments of others. Results are discussed in terms of their concordance with previous findings and their implications for research on attachment and social perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of relationship research is currently witnessing an explosion of interest in romantic love. Several theories have been proposed to explain various features of love. This article summarizes some of these and argues that they can be integrated within an attachment-theoretical framework. In the course of the argument, love is conceptualized in terms of emotion theory and as a complex of behavioral systems, involving attachment, caregiving and sex. Although a great deal of research remains to be done, the attachment-theoretical approach to love already offers several advantages over rival approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]