Don’t Get Your Hopes Up: Avoidantly Attached Individuals Perceive Lower Social Reward When There Is Potential for Intimacy
Abstract
We examine whether lower expectations for social reward selectively applied to high intimacy contexts may help avoidantly attached individuals minimize distress from reward loss. Studies 1, 2, and 4 demonstrated that avoidant attachment was negatively associated with perceived intimacy potential in relationships involving approach of closeness (current/future partners), but not for relationships less associated with approach of closeness (ex-partners). Studies 3 and 5 manipulated the potential for intimacy among dating prospects. Avoidant attachment was negatively associated with romantic interest in high intimacy targets but not low intimacy targets. This effect was mediated by perceived responsiveness. Studies 4 and 5 rule out perceived dissimilarity to responsive targets as a mechanism. Study 6 demonstrated that avoidants’ lower expectations for connection are associated with less anticipated distress from reward loss. These results suggest that avoidant individuals may circumvent attachment system activation by perceiving lower opportunity for connection when there is potential for intimacy.
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Biographies
Stephanie S. Spielmann recently completed her PhD in Psychology at the University of Toronto. She is currently a research statistician in the Department of Nursing at the University Health Network in Toronto. Her research interests include relational insecurities, deprived needs for love and belonging, and continued emotional attachment to ex-partners.
Jessica A. Maxwell is working towards her PhD at the University of Toronto. Her research examines attachment processes in romantic relationships, and factors that influence the accuracy of perceptions in relationships.
Geoff MacDonald is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto. He received a BA from Wilfrid Laurier University and a PhD from the University of Waterloo. His research focuses on relational insecurity and experiences of social exclusion/inclusion.
Patricia L. Baratta is currently completing her Master’s in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of Guelph. Her primary research interests include organizational citizenship behavior and workplace deviance. She obtained her BSc at the University of Toronto and completed her undergraduate honor’s thesis on attachment in early relationship formation.
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Article first published online: February 5, 2013
Issue published: February 2013
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PubMed: 23386658
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