Attachment style and self-regulation: How our patterns in relationships reflect broader motivational styles
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2015-12-01
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© 2015.Individuals orient themselves in relationships using different goals and preoccupations, often conceptualized as four distinct attachment styles (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991). Individuals also orient themselves in the social world more broadly using different motivational preferences and styles. Self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) and regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) are two frameworks used to conceptualize these motivational styles. In two studies we investigated the extent to which preoccupations in relationships reflected broader life goals. In Study 1, college participants reported attachment style and self-discrepancies (ideal and ought selves). In Study 2, community participants reported attachment style and regulatory focus (promotion and prevention orientations). Across two different samples, using distinct but complementary theoretical frameworks, we found a consistent pattern whereby a more approach-oriented relationship orientation (secure attachment), was related to a more approach-oriented general life orientation (lower actual-ideal discrepancy and greater promotion focus). Interestingly, attachment style was unrelated to avoidance-oriented motivational styles. These results suggest that motivations within relationships may be specifically related to growth motivations in broader aspects of life.
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Blalock, DV, AT Franzese, KA Machell and TJ Strauman (2015). Attachment style and self-regulation: How our patterns in relationships reflect broader motivational styles. Personality and Individual Differences, 87. pp. 90–98. 10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.024 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/13838.
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Daniel Blalock
I am a research scientist and Licensed Clinical Psychologist with a background in health services research, clinical psychology, and experimental psychology. My research interests include 1) the evaluation of current integrated behavioral health settings in health care systems to optimize future implementation efforts, 2) the development of novel integrated behavioral health strategies tailored to specific populations and healthcare system needs, 3) broad processes of behavior change and self-regulation, and 4) psychometric measurement of patient reported outcomes and research methods/statistics.
These interests have taken the form of specific research endeavors involving: a) large nonrandomized investigations of electronic health records data, b) development and evaluation of telehealth interventions to improve self-management of mental and physical health behaviors, and c) evaluation of patient-reported outcomes through telehealth modalities and in primary care, specialty care, and higher level of care settings.
To date, the content domains of most of my research have involved substance use (specifically alcohol, opioids, and tobacco), health behaviors (specifically medication adherence), mental health (specifically anxiety, depression, PTSD, and eating disorders), and health services utilization.
Kyla Machell Blalock
Child clinical psychology, mood and anxiety disorders, OCD, pediatric neuropsychology
Timothy J. Strauman
Professor Strauman's research focuses on the psychological and neurobiological processes that enable self-regulation, conceptualized in terms of a cognitive/motivational perspective, as well as the relation between self-regulation and affect. Particular areas of emphasis include: (1) conceptualizing self-regulation in terms of brain/behavior motivational systems; (2) the role of self-regulatory cognitive processes in vulnerability to depression and other disorders; (3) the impact of treatments for depression, such as psychotherapy and medication, on self-regulatory function and dysfunction in depression; (4) how normative and non-normative socialization patterns influence the development of self-regulatory systems; (5) the contributory roles of self-regulation, affect, and psychopathology in determining immunologically-mediated susceptibility to illness; (6) development of novel multi-component treatments for depression targeting self-regulatory dysfunction; (7) utilization of brain imaging techniques to test hypotheses concerning self-regulation, including the nature and function of hypothetical regulatory systems and characterizing the breakdowns in self-regulation that lead to and accompany depression.
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