Difusión de las ciencias ambientales de forma sustentable

Individual differences in attachment style may have important implications for personal well being and emotional adaptation because they influence the way that individuals regulate their emotions and the ways in which they cope with stress (Camelley et al, 1994). Several studies indicate that adults with different attachment styles differ in the way that they cope with stressful events (Simpson et al, 1992; Mikulincer et al, 1993).

Onigbene & Collins (1998), examined attachment styles, coping and social support in a normal population. They found that secure individuals perceived more available

support from friends and family and sought more social support in response to stress than individuals with other attachment styles. Whilst individuals with a preoccupied attachment style also sought social support in response to stress, they had a tendency to use escape-avoidance coping strategies. Avoidant adults were less likely to seek out social support or to discuss their problems with another person, preferring to take the opposite path in some instances and distance themselves from friends and family. Similar results were found in a sample o f Israeli college students when their attachment style was related to coping following a specific event (the Iraqi scud missile attacks) during the G ulf War (Mikulincer et al, 1993).

Onigbene & Collins (1998) concluded that secure and preoccupied individuals view close relationships as important and desirable, whilst avoidant individuals view them as risky. They hypothesised that this is the result o f internal working models, which come to form the basis o f the individual’s view o f themselves and others and which organise cognitions, affects, behaviours and reactions to distress. According to Mikulincer et al (1993), the cognitive schemata related to an individual’s stress response may influence the ways in which they go on to cope with stress in later life and their emotional adjustment.

Children whose attachment figures are consistently responsive come to believe that others are trustworthy and reliable and that the self is valuable and worthy o f love and support. As a result, adults with secure attachment histories should be equipped to manage stressful situations, relying both on their belief that they can control their environment (through problem focused coping strategies and emotion regulation) and on their faith that others will be available to help, if needed. Individuals whose

attachment figures are either inconsistently responsive or consistently unresponsive may develop more pessimistic models o f themselves, and or others, seeing life’s adversities as threatening, irreversible and uncontrollable. Onigbene & Collins (1998) found that avoidant individuals tend to have low expectations o f themselves and others, whilst preoccupied individuals have a negative model o f themselves but a positive model o f others. This theory is supported by evidence from a literature review on attachment and affect regulation by Cassidy (1994). Cassidy concluded that avoidant attachment is associated with affect inhibition or minimisation and isolating oneself and that preoccupied attachment is associated with hypervigilance to sources o f distress, affect enhancement and frantic efforts to avoid abandonment. This conclusion makes logical sense. If an individual has no faith in themselves or others, they are likely to want to hide their distress from others and avoid it themselves. An individual with faith in others but not themselves is more likely to see it as a disaster to be left to cope without support and may desperately display their distress in order to find another individual to rescue them or solve their problems for them.

Kazan and Shavers’ (1987) study o f adult romantic relationships also supports this theory. They found that adults who were securely attached tended to have relationships in which intimacy, closeness, supportiveness and trust were key features. Individuals who were avoidantly attached had relationships characterized by mistrust, fear o f intimacy and a difficulty depending on others. Those with a preoccupied attachment style, had relationships characterized by emotional instability, fear o f abandonment and jealousy.

Whilst the securely attached are able to seek help and try to actively find solutions to their problems (problem or task focused coping), insecurely attached individuals lack the personal and interpersonal resources to regulate their emotions and cope effectively (Kobak & Sceery, 1988). Instead, they attempt to alleviate their distress through the use o f maladaptive coping strategies. Mikulincer et al, (1993) found that the three attachment styles did not differ in the degree o f problem focused coping that they used. Secure individuals sought more support, the preoccupied group used more emotion focused coping and the avoidant group used more distancing coping strategies.

Both avoidant and ambivalent individuals have been shown to be more hostile than securely attached individuals (Kobak & Sceery, 1988). Both attachment styles are also related to: loneliness (Kazan & Shaver, 1987), physical symptoms (Kazan &

Shaver, 1990), alcohol consumption, self-medicating, indiscriminate sexual

behaviour, eating disorders (Bartholemew, 1990; Brennan & Shaver, 1995), shame, anger and a fear o f negative evaluation (Wagner & Tangney, 1991).

To summarise, the association between attachment style, affect regulation and coping means that individuals with secure attachments are more tolerant o f stressful events and allow access to unpleasant emotions without being overwhelmed by the resulting distress (Kobak & Sceery, 1988, Mikulincer & Florian, 1998, Shaver & Kazan, 1993, Troisi et al 2001). Positive early attachment experiences may buffer emotional distress and teach people that although difficult, problems in life are manageable. Individuals who are insecurely attached have had attachment experiences that have left them unable to trust either themselves or others, leading to them failing to regulate their emotions without resorting to maladaptive coping strategies that risk

leading to further emotion dysregulation and crises. Poor attachment relationships in childhood therefore place individuals at risk o f poor adaptational outcomes e.g. depression, decreased life satisfaction and poor interpersonal functioning which are likely to have long-term negative effects on psychological and physical well being.