Newman-Taylor Katherine, Sood Monica, Rowe Angela C, Carnelley Katherine B
Psychology Department, University of Southampton, Shackleton Building, Highfield Campus, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK.
School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, 12A Priory Road, Bristol BS8 4PT, UK.
Brain Sci. 2021 Sep 22;11(10):1257. doi: 10.3390/brainsci11101257.
Attachment security priming effects therapeutic change in people with depression and anxiety. Preliminary studies indicate that visualising secure attachment memories also reduces paranoia in non-clinical and clinical groups, probably due to a decrease in cognitive fusion. Benefits to clinical populations depend on the sustainability of these effects and the impact on help-seeking behaviours. The combination of paranoia and an insecure-avoidant attachment style is likely to be a particular barrier to help seeking. We used a longitudinal experimental design to test the impact of repeated attachment priming on paranoia, mood and help-seeking intentions and whether cognitive fusion mediates these effects. Seventy-nine people with high levels of non-clinical paranoia, aged 18-50 years (M = 20.53, SD = 4.57), were randomly assigned to a secure or insecure-avoidant priming condition. Participants rehearsed the visualisation prime on four consecutive days and were assessed on standardised measures of paranoia, positive and negative affect, help-seeking intentions and cognitive fusion. A series of mixed-model analyses of variance showed that security priming decreases paranoia, negative affect and cognitive fusion and increases positive affect and help seeking, compared to insecure-avoidant priming. Examining the impact of primed attachment (rather than measured attachment style) allows us to draw conclusions about the causal processes involved; mediation analyses showed indirect effects of the primes on paranoia and negative affect through cognitive fusion. With a growing understanding of (1) the impact of security priming on paranoia, affect and help-seeking behaviours, (2) causal mechanisms and (3) sustainability of effects, security priming may be developed into a viable intervention for clinical populations.
依恋安全感启动对抑郁和焦虑人群的治疗性改变有影响。初步研究表明，想象安全依恋记忆也能减少非临床组和临床组中的偏执观念，这可能是由于认知融合的减少。对临床人群的益处取决于这些效应的可持续性以及对求助行为的影响。偏执观念与不安全-回避型依恋风格的结合可能是求助的一个特别障碍。我们采用纵向实验设计来测试重复的依恋启动对偏执观念、情绪和求助意图的影响，以及认知融合是否介导了这些效应。79名非临床偏执观念水平较高、年龄在18至50岁之间（M = 20.53，SD = 4.57）的人被随机分配到安全或不安全-回避型启动条件组。参与者连续四天演练想象启动，并接受偏执观念、积极和消极情绪、求助意图和认知融合的标准化测量。一系列混合模型方差分析表明，与不安全-回避型启动相比，安全启动可降低偏执观念、消极情绪和认知融合，并增加积极情绪和求助行为。研究启动的依恋（而非测量的依恋风格）的影响使我们能够得出关于所涉及因果过程的结论；中介分析表明，启动通过认知融合对偏执观念和消极情绪产生间接影响。随着对（1）安全启动对偏执观念、情绪和求助行为的影响、（2）因果机制以及（3）效应的可持续性的理解不断加深，安全启动可能会发展成为一种针对临床人群的可行干预措施。
