Bilkent University.
Sabancı University.
J Psychol. 2022;156(2):95-116. doi: 10.1080/00223980.2021.2010029. Epub 2022 Jan 11.
Insecure attachment has been associated with relatively more negative outcomes in mainstream attachment literature, yet several empirical studies show almost half of the populations globally are insecurely attached. Moreover, although attachment security is the universal norm, attachment anxiety and avoidance exhibit significant cultural variation. To explore how this variation can offer certain advantages to people with insecure attachment tendencies, we tested the novel idea that different insecure attachment behaviors can be differentially compatible with varying cultural senses of self (i.e. independent vs. interdependent self-construal) in an experimental setting. We manipulated cultural self-construal by exposing the participants ( = 164) to either an independence or an interdependence prime and asked them to evaluate vignettes depicting typical anxious and avoidant behaviors. The results showed that insecure attachment behaviors were evaluated as more favorable when they were compatible with one's own attachment tendency. Importantly, this trend was moderated by the cultural self-construal: Participants evaluated even those insecure attachment behaviors that were inconsistent with their own tendencies more favorably when these behaviors were compatible with the cultural self-construal that was experimentally induced. The findings are discussed in light of cultural implications.
不安全依恋与主流依恋文献中相对较多的负面结果有关，但几项实证研究表明，全球近一半的人依恋不安全。此外，尽管依恋安全性是普遍规范，但依恋焦虑和回避表现出显著的文化差异。为了探讨这种变化如何为具有不安全依恋倾向的人带来某些优势，我们在实验环境中检验了一个新的想法，即不同的不安全依恋行为可以与不同的文化自我感（即独立自我与相互依存自我建构）不同程度地兼容。我们通过向参与者（= 164）暴露于独立性或相互依存性的启动来操纵文化自我建构，并要求他们评估描述典型焦虑和回避行为的小插曲。结果表明，当不安全的依恋行为与其自身的依恋倾向相匹配时，这些行为被评估为更有利。重要的是，这种趋势受到文化自我建构的调节：当这些行为与实验诱导的文化自我建构相匹配时，即使是那些与自身倾向不一致的不安全依恋行为，参与者也会更积极地评估这些行为。研究结果结合文化意义进行了讨论。
