Adult attachment style and the construction of anger scripts

This study sought to determine whether anger scripts are constructed in relation to the affect regulation strategies underlying one's adult attachment style. Anger is motivated by both positive and negative goals, and can therefore be expressed in both functional and dysfunctional ways. Of interest in this study were individual differences in the construction of functional and dysfunctional anger scripts. The subjects for the study were 55 (13 male and 42 female) university students. A lexical decision task was used to measure participant reaction times to functional and dysfunctional anger words, following relational transgression primes. The lexical decision task was constructed according to a 2x2x4 mixed factorial design defined by attachment style (secure, insecure), prime word (transgression, non-transgression) and target word (functional, dysfunctional, control, non-word). Results indicate that relational transgression primes facilitate identification of functional and dysfunctional anger words, with insecure adults holding an overall quicker reaction time. Anxious and avoidant participants did not show a contingency effect for only dysfunctional targets. Both males and females held scripts comprising relational transgressions and anger. The main conclusion from this study is that relational transgressions and anger are projected as an if-then contingency, thereby forming a script.

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Combined 7th Annual APS PORIG Conference

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978-0-909881-34-4

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